Political communication seems more affected by the digital revolution than any other realm of human social life. However, there is a continuity even in communication by social media in that human beings who engage in communication in social networks do so in a symbolic manner. It is argued that different types of symbolic communication entail different types of political communication, too. The most crucial ethical problem in this respect is how to cope with anticipative forms of political symbolism that feign a homogenaus political community in terms of ethnic or religious commitment. Following Tillich's symbol theory, it is suggested that against that problem religious symbols grant a wide horizon of openly interpreting symbolic communication such as posts or tweets in social networks. The theological argument behind this is that any person who uses digital means of communication still exists as an analogaus being who integrates many different contexts into their communication behaviour simply by using and interpreting symbols.

Enthalten in:
Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik; 2018/1 Kommentare, Studien, Berichte, Dokumentationen, Diskussionen, Rezensionen, Bibliographie (2018)

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Serie / Reihe: Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik

Personen: Theißen, Henning

Schlagwörter: Kommunikation Religiöses Symbol Mensch Interdisziplinarität Herausforderung Populismus Digitalisierung