This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Wahl-Jorgensen, K. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The construction of the public in letters to the editor

Deliberative democracy and the idiom of insanity

School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University, Bute Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3NB, Wales, UK wahl-jorgensenk{at}cardiff.ac.uk

Drawing on an ethnographic study, this article describes how the editorial-page staff at one San Francisco Bay newspaper think of the letter-writing public. It is suggested that the staff are skeptical about the value of the letters section as a site for democratic communication because of what they perceive as the poor quality of public participation, as well as the non-representativeness of the letter-writers. To be more specific, the editors speak the ‘idiom of insanity’, which plays off the idea that contributors to the section – the members of the letter-writing public – are insane or ‘crazy’. This article examines the manifestations of the idiom of insanity and analyses its implications for deliberative democracy; it also suggests that the use of the idiom of insanity is a way for the staff to distance themselves from their work on letters to the editor, and renounce their responsibility to make democracy work.

Key Words: critical theory • deliberation • democracy • editors • Jüurgen Habermas • insanity • journalism • letters-to-the-editor • politics • public • public discourse

Journalism, Vol. 3, No. 2, 183-204 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/146488490200300203


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				E. Crawford A new sort of democracy?: The opinion pages in the Scottish daily quality press Journalism, August 1, 2009; 10(4): 451 - 472. [Abstract] [PDF]

				B. Reader Turf wars?: Rhetorical struggle over `prepared' letters to the editor Journalism, October 1, 2008; 9(5): 606 - 623. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. Ogan, F. Cicek, and M. Ozakca Letters to Sarah: analysis of email responses to an online editorial New Media Society, August 1, 2005; 7(4): 533 - 557. [Abstract] [PDF]

				K. Raeymaeckers Letters to the Editor: A Feedback Opportunity Turned into a Marketing Tool: An Account of Selection and Editing Practices in the Flemish Daily Press European Journal of Communication, June 1, 2005; 20(2): 199 - 221. [Abstract] [PDF]