[Air-L] virtual ethnography

[Rhiannon Bury]

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