CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

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

The theory presented in this dissertation, when applied to the case, offers guidance to the question of how to communicate to illiterate publics.

The theory, when applied to the case, suggests that within organisations, the first step towards communicating effectively to illiterate populations should be the adoption of the two-way asymmetric model of communication. The two-way asymmetric model institutionalises a channel of communication from an organisation's publics to the organisation. In order to facilitate the consideration of the characteristics of a target public, including illiteracy, communications practitioners must be committed to conducting campaigns effectively through a strong knowledge and understanding of the target public so to persuade that public to respond to the message in the desired manner.

An organisation's adoption of the two-way asymmetric model gives the responsibility of gathering information and developing an understanding about the organisation's publics to the public relations or communications staff. This is the boundary-spanning role, with practitioners straddling the boundaries between the organisation and the public (Grunig and Hunt, 1984).

The analysis of the case using the theory presented in this dissertation suggests that the adoption of the two-way asymmetric model should be understood by public relations staff inside an organisation. It is safe to say that all public relations practitioners do not see themselves as boundary-spanners.

The analysis also suggests that non-communications staff within an organisation must recognise the role of public relations personnel as boundary spanners for the adoption to work. Additionally, the other may need to have a correct impression of public relations' role as a key function in the planning of any communications campaign. If this understanding exists, the staff might turn to public relations for information on the external public that is the focus of a campaign for information on that public and strategies to incorporate that information into planning. This should in turn keep the pressure on public relations to be informed about external publics and on techniques on how to meet the goal of having such information. It would seem to be important that staff understand that information on external publics is important to planning, not just implementation. The analysis of the case in this dissertation illustrates a misunderstanding of this point.