This has been a disjointed week of study, and reviewing my lifestream is less significant than reflecting upon my analysis of my studies in relation to personal circumstances. As I have been focussing upon the ethnographic study, I have not been posting many Tweets, tags or blogs. Due to critical work issues, I have also had to break off studies for a few days. Ones reflection on this week, I really have taken ownership of my lifestream. I value it as a journal, a digital, bread crumb trail of my learning. But now it looks as though it has a hole in it, simply because there are a few days missing between entries. I can’t decide just now whether this is significant, symbolic or just whimsical analysis.

For Week 5 Review, I commented on how uncertain I was about ethnography, but enthusiastic about studying a topic dear to my heart – Motherwell FC. I concluded there was nothing wrong with immersing myself in something completely partial and biased. Indeed, in analysing not only Steelmen Online – a fans’ online forum – I could use ethnography to offer an explanation of why its members actually interact online in the first place.

In terms of academic analysis, our class community provided a follow up article by Christine Hine that I found useful. This short paper summarised her stance on digital ethnography and provided me with some reassurance, my thoughts were along the right lines.

We can use ethnography to investigate the ways in which use of the Internet becomes socially meaningful.
Virtual ethnography is necessarily partial. Our accounts can be based on strategic relevance to particular research questions rather than faithful representations of objective realities.
Intensive engagement with mediated interaction adds an important reflexive dimension to ethnography.
This is ethnography of, in and through the virtual – we learn about the Internet by immersing ourselves in it and conducting our ethnography using it, as well as talking with people about it, watching them use it and seeing it manifest in other social settings.
http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/christine_hine.htm

These comments have helped me value the fact that as an active member of the Steelmen Online Forum, I am not merely an observer of the community. I share some, most or all of the motivators for participating in the forum already. Therefore if I focus upon one of my motivators – namely, how useful is the forum as a source of information? My ethnographic study will not only answer my question, but throw light on the the community’s capacity to manage objectivity and subjectivity.

Ethically, I have had contact with the site administrator, who has given the green light. His only comment was to maintain confidentiality. This I feel is relatively easy to do. With the exception of members who are friends in real life – and know one another’s avatar and identity – everyone is anonymous.

Tags: digital communities, ethnography, Hine

First and foremost, weekly review acknowledges interim feedback on lifestreaming and blogging for the course. To date, my reviews have described my learning for the week, and the impact upon my thoughts and practice. From this week, I shall review the contents of my lifestream and reflect more upon the academic analysis of digital culture.

With the start of Block 2, all studies have involved acquiring an understanding of ethnography, particularly within digital environments. My lifestream consists almost entirely of del.icio.us tags on the subject, and Twitter dialogue regards digital community subjects. From the moment I started my research, I became aware I was entering pioneer territory, with a lack of previous tracks. Ethnography maygo back to the Samoan analogues of Margared Mead, but analysing digital media appears like walking on virgin snow.

It is not as though there is a lack of sources to define digital-ethnography, but for this scholar at least, there appears a vague, non-methodical quality to such research. Let me illustrate by drawing upon extracts from my tags:

From the Greek: Ethnos “foreigner:” graphos “writing.” Ethnography, “writing about others.” Dictionary definition

and

“A dearly held assumption is that field notes are data and reflect what “really” happened.  We trust that quotation marks reveal words that have been truly spoken.  This is often an illusion… 
“In such situations, we become playwrights, reconstructing a scene for the insight of our readers, depicting ongoing events in our minds (Bartlett 1932): turning near-fictions into claims of fact.”  (Gary Alan Fine, “Ten Lies of Ethnography”, The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 22 (1993):  p.277)  both from http://www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/hyper/ht99/Ethnography.html

Theoretical Propositions of Media Ecology (from Lum 2006: 32-33)

1. “communication media are not neutral, transparent, or value-free conduits for carrying data or information … media’s intrinsic physical structure and symbolic form plays a defining role in shaping what and how information is to be encoded and transmitted and therefore how it is to be decoded.”

2. all media are “biased” From Nystrom we know the following biases:

• intellectual and emotional biases based on symoblic forms
• spatial, temporal, and sensory biases based on physical structure
• political biases based on accessibility of symbolic forms
• social biases based on different types of social situations created by physical form
• metaphysical biases due to the way they organize time and space
• content biases based on symbolic and physical forms
• all of this adds up to different epistemological biases

http://ksudigg.wetpaint.com/page/Guiding+Insights

To date, my understanding of research methodology has always accepted reality and the truth as being essential aims of a study. However, even before considering a study topic, I am having to reconsider my stance on the importance of truth. Ethnography offers me licence to describe my subject in my own way – be it through text or visual presentation. I should record my observations and interactions as I see them. The result should be unashamedly bias – in terms of how I see it.

This raises an important ethical issue then – in order for my account to reflect my subject as accurately as possible, I should be able to see and feel the community, as others do. My bias should be their bias too.

In its most characteristic form it involves the ethnographer participating,overtly or covertly in people’s daily lives for an extended period of time, watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions – in fact, collecting whatever data are available to throw light on the issues that are the focus of the research. Hine p41

Hine goes on to state the ethnographer is not merelya voyeur or observer, but to some extent a participant, sharing some of the concerns, emotions and commitments of the subjects. This has had an impact upon my choice of digital community subject. I had intended to identify an online academic group that would have offered some links to this course. However, I consider this issue of membership important.

This therefore draws me towards other aspects of my life. Football. I am a member of a community group. It is an emotional bond, and one that is heavily biased. As a member of an online discussion forum – Steelmen Online – I regularly share facts, views and memories with other sad individuals who follow Motherwell FC. In examining the criteria for the micro-study in Block 2, I actually feel attracted to analysing this community. My insight of its members is based solely upon the contributions each makes to the group. Topics, arguments, insight and language  vary. The only common denominator that joins its members is affiliation to Motherwell FC.

My wife understands my emotional bond to following my football team, but has often queried the amount of time I give over to reading and posting comments on the fans forum. So now I have an opportunity to find out.

At the time of writing, tutors and students are clarifying ethical issues around carrying out such studies. I have tried tocontribute to this task by finding some ethics papers and adding them to my lifestream. I hope I get the go ahead – because I’m clearly going to love studying my topic.

Tags: digital communities, ethnography, Hine