Pandemic politics and public sphere: A critical discourse analysis of COVID-19 in letters to the editor of leading Odia newspapers

Abstract

This paper analyzed the letters to the editor of four leading Odia dailies by applying critical discourse analysis to understand how this section contributes as the public sphere and discusses politics around the second wave of COVID-19. The period considered for study was during the peak of the COVID-19 second wave in India – from April to September 2021, which witnessed many deaths and devastation. During the period the maximum number of letters were written around COVID-19. Upon analyzing the letters, it was concluded that the letters covered five major concerns of the pandemic – the political state within the country and the politics around the vaccine, the availability of the vaccines, the condition of senior citizens and children, the struggle to strike a balance between life and livelihood, and the ongoing crisis in the education sector due to the pandemic. As a public forum for debate, the newspaper readers resorted to the letters to the editor section where they effectively communicated their experiences and problems related to the pandemic. The letters shed light on the real issues on the ground. During COVID-19 the general public craved a forum to share their opinion and express their issues and problems. The letters to the editor section proved to be an effective public forum in this regard. Though the study was conducted in Odisha, a coastal state of India, its findings have a greater implication for the vernacular dailies in the Global South.

Keywords

COVID-19 critical discourse analysis letters to the editor newspapers public sphere

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Benson

(2009) Shaping the public sphere: Habermas and beyond. The American Sociologist 40(3): 175–197.

Buell

(1975) Eccentrics or gladiators? People who write about politics in letters-to-the-editor. Social Science Quarterly 56(3): 440–449.

Carver

(2008) Everyday women find their voice in the public sphere. Journalism History 34(1): 15–22.

Couldry

Livingstone

Markham

(2007) Connection or disconnection? Tracking the mediated public sphere in everyday life. In: Butsch

(ed). Media and Public Spheres. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 28–42.

Davis

Rarick

(1964) Functions of editorials and letters to the editor. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 41(1): 108.

De Zafra

Jr (1945) Let’s write the editor. The Social Studies 36(1): 21–23.

Fairclough

(1989) Language and Power. Harlow, UK: Addison Wesley Longman Limited.

Fiedler

Meyen

(2015) A quasi-public sphere: letters to the editor in the German Democratic Republic. Javnost-The Public 22(2): 181–195.

Forsythe

(1950) An exploratory study of letters to the editor and their contributors. Public Opinion Quarterly 14(1): 143–144.

10.

Foster

Friedrich

(1937) Letters to the editor as a means of measuring the effectiveness of propaganda. American Political Science Review 31(1): 71–79.

11.

Gregory

Hutchins

(2004) Everyday editorial practices and the public sphere: analysing the letters to the editor page of a regional newspaper. Media International Australia 112(1): 186–200.

12.

Grey

Brown

(1970) Letters to the editor: Hazy reflections of public opinion. Journalism Quarterly 47(3): 450–471.

13.

Habermas

(1974) The public sphere: An encyclopaedia article (1964). New German Critique 3: 49–55.

14.

Habermas

(1991) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

15.

Hauser

(1999) Vernacular Voices: The Rhetoric of Publics and Public Spheres. Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press.

16.

Hynds

(1991) Editorial page editors discuss the use of letters. Newspaper Research Journal 13: 124–136.

17.

Inkeles

Geiger

(1953) Critical letters to the editors of the Soviet Press: social characteristics and interrelations of critics and the criticized. American Sociological Review 18(1): 12–22.

18.

Jacobson

(2017) Trending theory of the public sphere. Annals of the International Communication Association 41(1): 70–82.

19.

Kapoor

Botan

(1992) Studies compare how editors use letters. Masthead 44(1): 5.

20.

Lander

(1972) Functions of letters to the editor: a re-examination. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 49(1): 142.

21.

McCluskey

Hmielowski

(2012) Opinion expression during social conflict: comparing online reader comments and letters to the editor. Journalism 13(3): 303–319.

22.

Mohanty

(1978) Atharasha Chhasathi (The Utkal Dipika). Cuttack: Friends’ Publishers.

23.

Nanda

(2008) Vocalizing Silence: Political Protests in Orissa (1930-1942). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

24.

Neyazi

(2014) Media, mediation and the vernacular public arena in India. Media International Australia 152(1): 176–184.

25.

Nielsen

(2010) Participation through letters to the editor: circulation, considerations, and genres in the letters institution. Journalism 11(1): 21–35.

26.

Perrin

Vaisey

(2008) Parallel public spheres: distance and discourse in letters to the editor. American Journal of Sociology 114(3): 781–810.

27.

Rahman

(2020) ‘Social distancing’ during COVID-19: the metaphors and politics of pandemic response in India. Health Sociology Review 29(2): 131–139.

28.

Reuter

Hart

(1933) Introduction to Sociology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

29.

Richardson

Franklin

(2004) Letters of intent: election campaigning and orchestrated public debate in local newspapers’ letters to the editor. Political Communication 21(4): 459–478.

30.

Singletary

(1976) How public perceives letters to the editor. Journalism Quarterly 53(3): 535–537.

31.

Swidler

(2001) Cultural expression and action. In: Smelser

Baltes

(eds). International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier, 3063–3069.

32.

Tarrant

(1957) Who writes letters to the editor? Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 34(4): 498.

33.

Tisdell

(2020) Economic, social and political issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. Economic Analysis and Policy 68: 17–28.

34.

Vacin

(1965) A study of letter-writers. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 42(3): 464.

35.

Van Dijk

(1995) Aims of critical discourse analysis. Japanese Discourse 1(1): 17–28.

36.

Van Dijk

(2015) Critical discourse analysis. In: The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, 466–485.

37.

Wahl-Jorgensen

(2001) Letters to the editor as a forum for public deliberation: modes of Publicity and democratic debate. Critical Studies in Media Communication 18(3): 303–320.

38.

Wahl-Jorgensen

(2002) The construction of the public in letters to the editor. Journalism 3(2): 183–204.

39.

Zhang

(2014) A critical discourse analysis of political news reports. Theory and Practice in Language Studies 4(11): 2273.