NEWSROOM PRACTICES AND LETTERS-TO-THE-EDITOR

Abstract

Letters-to-the-editor provide a significant forum for public debate, enabling the exchange of information, ideas and opinions between different groups of people. Since journalistic work is central to the processes of citizenship, this article observes the social context surrounding letters-to-the-editor in four Portuguese press publications. Keeping in mind the existence of a set of selection criteria, based on newsroom practices, it is possible to characterize the debate that takes place in the letters’ section as a construction. As with any other editorial content, the published letters are also a result of a selection, editing and framing process, shaped by journalistic routines and subject to limitations such as space and time.

Keywords:

• journalism
• letters-to-the-editor
• newsroom culture
• participation
• press

Notes

1. The concept of “cultural capital” was extensively developed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu: defining “capital” as accumulated labour which enables social agents to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labour (Bourdieu, 1986, p. 241), the author distinguishes three types of capital: economic (money, property rights), social (connections and titles of an individual) and cultural, referring to the educational qualifications, skills and knowledge that confer a higher status to a social agent. The notion of cultural capital can be applied to the letters-to-the-editor section, as style, eloquence and expertise can be assets in the selection process.

2. This article is based on the partial results of my PhD dissertation, defended in February 2010.

3. The gathering of letters for the content analysis sample coincided with the periods of interaction with the mentioned press publications; in total, we examined 371 readers’ letters—207 published and 164 unpublished texts—using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) for analysis. Although the content analysis of published and unpublished letters was crucial to find out more about readers’ texts and selection criteria, in terms of themes, discursive styles and authors, the major results of using this method are not within the scope of the current article and will be left out of the discussion.

4. All of the numbers indicated in this paragraph refer to the average circulation in 2008, according to the Portuguese Association of Press Circulation (APCT).

5. The legal modification proposed in the referendum was to make abortion legal until 10 weeks of pregnancy (previous legislation prohibited the abortion, with some exceptions).