Martin Buber

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that while this may be true a form of an anthropological perspective, from an ontological one it must be said that distance is the precondition for the emergence of relation whether “I-Thou” or “I-It”. Primal distance sets up the possibility of these two basic word pairs, and the between emerges out of them. Humans find themselves distance and differentiated. It is our choice to then thin or thicken the distance by entering into an “I-Thou” relation with an “other” or withdrawing into an “I-It” mode of existence (Buber 15).

According to Martin Buber in his book Communication and Community, an essential building block of community is the concept of dialogue. People often think of dialogue as merely script, or an exchange of words. Martin Buber has presented dialogue as being much more than the exchange of messages and talk that takes place in human interaction. He describes dialogue into genuine dialogue as “…no matter whether spoken or silent… where each of the participants really has in mind the other of others in their present and particular being and turns to them with the intention of establishing a living mutual relation between himself and them” (Buber16).

Humans are regarded as social beings. As a social being, therefore, one must have an interaction or an interpersonal dialogue. Barbara Scholz, a Buberian scholar, mentioned in her book Human Communication Theory, that dialogue plays the major part because it undergoes through a process whereby parties achieve a connection. A relationship that has the ability to produce dialogue is referred to as anI-Thou relationship. This means that one will relate to and experience another person. It requires having regard for both self and other. The opposite type of relationship is referred to as the I-It relationship. This relation contains only regard for self. Buber does not suggest that must avoid this type of relationship, he merely claims that dialogue cannot occur in the I-It relation (25).

How does one know when communication has served to strengthen the relationship between the individual and the person involved in the context of mass media landscape? Can one attempt to answer question like this by exploring Martin Buber’s philosophy of Dialogue.

In Griffin book entitled A First Look at Communication Theoryhe said that Buber’s theory of Dialogue is a predominantly humanistic theory. Meaning is created by the participants engaged in interaction. Dialogue helps to understand how a community is developed, repaired, and maintained it also serves as an instrumentso that people will understand how to relate to each other and develop a sense of “working” together in order to reach a new and wider understanding in one of two ways: I- Thou, the means to dialogue, or I-It, the means to monologue or self-centered communication (8).

This research paper aims to see the importance of Dialogue in Martin Buber’s I and Thou and its relevance in the contemporary society as what it contributes to the person’s quest for knowledge, meaning and truth.