9 l11 Truth
Two factors contributing to the production and circulation of alternative claims for what happened in the United States on September 11 distinguish the 9 I 11 truth movement from other assemblages associated with conspiracy theories: one, the way the ideas circulate on the Internet as videos and, two, the participation of a variety of highly regarded academics. These same factors also make 9 I 11 truth a central site for examining contemporary problems around credibility and certainty.
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Most people who doubt the oficial story of th e events of 9 I 11 get their information from the Internet. Particularly interesting in this regard is the way 9 I 11 conspiracy theories circul�te !lOt simply through websites and blogs but as full-length videos. I can compare this with alien abductionin the nineties, as accounts of alien abduction became more visible in American popular culture, those involved in the abduction community relied in part on email and websites.17 Nevertheless, the circulation of knowledge of abduction took place primarily through books, conventions, and made-for-television investigative reports. The television specialswhile exploiting the trash value of abduction-included heavy doses of skepticismj they gave a lot of air time to debunkers. The 9 / 11 truth movement difers in that people make and distribute their own videos.
The most prominent video associated with 9 I u truth is Loose Change, an eighty-minute documentary made by Dylan Avery, a twenty-two-yearold from Oneonta, New York. It first appeared on the Web in the summer of 2005. Since then it has had at least ten million viewings. The magazine Vanity Fair calls Loose Change "the first Internet blockbuster:' <sup>18</sup>
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