Letters and Phone-Mails to the Editor: A Comparison of Reader Input

Abstract

Letters to the editor remain a popular feature of American newspapers and a major forum for public discussion and debate.1 Also, past literature documents the role letters to the editor play in a democracy.2 However, the appeal of recent communication technologies, such as e-mail and the Internet, is redefining the nature of the public forum and avenues for citizen expression.3 Adapting to technology, newspapers are providing alternative forums to traditional letters to the editor. One alternative, rooted in voice mail technology, is phone-mail to the editor. Called Sound Off, Mad Line or Back Talk, these columns publish the short, often anonymous, recorded phone messages of readers' viewpoints on timely concerns. Writing a letter to the editor involves some grammatical and rhetorical competence. As a result, letter writers are often of higher socio-economic status.4 The simplicity of phone-mail is attractive, encouraging increased reader participation. Also, telephone communication is more immediate and less formal and requires minimal coding skills.5 The opportunity to call instead of writing a letter to the editor, gives readers an equal chance of expressing their viewpoints. Research Questions Although phone-in columns have been addressed in the literature,6 one is hard pressed to find empirical data comparing phone-mail with traditional letters to the editor. This study compares phone-mail and letters to the editor, focusing on two components. The first is thematic similarities, and the second is the extent of negativity. Two research questions guided this study. RQ1: Are concerns addressed by callers similar to concerns addressed by letter writers? RQ2: What is the frequency of negative phone-mail compared to letters? Research Design A systematic comparison was made of calls and letters published in the Lowell (Mass.) Sun during calendar year 1998.7 Situated approximately 30 miles northwest of Boston, Lowell is a mid-sized community with a population of 103,439.8 The Sun has a daily subscription of 52,508 and a Sunday circulation of 55,806.9 It is a politically low-key community newspaper, with a clearly defined readership in the greater Lowell Area. In addition to traditional letters to the editor, the Sun also publishes a daily column titled BackTalk. BackTalk is an e-mail and phone-mail column ordinarily published Monday through Saturday.10 Most letters to the editor are published on Sunday, with letters to the editor also published in one of the weekday editions. In 1998, the Sun published 3,425 calls and letters, with calls accounting for 93 percent of the communication. (N = 3,185). The Sun receives approximately 12 to 15 letters to the editor per week, and every attempt is made to publish all letters received. Libelous and hate letters are eliminated. Letters must be signed and may be edited for length. No deliberate attempt is made to change a letter's intent.11 BackTalk was introduced about four years prior to the study, and is one of several phone-mail columns at Massachusetts newspapers. BackTalk receives approximately 100 messages a week, with approximately 80 percent in the form of phone-mail. BackTalk is kept short, using one or two sentences for most items. While letters to the editor must be signed, BackTalk is published with only callers' hometowns listed. All topics are eligible for inclusion in BackTalk, provided they are not libelous, slanderous or hate oriented. Calls are edited for grammar, sentence structure and elimination of vulgarity, with the aim of preserving the communicator's intent. Efforts are made to publish callers' messages that proportionally reflect the topics addressed by callers.12 On average, about 10 calls per day are published in BackTalk. Phone-mail is a unique community forum. Previous newspaper research had not content analyzed phone-mail; therefore, there was a degree of uncertainty relying on content analysis categories that had been used in previous studies. …