Ethnography in the virtual world: Methodological opportunities and challenges

Ethnography in the Virtual World:

Methodological Opportunities and Challenges

Gina Marie Longo, ABDUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison

Mapping out the discussion• The research• The methodological opportunities of Virtual Ethnography• The methodological challenges of Virtual Ethnography• Some proposed solutions to methodological challenges

The Research Project• examines how US citizens’ experiences with the spousal reunification

process affect their enacted citizenship and how they are informed by normative conceptions of family, gender, race, and class that treat some relationships as morally suspect.

• It also investigates how U.S. citizens negotiate deservingness and marital genuineness when facing the state’s moral evaluation, and how these negotiations vary across gender, race, class, and region.

The Research Project• Examines how US citizens’ experiences with the spousal reunification

process affect their enacted citizenship and how they are informed by normative conceptions of family, gender, race, and class that treat some relationships as morally suspect.

The Research Project• Examines how US citizens’ experiences with the spousal reunification

process affect their enacted citizenship and are informed by normative conceptions of family, gender, race, and class that treat some relationships as morally suspect.

Immigration Pathways

The Data Source• a large English-language self-

help forum• Created in the early 2000’s• Over 2.2 million conversation

threads• Multiple sub-forums• Over 100,000 members

Collection and Analysis• Ethnographic Immersion• Web scraping• Quantitative Content Analysis of

themes and members• Qualitative Analyses of

Conversation Threads

Methodological Opportunities1. Innovative Access

accessing hidden or scattered communities2. Conversation candidness

Participants openly discuss a variety of topics that vary across and within subject matterThere is less self-censoring and more frankness in utterancesRemoves the researcher’s influence on participants’ interactions

3. Spatial and temporal comparisonArchived conversations demonstrate how topics and perspective shift over timeThe sub-forum divide allows me to analyze how topics and perspectives shift across sub-groups

of people4. Endless research project opportunities

Seemingly endless possibilities for future projects This is particularly useful for carving a long-term research agenda

Seemingly endless possibilities for future projectsThis is particularly useful for carving a long-term research agenda

Methodological Challenges (and Suggestions)

1. Data management (collecting, cleaning, and analyzing)Suggestions: Python Computer language has many excellent packages for collecting, cleaning, and analyzing data. It also handles large amounts of data well.

2. Programming and sampling logistics Suggestions: For programming, I practice strategic learning using google, codeacademy, YouTube, etc. For sampling, I use a mix of qualitative and quantitative content analysis in conjunction with python’s sampling module

3. Copyright and permissions issuesSuggestions: First, know your site (and read the Privacy and Terms of Service statements very carefully). Next, know the law and exactly what you are asking for. Finally, learn the Fair Use Act and where to get a bit of inexpensive legal advice.

4. IRB issues and ethical considerationsSuggestions: Consider your site’s access, and what kind of interaction you plan on having with posters. The more open the site and less interaction with subjects you have, the more IRB will consider the data text rather than human subjects’ research. Pseudonyms for site and users are a personal consideration, if IRB finds you exempt.

Thank you

Ethnography in the virtual world: Methodological opportunities and challenges

Education

Transcript of Ethnography in the virtual world: Methodological opportunities and challenges