Who's afraid of social media? A normative approach to corporate discourse on the Web

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to analyse the communication of companies through a theoretical model that reveals discursive elements inherent to the creation of corpo- rate legitimacy. A Habermasian approach to corporate communication and public relations on social networks is at the centre of this reflection. The article starts by presenting a brief review of public relations and communication management studies encompassed by the paradigm of Habermas’s Discourse Ethics and Theory of Communicative Action. Following that, a recent Portuguese case study, the Ensitel Case, is presented as an example of the loss of corporate legitimacy on the Web. The importance of a dialogic approach to corporate communication and public relations in order to maintain corporate legitimacy is underlined.