INTRODUCTION

The subject of this is dissertation, as stated in the title, is communicating to illiterate populations. Simply put, the dissertation will examine the problem of how to effectively communicate to people who do not read and write. The problem will be examined by presenting the reality of illiteracy, the communication problems it poses, applicable theory, a study of an attempt to communicate to a largely illiterate public, the author's conclusion on the best means to solve this communications problem and recommendations for further research.

The author first came into contact with this issue during his work term that was required by the Masters in European Public Relations program. As described later, a significant percentage of the population of western industrialised countries can be considered illiterate. This means that many of the traditional tools of public relations, the ones that rely on the written word, such as press coverage, brochures, letters, posters and others, do not effectively reach that portion of the public.

The author of this dissertation believes that there are some organisations whose responsibility it is to communicate effectively to all members of society. An example of such an organisation is government. Many of the messages coming from governments contain information that is important for every citizen in its jurisdiction. Also, there are some messages that are important to only a select segment of the population, but that segment may also have a significant percentage of people who are illiterate. An example of this is the case presented in this dissertation. The target population had a high percentage of people who were illiterate, yet there was no attempt to reach this group.

In researching the topic of communicating to illiterate populations, the author uncovered very little that approached the topic. There are volumes of works on, and indeed much work has been done on, solving the problem of illiteracy. It begs the question, what about those who are not literate now? While work is being done to address the problem, how are the needs of those who are illiterate being addressed?

The author believes that the study of meeting the information needs of illiterate people is important particularly for those organisations that have the responsibility of communicating equally to all members of a population, such as governments.