## <span class="censor">Digital Identities and Social Media // S03</span> <!--Pablo--> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/KH2FM61.png" width=60%> Pablo Velasco // Information Studies // [pablov.me](https://pablov.me) --- ### plan for the day 1. Qualitative research and Ethnography 2. Virtual ethnography 3. Digital ethnography 4. BB1 peer-review 5. BB2 planning --- Qualitative methods in Social research (Veltri 2020) 1. defy simple quantification 2. require comprehensiveness of the perspective provided by the researcher 3. generally need the researcher *presence* in *natural* settings 4. investigate social processes over time Crucial when we focus on: 1. the perspective of who we study 2. reflexive awareness of our own role (as researchers) 3. use of flexible (emergent) strategies 4. a setting of data collection and analysis in its context 5. methods that allow for emergent categories, instead of pure reliance on existing concepts and theories 6. development of hypothesis (not testing) ---- ||Qualitative|Quantitative| |---------|---------|-------------| |*Objective*|Understanding the life world and what lies behind surface responses| Measuring attitudes, opinions and behaviours| |*Selection of respondents*|Purposive, exhaustive of meanings (natural groups)| Statistical sampling frame| |*Research questions*|Evolve with data collection|Formulated before data collection| |*Nature of the interview*|Open-ended dialogue with probes|Closed questions| |*Data*|Text|Numbers| |*Analysis*|Interpretation|Statistics| |*Report*|Thick description|Percentages, etc.| <small>(Veltri 2020)</small> ---- ## Ethnography > an attitude or mindset that influences how researchers act in the practice of social inquiry (Markham 2018, 1133) - "in collaboration" with people (or objects) - not looking from above: but going through - things that are hidden (not obvious) to the subjects (which won't be revealed in an interview) - "in the making" - not finished methods: methods evolve, and we as researchers have to adapt them - Malinowsky (1926/2013): ties through cultural competence communication <!-- speak the language--> --- ## Virtual ethnography (web 1.0) - text as main form of communication - multi-sited ethnography (Marcus 1995) Hine (2009) - people producing websites - participants in online discussions Hine methods: - document analysis on websites or media coverage - discourse analysis - participation in online events - interviews ---- ### Cyberspace >Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather. >Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live. <small>(Barlow, A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, 1996)</small> ---- Persistence when the world is "offline"(Markham 2018) <iframe width="948" height="540" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DOv2sNUZgD8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <small>Second life trailer (2003)</small> <!--Here comes everybody ()--> --- ## Digital Ethnography (web 2.0, etc) - Mostly developed in Digital Anthropology, and Digital Sociology (but commongly used in HCI and STS) Digital as (Gomez Cruz): - a) object: can be researched without "digital" techniques - b) field: where we observe (classical approach in a digital field) - c) method: digital methods (in digital fields) Strands of digital ethnographies (Coleman 2010) - Digital media and cultural politics: representation - Digital Media Vernaculars >ethnographic lens to practices, subjects, modes of communication, and groups entirely dependent on digital technologies for their existence (Coleman 2010, 492) ---- Recursive publics (Kelty 2008) <img src="https://pablov.me/pres/media/coleman-hhws.jpg" width=20%> Coleman (2015) *weapons of the geek*: >What they all have in common is that their political tools (...) emerge from the concrete experience of their craft (Coleman 2015, 107) ---- - Ethnography ***for*** the internet (Hine 2015) - adaptative approach - "embedded, embodied, and everyday" (not as *cyberspace*) - Sociology of infrastructure: the internet becomes an infrastructure to do other things (Bowker and Star 1999) <!--heidegger's hammer, a failing wifi--> > [Ethnography as something that allows to] inhabit and capture the simultaneous centrality of *the digital* (Markham 2018) ---- - Internet as way of being (Markham 2018) - Ecological view: flows in a larger environment <!-- e.g. wolves in yellowstone--> >Has the Internet changed our lives? Has it, fundamentally, changed us? Has it levelled the playing field of social inequality, or have new forms of privilege emerged? Are we conforming more, or less, to social norms in the age of the Internet? Has the Internet strengthened, enriched, or challenged our sense of community? Has the Internet engendered new forms of identity or enabled us to better be ourselves? (Hine 2015, 2) ---- 5 principles for doing digital ethnography (Pink 2016) - **multiplicity**: multiple ways to engage (depending e.g. on places or infrastructure) - **not centered in "the digital"**: media as part of something wider (environment, activities, experiences, relationships) - **openness**: processual (open-ended, collaborative, not bounded, not a start-to-finish activity) - <span style="background:yellow">**reflexivity**</span>: considering and reflecting on their own knowledge production and ethics - <span style="background:yellow">**unorthodox**</span>: beyond, academia, disciplines, and standard written production http://energyanddigitalliving.com/ ---- ## Digital autoethnography >...for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you **Ethnographers' own experiences as a source of insight** Issues: - overindulgence in own insights (Coffey 1999; Sparkes 2002) - potential lack of evidence But also rich "thick" description (Geertz 1973) >present and persistent *data* should not beconfused with sensemaking or experience (Markham 2018) <!--Horst and Miller (2006) : non-verbal and phatic communication (small talk, where the act is more important than the content) *polymedia (madianou and miller 2013) : social, emotional, moral consequences of choosing media [Q - how do you choose media] --> --- ## BB1 Peer-review 1. Analyze the BB1 right after yours (the next post). If yours is the last one, analyze the first 2. Identify one thing you think is useful in your colleagues work, and one thing that is not clear. Note down your comments and questions 3. (feel free ask questions directly to your colleague) --- # [BB2](https://hackmd.io/@dism20/HJRToA34D) <!-- ## Blueprint Activity A little ecology of social media relationships Create a blueprint of how to map and visualise the self and its significant relationships **across social media**. The blueprint, when filled out should give an overview of the different social media sites person X uses for different purposes, and in order to interact with different people, while simultaneously allowing to showcase the complexity of overlapping relations. Identify the following entities or qualities: - people - medium used - type of messages - public/private sphere --> <style> .reveal{ font-family:mono; font-size: 25px; } .reveal .censor{ background:black; color:white; } </style>