The definition of public relations used by the PRIA is: "The deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation (or individual) and its (or their) publics."
However, with the massive change in the communication process brought about by the information era, public relations could be described easily as: the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an individual or an organisation with the public interest, and plans and executes a programme of action to earn public understanding and acceptance.*