Alterity and self-presentation via the Web: Dialogical and narrative aspects of identity construction. Paper presented at

Personal homepages of two alterity groups--disabled persons (N = 8) and gay men (N = 12)--were systematically examined. A subset of page authors (N = 8) also responded to questions about the history of and meanings associated with creating these sites on the Internet. Ethnographic and content analyses found diverse iconographies and a broad palette of shared constructional elements (N = 40) by which authors fashion their online identities. Review of site contents and author responses isolated convergent themes regarding identity online. Striking parallels were noted between these results and broad aspects of the dialogical self proposed by Hermans (1996). This paper brings together three significant contemporary issues in the social sciences--alterity in personal identity, personal home page construction on the Internet, and the dialogical self in psychological theory--and describes an exploratory qualitative analysis of their interaction. I argue that the very recent emergence of the World Wide Web and, particularly the personal homepage as a communications medium may significantly affect the contemporary identity construction of individuals belonging to populations at the margin of mainstream society, for example, persons with physical impairments or gay men. Web authors deploy a broad palette o