Reflection on Digital Ethnography: Principles and Practises by Pink et al. 

Digital Ethnography is a research method with no real set definition because this method has yet to be fully designed. It is the research method ethnography – observing a group of participants overtly or covertly for an extended period – transferred to the digital. As Pink et al explained, it’s ‘mediated contact with participants rather than direct contact.’ (2016: 3) This means that the contact is no longer at face value, rather it’s all observed through a screen. However, this does not affect the researcher’s options to participate overtly or covertly, nor does it bring up many different issues/benefits that traditional ethnography already does.

Pink et al outlines five key concepts in this introduction, one of which is multiplicity. The process of ethnography usually has a set research question but will be shaped by the participants and any other people involved. This can prove to make certain aspects difficult, and to avoid issues these circumstances have to addressed beforehand. The key about multiplicity is how there are multiple ways to engage with the digital. Different places will have different wi-fi points and internet speed/strength. These are examples of how ‘influences and their impacts make each project and the way it is formulated evolve in particular ways’ (2016: 8). This means that every ethnographic study conducted in digital space will be different because there are so many outside factors. This can make it difficult to conduct a broad study of digital media use but the more precise studies are the ones that provide the most useful understandings of our world.

Another key concept was how digital ethnography should have non-digital-centric-ness. While it is important to understand digital media as a concept of its own, it should not be the focus, because then researchers would be ignoring the greater impact the outside world has on it. You cannot understand how the digital media impacts someone’s life if you don’t beforehand explore their life outside of the digital.  The digital is a ‘part of something wider’ (2016: 11) and by decentralising it, it allows for the exploration of not only digital media but also its cultural and social impacts on everyday life.

Bibliography:

Pink, S, Horst, H. Postill, J., Hjorth, L., Lewis, T., Tacchi, J. (2016) Digital Ethnography. Principles and Practise. London: SAGE