Open letter

In previous centuries, letter writing was a significant form of communication. Letters were normally kept private between the sender and recipient. Consequently, an open letter, usually published in a newspaper or magazine, was a then-rare opportunity for the general public to see what a public figure was saying to another public figure. Open letters, published in newspapers, became more common in the late 19th century. ==Motivations for writing==

There are a number of reasons why an individual would choose the form of an open letter, including the following reasons: • To publicly criticize something • To make a power play in shaping public opinion on an issue or framing a dispute • To state the author's opinion • For humor value • To make public a communication that must take place as a letter for reasons of formality == Problems ==

Eric Kaufmann characterizes the authoring of open letters in academia calling for the dismissal of academics as a form of "hard authoritarianism" accompanying political correctness and cancel culture. Others associate open letters with bullying, divisiveness, safetyism (suppressing ideas to ensure a reader's immediate emotional comfort), and a culture of complaining. Open letters tend not to win hearts and minds, especially if there is a limited connection between the writers, the subject, and the nominal addressee. A close connection, such as university faculty writing to the university president about their hopes and goals for university students, is more likely to be effective at influencing a decision than an absent or distant connection, such as students writing to the internet at large about the students' beliefs about a political situation in a country that most of the students have never visited. Signatories may feel pressured to sign an open letter written by someone else instead of writing their own. Even if the letter is badly written or does not fully or accurately reflect each signer's own views, to refuse to endorse it may be taken as complete disagreement with the general concept. In other cases, the signer may not fully understand the contents. ==Examples==

• "Yorkshire Slavery" by abolitionist Richard Oastler in 1830, about exploitative child labor practices in English textile mills ==See also==