Viešieji ryšiai ir viešybės valdymas žinių visuomenėje
Public Relations and Management of Public Sphere in Knowledge Society

Summary/Abstract: The main idea of the article is to outline and fixate the general tendencies and frames of changes in the huge sphere of public relations which is exploding and transforming itself accordingly to the radical alters of public space in the global society that is characterised by dominance of multifarious knowledge contexts and impacts of symbolic world. The aim is how to explain the contemporary development of society in terms of communication, having in mind that the communication factors become the status as crucial and dominated in opposite to traditional social criteria. The communication is as a critical factor unfolding the global perspectives of the society, the information base of social being, and knowledge contexts as the universal prerequisite of today’s human activities. Those circumstances influence the forms of public sphere and the level of its spread as well as perception of management and instrumentation of public sphere which explaining themselves as diversity and development of public relations. Taking into account the communication as the main factor of global society, the primary aim of the article is to formulate the conception of public relations as a general instrument of the public sphere management and to define the principal historical and methodological presumption of this conception determining the main aspects and research positions of the problem. The prime hypothesis is that in the global and universal knowledge conditions determine the changes of the social infrastructure itself and archetypes of social activities. The both factors influence the transformation of public sphere into forms alienating from the classical theoretical model formulated by J. Habermas. When the communication factors had more and more impact on social being and lifestyle of contemporary society, the public relations get the status of public sphere management. Six models of public relations have been examined chronologically and functionally. The first five are based on traditional paradigms and respectively on linguistic, systemic, managerial, integrated communications’ and mass media approaches. The sixth model is reasoned on paradoxical logic of rapid dynamic of penetration of public sphere into the field which is traditionally treating in opposite to classical pattern of publicity, and primarily into modernized by globalisation forms of governance. As a finding, the analysis of this speculation allows to formulate the sixth complex model of public relations’ development based on integrated governance communications that express the paradigm of public relations as a governance and management of public sphere.

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