I subscribe to the Benton Foundation's Email list (www.benton.org/news), and I found this little tidbit synopsized by them from CNET news. Only months (weeks?) ago we were worried about viruses being passed through email, now we are worried about bacteria passed through postal mail. I would not have predicted a year ago that people would be urging electronic mail over postal mail. ~Jenny Stromer-Galley Annenberg School for Communication University of Pennsylvania jstromer@asc.upenn.edu E-MAIL A SAVIOR AMID ANTHRAX SCARE Issue: Internet A number of corporate entities, as well as Congress, have begun urging people to communicate through e-mail instead of sending traditional letters through the U.S. Postal Service. This week, the Arizona Daily Star announced that the newspaper would no longer accept regular postal mail addressed to "Letters to the Editor." Instead, editor and publisher Jane Amari told readers the paper is asking people to send all correspondence by e-mail, fax or through an online calendar. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) sent an e-mail to its members urging them to send e-mail in conjunction with mass mailing campaigns. "This is not something that we just thought up Tuesday," said Lou Mastria, director of public and international affairs for the New York-based DMA, the oldest and largest trade association for users and suppliers in the direct, database and interactive marketing fields. "This is a practice that's been developing for some time...It increases response rates normally, but it's particularly effective in this kind of environment, when people are concerned about their mail." More than half of all Americans use e-mail, for an average of a half-hour each day, according to a recent report by Forrester Research. Jupiter Media Metrix predicts that by 2006 140 million Americans will be "active" e-mail users. [SOURCE: CNET News, AUTHOR: Rachel Konrad and Paul Festa] (http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7546301.html)