ABSTRACT
All communication presents public relations with several pragmatic and logical paradoxes, but the paradoxical injunctions embedded in two-way symmetrical communication and dialog theories may be the most debilitating. Dialog theorists’ criticism of two-way symmetrical communication, however, runs much deeper than questions about will and intent to engage in two-way communication. Two-way symmetrical communication dealt with interactions between subsystems and systems and not between human actors. Y. Huang equated symmetrical communication with ethical communication because it directed organizations to try to understand publics and reach mutually satisfactory results. Communication breakdowns and misunderstandings become opportunities for learning and revising. In public relations, scholars cite Pearson’s claim that a person’s moral development corresponds with his or her application of dialogic concepts of reciprocity and symmetry. The field’s scholarly obsession with dialog raises questions as to whether this communication mandate qualifies as a double bind or just a simple paradoxical injunction.
