Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.47960/2712-0457.2026.S2.8.7
PR 4.0: MEANING MANAGEMENT AS THE FOURTH PARADIGM OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
Zoran Tomić
; University of Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
This article develops PR 4.0 as the fourth cumulative paradigm of public relations and identifies meaning management as its dominant strategic logic. It addresses the tendency to reduce PR 4.0 to digital tools, artificial intelligence, or automation. Using a conceptual research design that combines historical-paradigmatic reconstruction, critical conceptual analysis, and integrative theory building, the study compares the dominant problems, objects of management, roles of publics, organizational capabilities, and outcomes associated with PR 1.0, PR 2.0, PR 3.0, and PR 4.0. The analysis shows that digitalization and algorithmic mediation do not by themselves constitute a new paradigm; their paradigmatic significance lies in producing interpretive complexity, fragmentation, and instability. PR 4.0 is therefore defined as a paradigm in which meaning management coordinates organizational conduct, communication, and public interpretation. The article proposes an integrated model linking interpretive complexity and risk with Meaning Management Capability, interpretive practices, interpretive stability, trust, relationship quality, and organizational legitimacy. It concludes that PR 4.0 does not replace communication or relationship management but extends them by making the conditions of meaning construction a central strategic and ethical concern.
Keywords
public relations 4.0; meaning management; interpretive stability; artificial intelligence; organizational legitimacy
Hrčak ID:
353035
URI
Publication date:
1.11.2026.
Visits: 0 *