Ethnography in the Digital Age

Bibliographic Data

ID23746151
AuthorsAlan Howard (0009-0003-7273-6906, University of Hawaii System), Alexander Mawyer (0000-0002-9831-7633, Lake Forest College)
Year2015
Pages1-15
Publication date2015-05-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeOTHER
VenueEmerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences (JOURNAL)
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0119
OpenAlexW1570853294
ISBN9781118900772
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited15

This essay explores the ways in which ethnography, both as a methodology and a product of research, has adapted to the rapid growth of digital technology and the new venues for research that it has spawned. On the one hand, digital technology affords social scientists new means of recording, storing, and analyzing data. On the other hand, digital media have been responsible for the creation of new venues for research, mostly on the Internet in the form of websites, blogs, social networks, and multiplayer online games. As a methodology, ethnography, with its beginnings in the anthropological study of non‐Western societies, has proved to be highly adaptable to the task of making sense of, and giving meaning to, computer‐mediated communications in its various forms. This has led to its adoption in the study of online sites by researchers from a number of different disciplines attempting to come to grips with the cultural nuances of digitally formed communities. Ethical problems posed by more powerful forms of surveillance and access to personal information are discussed. The boundaries between public and private domains have become increasingly blurred, resulting in complex issues relating to informed consent. As a product, digital ethnographies allow for nonlineal, hyperlinked presentations that permit new forms of engagement between authors and readers not afforded by traditional published monographs.

Epistemology · Ethnography · Internet privacy · Meaning (existential) · Media studies · Product (mathematics) · Sociology · Task (project management) · The Internet · World Wide Web · Anthropology · Computer Science · Digital Communication and Language · Digital Games and Media · Engineering · Social Media and Politics