Blogs as Elusive Ethnographic Texts: Methodological and Ethical Challenges in Qualitative Online Research
Abstract
Burgeoning online environments offer completely new opportunities for ethnographic and other forms of qualitative research. Yet there are no clear standards for how we study online texts from an ethnographic perspective. In this article, we identify barriers to the application of traditional qualitative methods online, using the example of a systematic thematic analysis of weight-loss blogs. These barriers include the influence of the technology structuring online content, the fluid nature of online texts such as blogs, and the highly connected and public nature of online identities, which may span multiple social media platforms. We discuss some potential approaches to addressing these challenges as preliminary steps toward developing a tool kit suited to ethical, high-quality online modes of ethnographic research.
What is already known?
Online texts are exponentially increasing in real time, providing new ways and spaces to conduct ethnographic research. The relatively small body of ethnographic literature focused on online spaces that have emerged to date has tended to employ highly specific and nonsystematic sampling techniques to identify and study sites and users of interest. Research into blogging, in particular, has focused on nonrandom, small-scale, longitudinal studies of bloggers across time and has not yet reached out to incorporate larger, comparative, cross-sectional analyses.
What this paper adds?
Online research is an area of increasing interest to qualitative social science researchers, but is still underexplored, especially given its importance in everyday life for billions of people. One possible reason for the underdevelopment of online research to date is an absence of clear methodological protocols upon which to rely when beginning research. Put more simply, ethnographic researchers, with a focus on in-depth knowledge of people and data, often feel overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of online resources and therefore choose to focus on very small online samples. In this article, we expand research into online qualitative methods by discussing methods for systematically sampling online blogs, with an emphasis on the technological barriers encountered during initial investigations and potential solutions to these barriers.
Methodological and Ethical Challenges in Blog-Based Text Analysis
The use of ethnographic techniques to explore online environments is a method of increasing interest to social science researchers, largely because of the increasing importance such spaces play in everyday life worldwide (e.g., Barratt & Maddox, 2016; Bonilla & Rosa, 2015; Bortree, 2005; Gehl, 2016; Graffigna & Bosio, 2006; Hookway, 2008; Horst & Miller, 2013; Huffaker & Calvert, 2005; Karlsson, 2007; Kaun, 2010; Lopez, 2009; McCullagh, 2008; Olive, 2013; Pink et al., 2016; Pitts, 2004; Postill & Pink, 2012; Qian & Scott, 2007; Sade-Beck, 2004; Steinmetz, 2012; Wilson, Kenny, & Dickson-Swift, 2015). Online environments are used to produce meaningful and complex interactions of all different kinds including providing places for people to connect with others for support and to share thoughts, ideas, and stories. In doing so, online environments provide new spaces in which people are able to perform diverse physical, emotional, and social identities (Boellstorff, 2012; de Laat, 2008; Dumova & Fiordo, 2012; Karlsson, 2007; Mautner, 2005; O’Brien & Clark, 2012; Pitts, 2004; Reed, 2005; Siles, 2011; Wilkinson & Thelwall, 2011). Virtual texts, like discussion boards or blogs, proliferate and would appear to be a rich source of material for qualitative analysis. The peculiarities associated with online interactions and presentations of self, however, mean traditional ethnography—with its reliance on in-person participant observation and interviewing—needs to be rethought. At the same time, however, we argue that ethnography, in particular its emphasis on exploring individuals’ discourse and actions within the context of their own chosen milieus via detailed observations and nuanced analysis, has huge potential to illuminate online interactions and identity making. Here we focus on ethnographic approaches to online data collection and analysis.
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