PROFESSIONAL CULTURE OF WORK WITH MAIL

The importance of the letter as an editorial document is supported by legal norms and is constantly emphasized in a number of official decrees relating to media activities. The work of the editorial staff with letters begins with special departments that until recently existed in all editions. The number of department employees is determined by the level of publication. All mail comes here. Letters are opened, read, their further fate is determined. The scope of work is great:

Ø registration and accounting of incoming letters,

Ø selection and transfer of part of mail to industry departments,

Ø control over the terms of work with the letters of the entire editorial board,

Ø preparation of letters for printing,

Ø preparation of reports on the status of work with letters,

Ø sending part of letters to third-party organizations for the answer to the authors,

Ø Thematic analysis of letters.

It all starts with reading correspondence. It is advisable to do this immediately, without letting it lie behind, and to make a decision on each letter. Part of the received will not cause a significant resonance. These are requests, complaints, idle questions, emotional, but unconstructive responses to publications that will not find application in editorial production. Letters that are relevant and socially sound are partly transferred to other departments, the rest can be directly prepared for publication. Separate letters addressed personally to the editor. Lytkonsultantu transmitted stories, poems, humoresques and other works of art. Official replies from various instances, business responses to previous media appearances are collected in a special folder.

After parsing and initial evaluation of letters, they are taken on record . The processing technique depends on their quantity. Where there are few of them, the journal accounting system is most often maintained. This is the oldest and most inconvenient way. It complicates the search and analysis of mail. Writing the letter data to a special card makes it much easier to work with it. One card is attached to the letter and travels with it until the completion of its fate, while the other remains in the department for control. There is an account of letters on special punched cards. Currently, data is entered into the computer.

The editors of any form of accounting are primarily interested in the following data:

Ø subject of the letter,

Ø who is the author,

Ø date of receipt,

Ø address,

Ø where the letter was sent,

Ø what's done.

The registration number is recorded on the letter, after which it goes to the department.

The correspondence selected for publication must be skillfully filed on the newspaper page. To do this, you first need to check their accuracy. Confusion and distortion of facts, mistakes in spelling surnames, names, organizations are unacceptable. The best test is to meet with the author - it helps to remove a lot of questions. You can use the phone and mail, use the relevant reference books. In the letters there are inaccuracies of ignorance, but there are also deliberate distortions of information in order to settle the score. The employee of the editorial office is obliged to understand this. Any mistake can undermine the trust of readers.

Mail publishing is an indicator of the culture of journalistic work. In this matter should be ingenious. Even the most ordinary letters can be advantageously used in editorial work.

Some letters are published in full - separately, in a collection or on a special mail band. This is done with specific texts, complete in form, original in content. When literary editing, they are only slightly polished. These are completely independent materials that you can hardly distinguish from professional journalists. Another form of using letters is to present them as a review. This creates a new work in which the texts of various authors, for example, on a specific topic, are creatively processed. Analysis and evaluation of the material are carried out from a certain angle. Reviews allow you to summarize suggestions, tips, feedback. The newspaper can on its pages to correspond with readers. In this case, the views and aspirations of the author are openly expressed. This form of work is applicable if the letter itself is not required to publish, and any valuable thought deserves public attention.

Some readers consider the press as an information center, where you can get help on any occasion. Hence a large number of letters in the mail questions. Some concern only their author, but there are also those that may be of interest to many. These include, for example, problems of legal order, vocational guidance, the work of public services. In such cases, it is useful to involve specialists for organization in the newspaper or on the air of qualified consultations.

Finally, the letter can give a reason for a journalistic conversation with readers, an interesting business trip, to push for a burning debate. Dialogue with the reader enriches both himself and the editors. It should be noted here that most of the writers just do not count on the publication of their appeals to journalists. They are quite satisfied if at their signal at least some work is done.

The letters sent to the editors are not only read, but also studied . The nature of the post interests the publication itself and the publisher.

