Jimmy Carter and the Emerging National “Malaise”: Letters to the Editor in America’s Political System

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Paper Session: Communication History Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

On February 23, 1976, one day prior to the New Hampshire primary, Washington Post editor Philip L. Geyelin published Lothar H. Wedekind’s letter. Wedekind of Annandale, Va., praised Washington Post ombudsman Charles B. Seib’s column, “Missing the Election Story,” and further critiqued a presidential “horserace handicapped by the media.” Wedekind’s letter is reminiscent of hundreds published at the nation’s leading newspapers for its acknowledgement of the national malaise surrounding the first post-Watergate presidential election and its critique of the era’s political system. Taking a cue from historians James Carey and Raymond Williams, this study of a census of more than 625 letters to the editor published in the nation’s top six circulation-leading newspapers seeks to understand the material trace of America’s “structure of feeling” surrounding presidential politics, in general, and the candidacy of Jimmy Carter, more specifically, during the first post-Watergate presidential election.

Authors

• Lori Amber Roessner, U of Tennessee

• Jaclyn Cameron, U of Tennessee