Digital Ethnography

CHENYUE ZHANG

Now, ethnography is widely used in sociology, cultural studies, media and communication, which includes the study of communities or groups. Digital ethnography is a wide range of research positions and practices that interact with qualitative online data in a way that combines participation and observation. This also reminds me of the hot Nintendo Switch game recently —— Animal Crossing which is extending the notion of the digital and the virtual and actual are converging or blurring. The following content is about my reflection of the reading of digital ethnography.

According to Boellstorff (2012), the virtual and actual are converging or blurring as well as the gap between online and offline is culturally constitutive. That is to say, indexing is interactive in space and time, no longer limited to the real world, and can be performed online and offline. In the article, Boellstorff used My Early Second Life as example to elaborate that virtual life in cyberspace can be seen as a simulation of the real world. There are various online communities where people can establish relationships with people with the same interests or experiences, but they cannot be completely separated from real life. Besides, digital and virtual are not binary opposition (Boellstorff, 2016).

Finally, in the digital anthropology, the core methods are participant and observation, including the theoretical frameworks we employ, the socialites we study as well as how we engage in the research itself. The researchers of digital ethnography are always limited by their cultural background and use the past knowledge to study the current knowledge. However, there are also some advantages that they can evolve in some specific online communities and interact with specific groups better. Researchers need to consider how to tell the story. I think about emotional realism of the game Animal Crossing. Is this digital stealth manipulation or a dystopian fantasy? This game seems to be free and fearless, but it secretly reflects people the same anxiety and desire as in real life.

Reference:
Boellstorff, Tom. (2012). “Rethinking Digital Anthropology.” In Digital Anthropology, ed by. Heather A. Horst and Daniel Miller. 1st ed. 39-60. Bloomsbury Academic.
Boellstorff, T., Helmreich, S., Jones, G. M., Pedersen, M. A., Salmond, A., & Boellstorff, T. (2016). For whom the ontology turns: Theorizing the digital real. Current Anthropology, 57(4), 000-000.