ABSTRACT
Public relation (PR) uses silence as form – not as content. Silence constitutes not only some forms of indirectness – not only the most indirect and strategic ones. There is silence in any indirect communication. There are various degrees and types of silence. This chapter reviews the succession of those degrees the ladder of indirectness. At the base of the ladder, the first opposition is between communicative and non-communicative silence. Silencing communication is still communication. Economic redistribution of capital and wealth manufactures the material inequalities and barriers in communication. Non-communicative silence such as restricted access to information is a powerful socioeconomic and political factor. It affects communication through non-communication. It engineers the forums of communication; it leaves others act in those forums. Public relations (PR) practitioners influence communication (output) and non-communication (outcome) through communication. One can split communicative silence into public and private silences. Public silence in turn is discursive and non-discursive. Indirect discourse splits into implicit and explicit communication.
