Stuartisaac

Recognizing the power of communication leads ethical speakers to a genuine concern for how words affect the lives of their listeners. We conclude this chapter by introducing two related ideas: how the “other” orientation of public speaking requires us to be more ethically sensitive, and how applying universal values may help us overcome the problems of audience diversity.
Developing an “Other” Orientation. Mary began her public speaking class with a great deal of concern about her own fate. During the class, however, as she grew more confident about her competence and as she came to know and like her classmates, she increasingly prepared her speeches with them in mind. In so doing, Mary developed an “other” orientation and grew away from ego centrism, the tendency to believe that our thoughts, dreams, interests, and desires are. Jaksa and Pritchard, in Communication Ethics: Methods of Analysis, offer a pertinent example: “After offering a lengthy explanation of the importance of egocentricity in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, [one of the authors of this text] . . . was greeted with this response from a student. “I think I understand what egocentric thinking is.