Ethnographic Blogging: Reflections on a Methodological Experiment
This paper describes how a weblog was utilized as a major component in a long-term, multi-site ethnography with both “virtual” and physically situated research components. “Ethnographic blogging” describes not only the act of writing on a website and hoping that someone will read it, but the process...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sciendo
2010-01-01
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| Series: | Cultural Science |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5334/csci.38 |
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| _version_ | 1823860452345511936 |
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| author | Tocci Jason |
| author_facet | Tocci Jason |
| author_sort | Tocci Jason |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper describes how a weblog was utilized as a major component in a long-term, multi-site ethnography with both “virtual” and physically situated research components. “Ethnographic blogging” describes not only the act of writing on a website and hoping that someone will read it, but the process of regularly maintaining a blog, and the modes of interaction and observation that this process gradually enables. In my own study of self-identified ‘geeks’ and ‘nerds,’ ethnographic blogging involved traversing news sites, forums, and other blogs for relevant content, leading to opportunities for dialogue with other bloggers and readers; establishing a persona online as a researcher, which has encouraged subjects to invite me to public and private discussions about their culture and identities; and bringing together online subjects from multiple physical sites, among other opportunities. My own experience of integrating a blog into ethnographic research was largely experimental, though I offer these reflections to encourage researchers to consider what alternative means of qualitative analysis online may have to offer us. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-bee4189a88bd4871adb9977693c31925 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1836-0416 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2010-01-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cultural Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-bee4189a88bd4871adb9977693c319252025-02-10T13:26:38ZengSciendoCultural Science1836-04162010-01-0132114910.5334/csci.3838Ethnographic Blogging: Reflections on a Methodological ExperimentTocci Jason0Pine Manor College, Boston, USAThis paper describes how a weblog was utilized as a major component in a long-term, multi-site ethnography with both “virtual” and physically situated research components. “Ethnographic blogging” describes not only the act of writing on a website and hoping that someone will read it, but the process of regularly maintaining a blog, and the modes of interaction and observation that this process gradually enables. In my own study of self-identified ‘geeks’ and ‘nerds,’ ethnographic blogging involved traversing news sites, forums, and other blogs for relevant content, leading to opportunities for dialogue with other bloggers and readers; establishing a persona online as a researcher, which has encouraged subjects to invite me to public and private discussions about their culture and identities; and bringing together online subjects from multiple physical sites, among other opportunities. My own experience of integrating a blog into ethnographic research was largely experimental, though I offer these reflections to encourage researchers to consider what alternative means of qualitative analysis online may have to offer us.https://doi.org/10.5334/csci.38 |
| spellingShingle | Tocci Jason Ethnographic Blogging: Reflections on a Methodological Experiment Cultural Science |
| title | Ethnographic Blogging: Reflections on a Methodological Experiment |
| title_full | Ethnographic Blogging: Reflections on a Methodological Experiment |
| title_fullStr | Ethnographic Blogging: Reflections on a Methodological Experiment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ethnographic Blogging: Reflections on a Methodological Experiment |
| title_short | Ethnographic Blogging: Reflections on a Methodological Experiment |
| title_sort | ethnographic blogging reflections on a methodological experiment |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5334/csci.38 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT toccijason ethnographicbloggingreflectionsonamethodologicalexperiment |