[Air-l] research methodology - justification internet and lying

Magda Bober magdalenabober at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 19 15:46:08 PST 2002


Hi Angela, 

here are some references I found on authenticity on
the Internet for something I wrote recently:

Kendall (in Steve Jones, Doing Internet Research)
claims that spending time in an online community and
getting to know the particular norms of the group
compensates for the absence of facial cues online and
also increases the researcher’s ability to evaluate
the authenticity of responses.

In online communities, members often apply an informal
system of checks and criticize messages, which do not
appear credible (see Smyres, 'Virtual Corporeality:
Adolescent Girls and Their Bodies in Cyberspace.'
Research Methodology Online,
http://www.socio.demon.co.uk/magazine/6/smyres.html) 

Here's a quote from Tobin about a young Internet user
who contests Turkle's idea of identity play on the
Internet:

“Unless I am playing a role playing game, I’m always
myself on the Net. I never lie or make stuff up when I
write to the list. I’m sure there are people who do,
but I despise them, just like I despise people who lie
and boast in real life.”

Tobin, J. (1998). An American Otaku (or, a Boy’s
Virtual Life on the Net). In J. Sefton-Green (ed.).
Digital Diversions: Youth Culture in the Age of
Multimedia (pp. 106-127). London: UCL Press.

Finally, as Christine Hine writes in "Virtual
Ethnography" there is no point in establishing if what
someone says is the truth because authenticity should
not be seen as absolute. It is instead "situationally
negotiated and sustained [...] A search for truly
authentic knowledge about people or phenomena is
doomed to be ultimately irresolvable. The point for
the ethnographer is not to bring some external
criterion for judging whether it is safe to believe
what informants say, but rather to come to understand
how it is that informants judge authenticity." (p. 49)

Hope that helps.

Best,
Magda


Magdalena Bober
Dept. of Information & Communications
Manchester Metropolitan University
United Kingdom
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/h-ss/dic/people/mbhome.html

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