INTRODUCTION Many scholars and practitioners have presented various definitions of public relations, based on their knowledge, experience and perspectives. These definitions would assist you to appreciate and evaluate the role and functions of public relations. One thing common to these definitions is that public relations is undertaken to create and sustain goodwill and harmony among the various entities and institutions of society. OBJECTIVES At the end of this module, you should be able to: • Recall accurately two or three definitions of public relations. • Explain the basic ideas common to all these definitions. • Come up with your own definition of public relations derived from the ones stated in the module.

Public Relations as we explained at the beginning of this course, is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. This implies that the establishment and maintenance of this mutual understanding must be planned and provided. The axiom proper planning prevent poor performance holds true in all public relations situations. Good and effective public relations involves good planning. 2.0 OBJECTIVES At the end of thus unit, you should be able: Identify the importance of planning public relation activities and programmes. Enumerate three public relations process planning models and their usefulness. Outline the steps involved in public relations planning