In this article we engage the nature and role of the Internet in ethnographic research and reflect on how ethnographic methodologies may be adapted when researching digital forms of communication. We further consider how recent shifts in both the production and dissemination of textual discourse in networked media environments complicates conventional approaches to digital ethnography. Drawing on examples from our field research, our principal objective is to apply a Foucauldian structural perspective to David Altheide’s ethnographic content analysis to better contextualize the study of digital communiqué in a cultural moment where discourses are increasingly surveilled, modified, censored and weaponized.
AtkinsonElizabethDePalmaRenee. 2008. “Dangerous Spaces: Constructing and Contesting Sexual Identities in an Online Discussion Forum.”Gender and Education20 (2): 183–94.
7.
BarrattMonica J.MaddoxAlexia. 2016. “Active Engagement with Stigmatized Communities through Digital Ethnography.”Qualitative Research16 (6): 701–19.
BergBruce L.2006. Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
10.
BermanRonHumphreyColmanMelumadShiriMeyerRobert J.2017. “When Form Trumps Substance: A Dynamic Analysis of Microblogging during the 2016 Presidential Primary Debates.”Columbia Business School Research Paper No. 17-13. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905484 (accessed December 4, 2018).
11.
BroniatowskiDavid A.JamisonAmelia M.QiSiHuaAlKulaibLulwahChenTaoBentonAdrianQuinnSandra C.DredzeMark. 2018. “Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate.”American Journal of Public Health108 (10): 1378–84.
12.
BuckelsErin E.TrapnellPaul D.PaulhusDelroy L.2014. “Trolls Just Want to Have Fun.”Personality and Individual Differences67:97–102.
13.
CaliandroAlessandro. 2018. “Digital Methods for Ethnography: Analytical Concepts for Researchers Exploring Social Media Environments.”Journal of Contemporary Ethnography47 (5): 551–78.
14.
ClarkeAdele E.2005. Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory after the Postmodern Turn. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
15.
CresseyPaul G.1932. The Taxi-dance Hall: A Sociological Study in Commercialized Recreation and City Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
16.
CunninghamScottDeAngeloGregoryTrippJohn. 2017. “Effect of Craigslist on Violence against Women.” Unpublished manuscript, Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University, Waco TX. http://scunning.com/craigslist70.pdf (accessed September 6, 2018).
17.
Del RossoJaredEsalaJennifer. 2015. “Constructionism and the Textuality of Social Problems.”Qualitative Sociology Review11 (2): 34–45.
18.
DenzinNorman K.1999. “Cybertalk and the Method of Instances.” In Doing Internet Research: Critical Issues and Methods for Examining the Net, edited by JonesSteven, 107–26. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
FoucaultMichel. 1972a. The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language. New York: Pantheon.
24.
FoucaultMichel. 1972b. “The Discourse on Language, Appendix.” In The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language, 215–38. New York: Pantheon.
25.
FoucaultMichel. 1978. The History of Sexuality, vol. 1. New York: Pantheon.
26.
FraserNancy. 1990. “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy.”Social Text25/26:56–80.
HerringSusan C.2001. “Computer-Mediated Discourse.” In The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, edited by SchiffrinDeborahTannenDeborahHamiltonHeidi E., 612–34. Oxford: Blackwell.
31.
HessKristyWallerLisa. 2014. “The Digital Pillory: Media Shaming of ‘Ordinary’ People for Minor Crimes.”Continuum28 (1): 101–11.
32.
HierSean. 2019. “Moral Panics and Digital Media Logic: Notes on a Changing Research Agenda.”Crime, Media, Culture. Published online June6. doi:10.1177/1741659018780183.
33.
HineChristine. 2015. Ethnography for the Internet: Embedded, Embodied, and Everyday. London: Bloomsbury.
34.
HoltThomas J.CopesHeith. 2010. “Transferring Subcultural Knowledge On-line: Practices and Beliefs of Persistent Digital Pirates.”Deviant Behavior31 (7): 625–54.
HugheyMatthew W.DanielsJesse. 2013. “Racist Comments at Online News Sites: A Methodological Dilemma for Discourse Analysis.”Media, Culture, and Society35 (3): 332–47.
37.
HumphreysLaud. 1970. Tearoom Trade: A Study of Homosexual Encounters in Public Places. London: Duckworth.
38.
HurleyAnna L.SullivanPaulMcCarthyJohn. 2007. “The Construction of Self in Online Support Groups for Victims of Domestic Violence.”British Journal of Social Psychology46 (4): 859–74.
39.
JacobsKatrien. 2004. “Pornography in Small Places and Other Spaces.”Cultural Studies18 (1): 67–83.
40.
JerolmackColin. 2018. “Panel Discussion: Interrogating Ethnography, Author Meets Critic.”Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy13 (3): 108–37.
41.
KavanaughPhilip R.BiggersZachariah. 2018. “Competing Constructions of Bath Salts Use and Risk of Harm in Two Mediated Contexts.”Crime, Media, Culture. Published online March22. doi:10.1177/1741659018763863.
