[Air-l] "Validity" of citing internet sources?

[Jennifer Stromer-Galley]

>From my perspective, if you are using the religious websites and blogs as data or evidence for an argument you are making, I don't see the problem with citing the sources. They serve as the text you are analyzing, and you are then providing the possibility for your readers the path to look at the text themselves. In this sense, it's not that different than if one analyzes, for example, a speech and provides the citation for where a print version or broadcast version of the speech can be found.

I'm not sure if this addresses your concern.

Best wishes,
~Jenny

[Who is procrastinating from the work of muddling through understanding an SPSS macro for Krippendorff's alpha . . . .]


Assistant Professor
Department of Communication, SS 340
University at Albany, SUNY
Albany, NY 12222
518-442-4873
jstromer at albany.edu
http://www.albany.edu/~jstromer



-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org on behalf of joseph at gelfer.net
Sent: Thu 2007.05.03 00:19
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: [Air-l] "Validity" of citing internet sources?
 
Hello list members 

Can anyone point me in the direction of any peer-reviewed papers which argue 
for the "validity" of citing internet sources as complements to regular 
print sources? 

Here's the context: I work in the area of Religious Studies. I like to cite 
church and religious organisation websites as an indicator of their 
positions on various contemporary issues. I also like to cite blogs of 
religious leaders who have significant public and publishing profiles, as 
these often contain some pretty impassioned content that may not make it 
through to "official" outlets. 

Now I know some folks find using such online sources as unscholarly, even if 
alongside all the traditional print sources. So what I'm after are papers 
from reputable journals which make a good case for the use of such online 
sources. Having had a look around the only papers I can find in the general 
subject area are concerned with dead links/the percentage of URL references 
which can no longer be verified. 

Any thoughts would be appreciated. 

Thanks,
Joseph Gelfer. 

www.gelfer.net