Exploring Ethical Communication and Moral Responsibility in Governance: An Interpretative Study of Political Communicators’ Lived Experiences in Indonesia’s Democratic Context

Abstract

Political communication within governance has increasingly become a focal point for understanding how ethical integrity and public trust are constructed in modern democratic contexts. Within this broader field, the subjective experiences of political communicators remain underexplored, particularly regarding how they navigate moral and emotional tensions in their professional practice. Despite extensive studies on communication strategy and persuasion, little is known about how communicators experience and interpret ethical responsibility within institutional and political constraints. To address this empirical and conceptual gap, this study employs a clearly defined interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), involving systematic coding, cross-case analysis, and reflexive interpretation. This study addresses that gap by asking: How do political communicators perceive and enact moral responsibility in the practice of governance communication? Using an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA), the study explores the lived experiences of twelve political communicators through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Participants were selected through purposive sampling based on their roles in governmental and electoral communication units, and data were analyzed using a stepwise IPA procedure consisting of initial noting, emergent theme development, and clustering of superordinate themes. The analysis reveals four major themes: the ethical dilemmas in digital political campaigns, the negotiation of public trust, the strain of political polarization on communicative integrity, and the emergence of moral resilience among communicators. Specifically, the findings show that ethical dilemmas arise from pressure to manipulate digital narratives; public trust is negotiated through strategic transparency practices; polarization produces communicative fatigue that threatens ethical consistency; and moral resilience develops as a coping mechanism enabling communicators to uphold principled decision-making. These findings illustrate that ethical communication is not a fixed principle but a reflective and relational process shaped by context, conscience, and institutional power. The study demonstrates that phenomenology provides a robust framework for uncovering the inner meaning and emotional depth of communicative ethics in governance. The study’s implications include: (1) providing measurable indicators of ethical practice such as transparency benchmarks and moral resilience strategies; (2) offering actionable guidelines for training political communicators in ethical decision-making; and (3) informing governance institutions about structural conditions that support or hinder ethical communication. The results contribute to a more human-centered understanding of communication ethics and offer practical implications for promoting integrity, transparency, and empathy in public discourse.