[Air-L] Let's talk about AoIR.

[David Toews]

I am an outsider looking in, I don't attend AOIR.  Nor do I attend AA, but I do
lurk on this listserve and I consequently I feel free to take from Terri's list
of questions the problem of "Who are we?"  I'm not a part of the we, so for me
its more a problem of "who are you?".  I'm actually very interested in the
question of "who are you".  From what I can see, you are an organization of
communications scholars rooted in the idea that the internet represents a
dramatically new media of communication who are at the same time trying to
downplay this drama because you are at the same time rooted in the notion that
communications as a field still needs to be more professionalized.  So your
choice to me seems simple:  a) make it explicit that this is a communications
organization with respectable professional standards, or b) re-think your
objectives:  are you committed to such objects 'the internet' and 'media' or
are you open thinkers enough to pursue new ways of imagining the convergence of
the social, cultural, and technological?

I would think (b) would be alot more interesting.  The world has enough
'communications' conferences and organization.  Two cents worth from an
outsider.
-- 
Dr. David Toews, PhD
Assistant Professor
Sociology Department
York University
2060 Vari Hall
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M3J 1P3
Tel. 416-736-2100 ext. 60307
Fax. 416-736-5370
dtoews at yorku.ca

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