42.
KavanaughPhilip R.MarateaR. J.2016: “Identity, Resistance and Moderation in an Online Community of Zoosexuals.”Sexualities19 (1/2): 3–24.
43.
KochNadine S.SchockmanH. Eric. 1998. “Democratizing Internet Access in the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Communities.” In Cyberghetto or Cybertopia? Race, Class, and Gender on the Internet, edited by BosahEbo, 171-84. Westport, CT: Praeger.
LinLiu yiSidaniJamieShensaArielRadovicAnaMillerElizabethColditzJason B.HoffmanBeth L.GilesLeila M.PrimackBrian A.2016. “Association between Social Media Use and Depression among U.S. Young Adults.”Depression and Anxiety33 (4): 323–31.
MarateaR. J.2011. “Screwing the Pooch: Legitimizing Accounts in a Zoophile Online Community.”Deviant Behavior32 (10): 913–43.
52.
McKennaKatelyn Y. A.BarghJohn A.1998. “Coming Out in the Age of the Internet: Identity ‘Demarginalization’ through Virtual Group Participation.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology75 (3): 681-94.
53.
McRobbieAngelaThorntonSarah. 1995. “Rethinking Moral Panic for Multi-mediated Social Worlds.”British Journal of Sociology46 (4): 559–74.
54.
MillerBryan L.StognerJohn M.AgnichLaura E.SandersAmberBacotJosephFelixShanna. 2015. “Marketing a Panic: Media Coverage of Novel Psychoactive Drugs (NPDs) and Its Relationship with Legal Changes.”American Journal of Criminal Justice40 (3): 523–41.
55.
MirzoeffNicholas. 2011. The Right to Look: A Counter-history of Visuality. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
56.
NewmahrStaciHannemStacey. 2018. “Surrogate Ethnography: Fieldwork, the Academy, and Resisting the IRB.”Journal of Contemporary Ethnography47 (1): 3–27.
57.
NietzscheFriedrich. [1886] 1966. Beyond Good and Evil. New York: Vintage Books.
58.
NietzscheFriedrich. [1887] 1967. On the Genealogy of Morals. New York: Vintage Books.
PostillJohnPinkSarah. 2012. “Social Media Ethnography: The Digital Researcher in a Messy Web.”Media International Australia145 (1): 123–34.
62.
PrimackBrian A.ShensaArielSidaniJamie E.WhaiteErin O.LinLiu yiRosenDanielColditzJason B.RadovicA.MillerE.2017. “Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation among Young Adults in the U.S.”American Journal of Preventive Medicine53 (1): 1–8.
63.
RohloffAmanda. 2011. “Shifting the Focus? Moral Panics as Civilizing and Decivilizing Processes.” In Moral Panic and the Politics of Anxiety, edited by HierSean P., 71–85. New York: Routledge.
64.
Rodman, GilbertB.2003. “The Net Effect: The Public’s Fear and the Public Sphere.” In Virtual Publics: Policy and Communication in an Electronic Age, edited by KolkoB. E., 11–48. New York: Columbia University Press.
65.
RoseNikolas. 1996. “Governing ‘Advanced’ Liberal Democracies.” In Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-liberalism and Rationalities of Government, edited by BarryAndrewOsborneThomasRoseNikolas, 37–64. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
66.
ScheptJudah. 2014. “(Un)seeing like a Prison: A Counter-visual Ethnography of the Carceral State.”Theoretical Criminology18 (2): 198–223.
67.
SchneiderBruce. 2015. Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World. New York: Norton.
68.
SchneiderChristopher J.TrottierDaniel. 2012. “The 2011 Vancouver Riot and the Role of Facebook in Crowdsourced Policing.”BC Studies175 (Autumn): 93–109.
69.
SchneiderChristopher J.2016. Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of New Media. Lanham, MD: Lexington.
70.
SchrumLynne. 1995. “Framing the Debate: Ethical Research in the Information Age.”Qualitative Inquiry1 (3): 311–26.
71.
SheridanAlan. 1980. Michel Foucault: The Will to Truth. London: Routledge.
72.
StaplesWilliam G.2000. Everyday Surveillance: Vigilance and Visibility in Postmodern Life. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
73.
StarbirdKate.2017. “Examining the Alternative Media Ecosystem through the Production of Alternative Narratives of Mass Shooting Events on Twitter.”Paper presented at Tenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2017), Montreal, Canada.
74.
SteinmetzKevin F.2012. “Message Received: Virtual Ethnography in Online Message Boards.”International Journal of Qualitative Methods11 (1): 26–39.
75.
StricklandDonald A.SchlesingerLester E.1969. “Lurking as a Research Method.”Human Organization28 (3): 248–50.
76.
ThompsonJohn B.2005. “The New Visibility.”Theory, Culture, and Society22 (6): 31–51.
