Critical Junctures and Ethical Choices in Internet Ethnography (original) (raw)

The process of studying culture is one of comprehension, encapsulation and control. To say otherwise is to deny our impulses and roles as scholars and scientists. At a very basic level, we go there to learn something about Other and, when we think we have something figured out, we strive to find a good way to tell others what we think we know. To accomplish this goal, we must stop for a moment the flood of experience, extract a sample of it for inspec-tion, and re-present it in academic terms with no small degree of abstraction. Under the conceptual umbrella of text, this article discusses some of the deci-sions we make as researchers representing ourselves and representing others throughout the research project and in our research reports. This paper is based on a talk I gave in 2002 in Trondheim, Norway, at a small conference entitled "Making Common Ground: Methodological and Ethical Issues in Internet Research"