Put your ear to the adjoining page. Do you hear "the voice of the people?" Two professors at Western Carolina University think they do. Chris Cooper and Gibbs Knotts, both assistant profs in political science, contend that newspaper letters to the editor serve as a sounding board for politicians and influence their decision-making. They conclude this after analyzing some 1,400 letters in The News & Observer and the six other largest newspapers in North Carolina.

"These letters represent a basic and important form of political participation -- a way for Americans to voice their opinions and affect the political process," they write in an academic paper.

But, the professors say, the letters "do not seem to reflect the opinions of 'regular Americans,' but rather show systematic biases." The letters pages give more voice to men than women, according to their research, and therefore more attention to what they term men's issues such as defense and government than to women's concerns such as education and civil rights.

Cooper and Knotts found a fairly even breakdown between conservative and liberal opinions expressed in letters, which the professors said does not reflect the conservative political profile of North Carolinians. Of letters randomly selected from The N&O, 40 percent were classified as liberal, 13 percent moderate and 47 percent conservative.

The study also found that letter-writers are more concerned about local issues than state or national matters -- except in The N&O, which they said publishes more letters than other papers about statewide issues. No surprise there.

Why do letters to the editor merit such attention from political scientists? Because, Cooper and Knotts say, letters in newspapers affect public policy. "Not only are citizens likely to look to letters to the editor, but the decision-makers look at letters to the editor," Knotts said in a phone interview. "That's why we wanted to see what are they looking at and what kind of representation are they of public opinion and the citizenry at large."

It is a matter of public concern, they say, if policy-making is being influenced by an unrepresentative slice of community opinion.

There are some problems with the Western Carolina study. One is that it doesn't reflect the fact that letters published aren't a complete indicator of the opinions received by a newspaper. The N&O last year was able to publish only about a third of the 13,000 letters it received, because of space limitations.

Cooper and Knotts said they were aware of that discrepancy between letters published and letters printed, but they still felt the content of the printed letters was important to study because of the potential impact on policy making.

I also wonder whether the study's sample of 1,400 letters, random though it may be, is large enough to yield meaningful conclusions, especially when broken down between men and women and conservative or liberal. The conservative/liberal determination was made by a graduate student using her own judgment, they said.

Still, I think the profs bring some valid points to light. Allen Torrey, The N&O's editor of letters and the Op-ed page, said it is true that the paper receives more letters from men than women. He said he's not surprised by the finding that overall the N&O's published letters are "somewhat more conservative than liberal." But he added in an e-mail, "I would not draw the conclusion that this is unrepresentative of larger public opinion. I guess if you were to draw such a conclusion, you might say our letter-writers tend to be a bit more conservative than the voters, particularly Triangle voters."

Do politicians pay attention to the letters? Yes, says Mac McCorkle, a Durham-based political consultant whose clients include Gov. Mike Easley. Especially in political campaigns. "We say we know that they're not necessarily representative at all, but it still is part of the background noise and it does affect us even though we say it doesn't." The same is true of elected officials once they're in office, he said.

McCorkle also agreed that the letters are not representative of the broad spectrum of public opinion, in that they tend to give more attention to those at the extremes of issues than to those in the middle. That's the nature of public debate, he said.

Cooper and Knotts are still working on their research, which they presented last year at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. They say the research has consequences for American democracy. "If women see their letters printed less in the newspapers and they're concerned about these issues, it may be difficult for policy-makers to pay attention to these issues," Cooper said.

They hope to expand the research to an examination of newspapers nationally. Meanwhile, they say, there is a lesson for women and others whose views are not as represented in newspapers. Get writing.

Get $150+ in coupons in every Sunday N&O. Click here for convenient home delivery.