Emails To The Editor? Not So Many
from the this-site-is-my-letter-to-the-editor dept
Obviously, being online makes certain forms of communication easier. When you see a news article somewhere, and you have something to say about it, it's a lot easier to fire up the old email program and send in a note (unless, of course, you hate email). It's certainly much easier than it was in the past when you had to write out a letter and send it via snail mail. So, how many letters to the editor do you think a major newspaper gets these days via email? You might be surprised. Apparently, the International Herald Tribune gets only an average of 30 a day (all via email). I'd guess that there are a few factors that keep this number so low. First, with reporters' email addresses often available, some people probably email the reporters directly with comments, bypassing the editors. Second, and much more importantly, people no longer need to "letters to the editor" as an outlet to make their point. It used to be the only way to have a public say on something, but now we have the rest of the internet. Every blog post on a story is a type of "letter to the editor" that didn't go directly to the editor. So, because people have their own outlets to say what they want, there's little reason to send it off to the editor and hope that it makes the cut to be published.
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Article Comments and Astroturf Campaigns
On some sites the news article will have it's own comment thread.
I expected the number of letters to the editor to be huge. For example a political party will regularly send an email with the text of an astroturf campaign letter to all of their members, and ask their members to modify the letter, add their name, and send it on to their local paper.
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Re: Article Comments and Astroturf Campaigns
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No Subject Given
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And shitty editing
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No value proposition
It's a very inefficient and uneffective mechanism. It's an top down editorial mechanism and the whole point of blogging and comments and bboard and the internet in general is you're heard directly and immediately by those to whom your speaking.
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Interesting results.
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