Some editors prepare so-called “closed” reviews for internal use. If the flow of complaints on a particular topic has become frequent, this is a signal for the editors. At one time, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper provided such reviews on newspaper pages. Under the heading "Literally," published "Memo to the editorial board of" KP "," signed by the head of the department of letters. Here is how it looks, with some cuts:

The most writing, as can be seen from the summary of letters, today are students. More recently, it would only be gratifying, but there is little joy, since for the students it was, apparently, the time for survival. For example, in some sovereign states, when passing an exam, knowledge of the state language is required, and, as you know, you cannot learn it overnight; in others, in order for “foreigners” to complete their studies, a tidy sum is required. Russian-speaking applicants generally stuck, as they say, neither there nor here. New wave of letters - about violence and lawlessness in the hostel, the inaction of the police and the insecurity of those living in them. The second large group of letters — again, I’m walking from the bulletin — are poor. There seems to be nothing to comment. Try to read the letters of old men, where they are asked to create for them hospices with killer injections for their own money. There are many letters from the army, problems are known - housing, pensions, but the main thing is how to find and apply yourself in new conditions. Especially if you are a “foreigner” again, and, to the military, even the former, people, relatively speaking, do not feel love from the housing department. Loomed the topic of unemployment. While these are isolated cases, however, they show that our employment agencies are fiction. And how to live without livelihood? ..

Huge mail about the arbitrariness of officials of all stripes.

Moods

1. The rejection of the market, as it is associated with many uncleanliness, crime, racketeering.

2. It is considered unacceptable to turn to capitalism, as unemployment, paid housing, training, medical aid scare and repel.

3. Huge national-patriotic mail. Many, especially Russians, cannot accept the fact that they no longer live in a superpower ...

4. Mail from suicides rises, mainly from young people, up to 30 years ...

Last thing

Our summary does not reflect the problem of drug shortages. But it is a huge misfortune. She just moved to the "Day of the Family." And this figure rolls over - more than 20.000 [5].

The forms of work with mail that we have listed relate to the organizational activity of a journalist. For decades she was charged with his professional duties. However, since the beginning of the 1990s, the following explanations began to appear in many publications next to their output: “Due to the lack of opportunities, the editorial board does not review materials and does not return”. You can add a clarification: the letters are not sent for action, the authors do not receive a response.

This new policy was clearly formulated by the Izvestia newspaper. The article "The editors have no money and energy for meaningless correspondence" stated:

The editors receive hundreds of thousands of letters annually. In 1989 there were 300 thousand of them, in 1990 - 200 thousand, in 1991 - 110 thousand. Each of the letters received by the editorial board was obliged to register and send it to the branch department, in which his fate was determined. Be sure to be supposed to answer the author. Most often, the course was the so-called standard - a ready answer to all cases: “Thank you for the letter. Unfortunately, we cannot publish it ... ”A special case is complaints, and the majority of them are in the mail. The relevant instructions prescribed to send them to the authorities for action. The bureaucratic correspondence, in which almost the whole country consisted, created the appearance of concern for the workers. We no longer want to engage in deception.

From now on, the editors will not forward letters for action. Do not expect answers from us to the letters ...

The law on mass media, recently passed by the Russian Supreme Council, allows us to do this. In its 43rd article, in particular, it says: “The editors are not obliged to respond to citizens' letters and forward these letters to bodies, organizations and officials, whose competence includes their consideration. No one has the right to oblige the editorial office to publish a letter rejected by it, unless otherwise provided by law. ”

Objective circumstances also force us to do so ... The editors downsize - the correspondent network in the country and abroad, creative departments, other services. In January 1991, in the department of letters "Izvestia" there were 70 people. For January of this year, it remains –– together with technical workers - 17. Believe me, they slaughtered live. To the limit, the editors also reduce their postal expenses [6].

As for the size of the department of the letters “Izvestia”, we’ll clarify: in early 1999 there were less than ten people left.

The spontaneous flow of appeals to the editors and organized by the journalists themselves differ in content. The editors deliberately accentuate those questions in their appeals to readers, listeners, and TV viewers, which she currently needs. This is especially noticeable during periods of election campaigns. Methods of organizing the identification of opinions have long been mastered in the media:

Ø appeal to the audience with questions

Ø issues taken by phone during the transfer,

Ø survey, rating of programs or political figures

Ø interviewing on the street.

These are good ways to hear from the audience. Unfortunately, journalists are not always able to do something to help people when they need it.