Marc Turner - Aggression Research - sounds very interesting. You might
consider the parallels between listserve type activity and
correspondence collumns in newpapers and journals. The aggression
associated with scientific correspondence is almost legendary and in the
days of moveable type printing I dare say they considered keeping a
stereotype of the phrase "This correspondence is now closed" due to the
heat raised by certain topics in the newspapers.
The parallels are, in my view, clear. The differences are that
listserves etc. are electronically based and rapidly distributed and
there is (often) no editor to filter out irrelevance and extremes. The
similarities are that correspondence is written for distribution and
published where interested parties can view them. The topics are often
directly or indirectly related to particular people and/or theories and
the resulting correspondence could often be described as HEATED-
although the term flame came with e-correspondence as far as I know.
Of course none of this contradicts your hypothesis of course, indeed the
same effect in a printed medium may support it. I leave that side of it
to you.
David L Gent
South Birmingham College
Cole Bank Road
Hall Green
Birmingham
B28 8ES
UK
Telephone: +44 (0)121 694 5030
Facsimile: +44 (0)121 694 5007
Electronic Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
