More than a solo method

Netnography’s capacity to enhance offline research methods

Bibliographic Data

ID8362002
AuthorsDi Wu (0000-0002-1269-4260, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume54
Issue1
Pages88-95
Publication date2022-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueArea (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0004-0894 • E-ISSN: 1475-4762
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/area.12750
OpenAlexW3201386202
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited40

As the use of the Internet has become ubiquitous and pervasive in people’s work and day‐to‐day life, netnography has been increasingly adopted to study online communities and activities in a range of social science disciplines, including Geography. The literature has identified that netnography is an effective research method in its own right. This paper aims to contribute to the literature on netnography by revealing novel possibilities that emerge when netnography is combined with offline research methods. It finds that a more active and participatory approach to netnography can significantly facilitate and smooth offline research methods such as interviews and observations in two major ways. First, it increases social and cognitive proximity between researchers and their participants. Second, it enables the spatial and temporal extension of researchers’ fieldwork

Citizen journalism · Data science · Netnography · Online and offline · Social media · Sociology · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Data Analysis and Archiving · Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics