Another approach might be to have students subscribe to H-film, screen-L or
any other listserv on film and to have them think about the net as a
cenematic institution. BBS's serve as an important reception community.
Important enough for studios to release images and sounds from current films
through online services like America on Line. The groups are a new type of
institution somewhere between talk radio, the fan club and the accademy. They
allow for new questions like what happens to gender based reception theory in
an environment where users can present themselves as being of a gender of
their choice. And What is the role of a public in creating a genre?  Why not
study it? I suppose in that case the computers move from being an educational
tool to an object of study, but it would be interesting.