Where’s the Conversation Going?

The letter to the editor are a crucial part of newspapers and are really the original user comment section. This group’s presentation was really about how to incorporate new technology to make the letter to the editor process better. Often times, people who write letters to the editor are turned away because of time and space constraints. However, I think it is important to point out that the selection process for letters to the editor is also sometimes political. So the real question is if this new technology will taking the editorial selection out of the letter to the editor process. If that is the case, then I think it would be a win-win solution.

1. Create a letters blog where readers can comment on individual letters.
2. Print the letters from the blog in the paper (reverse publish).
3. Let readers rank letters and reward those who write especially well-written pieces and have them printed in the paper.

It was debated whether or not the paper should be able to decide which letters ultimately get chosen to be printed. I think even if the readers are being told their highest rank piece will be printed, this may not be true. However, even if it isn’t printed in the paper, at least now all the letters to the editor can be included at least online. One of the best ideas this group had was to keep track of how their paper was being received by using Digg, Technorati, Twitter etc. This is a sign that the editors at this conference are beginning to feel more comfortable using these tools on a daily basis. They suggested becoming involved in the critical discussions of them on these sites, which I think is a very proactive approach.