[Air-L] Blogs for social science research: Dilemmas

[Carmel L. Vaisman]

Hi Juan.



I dealt with some similar questions in my doctoral dissertation (ethnography 
within the Israeli blogosphere). When the same author had more than one blog 
or engaged in a playful interaction on another blog, connected on ICQ or met 
in bloggers meetings in real life, I often had to "travel" with that to make 
meaning of blogging practices. My core methodology was connective 
ethnography so I could basically do that, but you seem to require a clearer 
boundary to begin with. You should be fine with the methods you chose if 
your blogs engage mainly in written discourse. but you might need to check 
if there's a back channel, if these bloggers know each other or get to know 
each other/form a community that crosses to real life (especially when they 
arrive in Montreal) or other online platforms. in that case it will be hard 
to analyze the blogs as standalone and you might find yourself in a 
connective ethnography too. it depends how deep down the rabbit hole of your 
topic are you willing to follow your bloggers?....





Carmel Vaisman
http://www.absolutecarmel.com
Twitter @carmelva