Analyzing Letters-To-The-Editor Section of Daily Dawn: A Pakistani English Newspaper
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Keywords

Letter, Editor, Writer, Proportion, Feedback

Abstract

This study focuses on the “letters to the editor” section of daily Dawn, which is an oldest international English newspaper of Pakistan founded by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah the founder of Pakistan. Communication experts believe that the feedback is one of the key elements in the communication process. Thus, the print media uses ‘letter to the editor’ as a main source of feedback from readers. Scholars call it a public forum where readers can express their ideas and opinions. However, the other end of the issue again remains dark; as yet the selection process of the letters written to the editor to be published in the newspaper remains under the control of editors. And that process and criteria is not made public. Hence, to the best knowledge of the researcher, this study is a first effort of its kind in Pakistan to analyze the demographic and geographical identification of writers who contribute to ‘letter to editor section’ of the newspaper. For data collection letters to the editor pages of print version of newspaper Daily Dawn in English-language have been selected as a sample to be analyzed through quantitative content analysis for the period of one month – January 2015 arbitrarily. The one month data constituted a total of 282 letters and 29 issues of the newspaper. The data have been presented in tabular form and then is discussed and interpreted.

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