Letters to the editor

Abstract

One of the few forums for public discussion to have survived the history of American mass media is the letters‐to‐the‐editor section in the daily newspaper. Readership surveys show that the letters section is the best read feature of the op‐ed page and one of the most popular items in the newspaper. Half of the newspaper audience reads the letters page every day, whether it be to recognize the names and writing of friends and family, or to tune into the opinion of voices of authority, speaking up in national newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. Journalism scholarship and practice of our day celebrates the letters section as a public forum essential to the democratic system. In an age where many voice concern about the decline in citizen participation in civic affairs, letters‐to‐the‐editor pages across the nation, in papers of all sizes, get an increasingly large number of letters. The letters section, as a genre of political speech, provides us with a genuine hope for, and inspiring examples of, the urgent project of blowing fresh life into the public. More than that, the letters section is a case study in the central tension within the philosophy underlying institutions of mass communication at the level of the nation state, as well as globally: the tension that exists between the historically central role of media as public service providers and the increasingly powerful model of media as successful profit‐making ventures.

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