Review article
https://doi.org/10.47960/2712-0457.2026.S2.8.30
PR 1.0 - PUBLICITY AS THE FIRST PARADIGM OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
Đorđe Obradović
; University of Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
*
Marijan Primorac
; University of Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Iko Skoko
; University of Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
This article reinterprets press agentry and publicity as the first analytical paradigm of public relations, PR 1.0. It asks which social problem publicity addressed instead of presenting it as a simple, ethically deficient precursor to later models. A conceptualhistorical analysis connects industrialization, expanding urban markets, the business model of the popular press, and P. T. Barnum’s practices with critiques of the four-model history of public relations. Publicity is distinguished as an outcome of public visibility, press agentry as a set of practices, and propaganda as a broader form of organized influence. The proposed PR 1.0 model identifies competition for attention, editorial mediation, and the economic value of recognition as defining conditions. One-way communication denotes the prevailing direction of initiative without excluding all feedback. Publicity was functionally rational under conditions of limited direct reach and scarce attention, although this explanation cannot justify deception or exploitation. PR 1.0 is a historically situated ideal type rather than a claim about a single origin of public relations.
Keywords
PR 1.0; publicity; press agentry; Barnum; propaganda
Hrčak ID:
353036
URI
Publication date:
1.11.2026.
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