Another View of 'Citizen Feedback' to the Mass Media

Abstract

LETTER-WRITING has traditionally been an encouraged form of expressing opinion in the United States. The oft-heard advice to write your congressman, the space which magazines devote to correspondence they'receive, and the importance that newspapers lend to their to the editor by placing them next to the editorial page seem to legitimize this form of public communication as an intergral part of the democratic process. It is understandable, then, that many individuals direct letters of complaint and demand for change at organizations which they perceive as responsible to the public and important to their lives (Singer, 1973). Quite a bit of research during the past several decades has been devoted to investigating the kinds of people who send letters to various mass media organizations and to noting the kinds of letters they send.' However, no study could be found that examines such citizen in terms of the responses which it elicits within the organizations that receive it. This is a report on such an examination. Specifically, it is a study of the nature and organizational functions of a radio station's procedure for dealing with letters addressed to the station or its manager. A has been observed with respect to those letters that has two complementary functions for the organization: From the standpoint of internal station operations, the performance program serves to minimize the feedback letters' direct influence upon organizational routines by rejecting in a formularized manner any perceived 1 For an extensive review of past studies, see Williams and Leroy (1974). Current Research This section of POQ is reserved for brief reports of research in progress, discussions of unsolved problems, methodological studies, and public opinion data not extensively analyzed or interpreted. Succinct case histories are welcomed, as well as hypotheses and insights that may be useful to other students of public opinion. Usually, material in this section is shorter, more informal, and more tentative than in preceding pages. Joseph Turow is Assistant Professor of Communication, Purdue University. POQ 41 (1977-78) 534-543