The Open Forum: A Study of Letters to the Editor and the People Who Write Them.

More letters to the editor are being written to daily newspapers than ever before, and more of them are being published in ever-expanding letters columns. However, many letters go unpublished because of the letter's unsuitability, lack of space, or the writer's view having already been expressed. A study examined--by combining the methods of survey and content analysis--who the "unpublished" letter writers are, how they compare to the "published" writers, whether the same people are consistently getting their letters published and other people are consistently getting their letters rejected, and the editing process. The study looked at the letters received at a daily newspaper (circulation above 100,000) in a one-month period. The analysis consisted of 335 letters; 240 were"published" and 95 were "rejected." The survey consisted of a questionnaire to which 269 of the letter writers responded. Findings showed: (1) letters to the editors are written by a group of people above the norm in education, income, age, and community stability; (2) a majority believe that the open forum is not a good gauge of general opinion; (3) published writers were more likely than the unpublished ones to write letters opposing something in the newspaper; (4) published writers tended to write based on some expertise more than the unpublished letter writers; and (5) those whose letters were rejected tended to be more likely to submit a cathartic letter. (Ten tables of data and 29 notes are included.) (MS)