Hi, Just to respond to a couple of points - "sorry but i don't see how "webnography" as laid out by Puri has anything to do with ethnography; nor does it sit in the same arena as Hine's virtual ethnograhy. Puri's text sits in the realm of market research--the goal (to sell more product) comes before the observation. it's hardly social science. -robert" I agree completely Robert, Puri's "webnography" is most definitely a market research endeavour, but since it is so prolific, and since so many ethnographers may be employed in this arena, I would imagine an awareness of Puri's work would be a good part of a syllabus. "About the "graphy" part of "virtual ethnography", i can't agree with your statement of impossibility." I don't think the 'graphy' part of 'virtual ethnography' is impossible (I don't think I said that did I?) but it's very rare that good virtual ethnography is performed in its complete sense. I don't think it is a very robust method in terms of validity and generalisablity. I hope that clears up my stance on virtual ethnography. Also, if people have any good examples I'd love to read them! Pearse
Pearse You're absolutely right to suggest that there is a tendency for internet researchers to play fast and loose with the term "ethnography." Interviewing online participants or "observing" online interaction is often just plain old qualitative research (which is perfectly legitimate) and the latter on its own might be discourse analysis. Part of what makes work ethnographic is the presentation of the data. I expect "thick descriptions" and substantial verbatim comments covering a range of participant experience, not a few illustrative snippets. I think there is an assumption that because the field is "virtual," anyone (grad students and profs alike) can try their hand at it without the training required to prepare for "real life" fieldwork. In some ways, I'm guilty as charged. That said, I do have a background in sociolinguistics and was fortunate enough to have had a linguistic anthropologist on my dissertation committee. I also distinguish between an "ethnographic case study" and an "ethnography." Rhiannon
Hi, Rhiannon wrote "I expect "thick descriptions" and substantial verbatim comments covering a range of participant experience, not a few illustrative snippets. I think there is an assumption that because the field is "virtual," anyone (grad students and profs alike) can try their hand at it without the training required to prepare for "real life" fieldwork" I felt a bit concerned by this statement. I wanted to say that we coul interpret this as a bit elitist. I went to ethnography for online health communities because most of the research focused either on empowerment of patients, either on on the absence of control of these dangerous discussions about health. I aimed at escaping such normative views , and I was not searching for simplicity or simple snippets. I think ethnography constitutes mor for most of us a way to escape preconceptions, rather than an accessible virtual field. It may be the reason for having such discussions about definitions and methods. I have read Manul Boutet's work and his use of graphs comes from a deap understanding of what "community" means for gamers. Anyway, that was just my thought, Sincerely, Laetitia
Laetitia I certainly don't mean to be elitist, just accurate. :) There's nothing inherently wrong with "illustrative snippets": they are the norm in the presentation of much sociological research, especially when the sample is larger and some quantitative data is also presented. Ethnography is not "alternative" and non-normative by definition. In recent years, it has become aligned with a larger "post-positivist" approach to qualitative research in which the researcher is meant to interrogate their role in the production of knowledge. In my opinion, one should not be conducting virtual research to escape methodological rigor and informing theoretical frameworks. I am not saying that only cultural anthropologists should be conducting virtual research (that would count me out!) or that researchers previously unfamiliar with qualitative methods should not try their hand at it in the "virtual field." But before doing so, they need to familiar themselves with methodology and terminology ________________________________
Hi all, Thanks, all, for a great discussion so far. I don't want to pull the discussion too far away from the latest exchange if people want to continue. But, I had a follow up question to the lists that people have been sending out. I've read many of these, though not all by any stretch. Has anyone read any good writing on the practicalities of doing online participant observation specifically with respect to the writing of fieldnotes following sessions? I have this very crude division in my mind between (A) doing online participant observation in a virtual world (if virtual world is perhaps poorly defined as an avatar based environment dominated by synchronous interaction) vs. (B) online participant observation of a dynamic website (feel free to replace "website" with favorite term: social network site? blogs? forums? online community that is somehow not a virtual world? the online part of a networked public?). I'm trying to write a paper on what it means to write a fieldnote with respect to the latter, but have no desire to re-invent the wheel. Having done offline participant observation and read a few of the accounts of (A), what writing fieldnotes is and what would go into a fieldnote seem quite analagous. I cannot say this about my experience trying write fieldnotes following P.O. of the other kind (B). I think it possible that I am also guilty of trying to graft a certain set of ways doing the research onto something kind of different and not seeing a non-grafty approach. Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated! And, to add to the list generated above, I have found the following articles very useful as well: Anne Beaulieu, "Mediating ethnography: objectivity and the makings of ethnographies on the internet," Social Epistemology 18 (2004): 139-164. Burrell, Jenna. Forthcoming. The Fieldsite as Heterogeneous Network. Field Methods. Leander, Kevin M. and Kelly M. McKim, "Tracing the Everyday 'Sitings' of Adolescents on the Internet: a strategic adaptation of ethnography across online and offline spaces," Education, Communication & Information 3, no. 2 (2003): 211-240. Star, Susan Leigh. 1999. The Ethnography of Infrastructure. American Behavioral Scientist 43, no. 3: 377. Regards, Dan -------------------------------------------- Dan Perkel PhD Candidate School of Information and Berkeley Center for New Media UC Berkeley dperkel@ischool.berkeley.edu On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 2:08 PM, Rhiannon Bury <rcbury@rogers.com> wrote:
Laetitia
I certainly don't mean to be elitist, just accurate. :) There's nothing inherently wrong with "illustrative snippets": they are the norm in the presentation of much sociological research, especially when the sample is larger and some quantitative data is also presented.
Ethnography is not "alternative" and non-normative by definition. In recent years, it has become aligned with a larger "post-positivist" approach to qualitative research in which the researcher is meant to interrogate their role in the production of knowledge. In my opinion, one should not be conducting virtual research to escape methodological rigor and informing theoretical frameworks. I am not saying that only cultural anthropologists should be conducting virtual research (that would count me out!) or that researchers previously unfamiliar with qualitative methods should not try their hand at it in the "virtual field." But before doing so, they need to familiar themselves with methodology and terminology
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participants (4)
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Dan Perkel -
laetitia le chatton -
Pearse Stokes -
Rhiannon Bury