Audience Mail: Letters to the Broadcaster

Abstract

Comparative study of letter writers and general popzrlation shows that station tnail represents views of the literate, white. older and active majority and is not a aalid sample of the entire community.Studies of letters to the media sporadically appear in the communication literature. A recent FCC ruling makes such studies of more than just academic interest for broadcasters are now required to solicit and maintain public files of correspondence from their audience about programming and related matters of community interest. The FCC reasons that the files would , . . permit a inemher of the public to better determine the nature of coninmnity feedback received by licensees and the extent to which his or her opinions regarding coniniuiiity problems and needs andlor the licensees' stutioii operation nzight be shared by others (29 Radio Regulation, second edition, p . 12).The assumptions made by the FCC are staggering. First, it appears questionable that the viewing public might visit a station to read its public files, much less know about the files' existence. Second, it seems problematic to assume that the people who write the letters to broadcast stations are actually valid reflectors of community needs and interests, especially since several studies ( 3 , 4 , 5 , 8) document that these letters tend to be critical in nature. The FCC provides no guidelines for interpreting the public file material and understandably the broadcaster must feel some hesitancy in making the information readily acwssible to potential challengers.Brrnadette McCuirc is a

Cross sections for ionization of inner-shell electrons by electrons

“…All measurements of o»E», however, appear to lie on a. common curve (within the estimated accuracy of each experiment) except for the Al measurement of Fischer and Hoffman (1967) and, to a lesser extent, for the measurements for carbon of Paschke (1971a, 1971b). The experimental data of Glupe and Mehlhorn agree quite well with the theoretical results of McGuire (1971aMcGuire ( , 1974 and with the results of Rudge and Schwartz (1966), as shown in Fig. 9.…”

“…We therefore quote the results for Z =128, Tables'I and II; cr~E~2 is also plotted in Fig. 1 McGuire's (1971aMcGuire's ( , 1974 results for Be, C, and O. and is plotted in Fig. 1(a).…”

“…only when E~& 1 keV and when Ep & 10 keV. McGuire (1971aMcGuire ( , , 1974 has also calcula, ted L"L", and M, -shell ionization cross sections for Z &18 (Ar). His values of cr~"E~23 for Na, Al, S, and Ar are plotted a.s a function of UI"=ED/Ez" in Fig.…”

Interactivity: A review of the concept and a framework for analysis

“…Davies and Rarick (1964), Forsythe (1950), and Grey and Brown (1970) examined letters to editors. Gans (1977) and McGuire and Leroy (1977) finally researched letters to TVeditors. Moreover, one can find more common examples for interaction in mass media communication, such as lotteries in print media, radio, or TV where recipients communicate via postcards.…”

Comparison of mail and telephone methods of studying media contactors

“…3 Instead, concern is focused upon the effect that data collection methods have on the results when media letter writers are contacted via telephone or mail questionnaire. Specifically, what impact does the non-respondent in a telephone survey of media letter writers have upon the distribution of survey results?…”