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 __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site http://webhosting.yahoo.com