[Air-l] Reification was Definitions

[Sam Tilden]

Bob,
   
  I will respond to all of your questions, but it will be a few days.
   
  I will not respond as you seem to wish to a mis-representation of what I actually wrote.
  At no time did I use "poor scholarship" in my writing nor did I say "not empirically grounded" Any implication you may have drawn is your own.
   
  I did say that there are terms that have been reified, turned into tropes and subsequently cited. I gave an example of "cyberspace". I offer additional an additional term such as "virtual group or community" which carries the implication of "almost like" a group or community. In context they are presented as if they have been explicitly defined. No proof of "virtuality" has been offered and yet it has been cited as support for other assertions. 
   
  The term "ties" is another. I presume that this speaks to an internal psychological state but has not been operationalized. There are hundreds of sites to this paper.
   
  I have no problem with using them as long as they can be operationized to the context.
   
  I will not cite particular papers so as to not appear to be rendering an ad homenim attack.
   
  Respectfully,
   
  Sam

Bob Rehak <brehak1 at swarthmore.edu> wrote:
  Dear Sam,

Your reply appears to address only one of Dr. Eskow's queries, to wit:
"Who are these leaders, and what is the nature of their objections? Why
are they anonymous?"

Here are his remaining questions, redacted and numbered for your convenience:

1. Why this need to find precise boundaries for a word that encompasses
many realms of meaning, that includes technology and the people that use
it and the uses they make of it--and much more?

2. What are the reasons you have for this belief [i.e. "I have reason to
believe that lack of objectification has created a situation in which
incomplete and imperfect understanding of the many of these tropes and
definitions has created the manufacturing of trolls when none exist"]?

3. Can you give us one or two examples of poor scholarship associated with
AOIR--scholarship that is not "empirically grounded"?

We respectfully await your answers. (I'm particularly interested in your
response to #3.)

Best wishes,

-- 
Bob Rehak
Visiting Assistant Professor
Film and Media Studies
Swarthmore College

Associate Editor
Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal


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