Last post in regards to research

my first experience with blogging for this course....not bad at all. i appreciate all the comments left for me. being that this is our last day to post, i wanted to give an update on my research. Basically what i'm doing is just revising (adding/substracting ideas) and making sure the paper flows well.
i also looked back at my prospectus today and a few comments.....i'm happy to say that i followed through with how i said i was going to approach this project, i was able to contact the author, which at first i thought would of been really difficult but it was not and the interview went very well. For the sources that i mentionned in the prospectus i listed 5, in the end only 2 would be usefull plus one extra book that i stumbled upon that i did not list.

For Owen and others ....

Thank you for leaving a comment Owen, in regards to my oral presentation I think it went okay..... It was not my first oral presentation at concordia, however it was my first power point presentation. I'm still waiting for feedback from the prof and no classmates got the chance to say anything to me in class so ....classmates if you had any comments about my oral feel free to leave the comment (good or bad) on the blog.

To be very honnest i do not like doing oral presentations because i tend to have difficulty cutting down information

In regards to the interview questions I sent to the author Jennifer Ryan I don't think I did a great job at getting her answers across so i will direct everyone to a site where she posted my questions along with her answers. These are the same questions i went over during the oral presentation. Here is the site:

http://jennyryan.net/musings/2009/03/reflections-on-writing-a-digital-ethnography/

oral presentation

Actually when i review my oral presentation, i'm thinking alot of the information are topics we have already discussed in class so it might be a bit repetitive. Also the fact that i have no experience with social networking sites, everything i learnt from this research paper was fairly new insight into social networking sites....i hope i do not put people to sleep with my oral presentation because i know many in the class are part of or have been a part of online social networking sites...so hopefully it will be interesting and helpfull to you lady camelia and others

A successfull interview!!!

i'm so happy, upon checking my e-mail a couple minutes ago, Jennifer Ryan e-mailed me back. She responded to all of my questions with extremely lenghthy answers (i'm glad) and very well thought out i must say. i will definetly try and share them during the oral presentation. so far i have about 18 pages completed for the research paper and i'm still missing an introduction. i believe i will try and summarize her answers but maybe include the entire interview as an appendix.

Sources for describing an ethnography

One of the tasks for my paper is to look at scholarly sources and look at what their definition is of an ethnography and look at what they say about doing an ethnography.

The following are the sources that i got my information from...I used four books.

Basics of social research : qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Authors: W. Lawrence Neuman, Karen Robson


Ethnography : principles in practice
Authors: Martyn Hammersley and Paul Atkinson


Reflexive ethnography : a guide to researching selves and others
Author: Charlotte Aull Davies


Ethnography
Author:John D. Brewer



Here is a summary of what i found

WHAT IS AN ETHNOGRAPHY

• It's origins lie in the 19 th century (western anthropology)
• the relation between ethnology and ethnography
• anthropologist upgrading their approach
• characteristics of ethnography (choosing a setting, gathering data --participant observation, informants usually small scale, analysis of data should be put into wider contexts.

DOING AN ETHNOGRAPHY

• Research technique usually qualitative
• securing access
• ethics (informed consent etc)
• language barrier?
• input alot of time
• issue of trust (better validity/reliability)

***I'm going to take this info and compare it to Ryan's work.

Gathering informatinon from other courses

i thought i should glimpse at my notes from a class i took in my previous semesters here at concordia. the class was sociology of cyberspace and i had a really sweet down to earth prof. some of the stuff that is usefull for my paper on online social networking is the following

• the sublime--which is when your overwhelmed at what your witnessing. i can use this in my paper to describe my reactions to viewing profiles of users on MySpace
• aspects that demonize cyberspace, first; people no longer knowing how to ineract with one another face to face. secondly; how everything travels at such a fast speed and lastly how one looses control over one' image
• private places, in regards to children with all the technology, there places of comfort/privacy has now changed. For example, MySpace has come to be that place where kids feel like they can express themselves etc.
• surveillance and the power of technology. this fitts in well with one of my examples in my paper about how a debate coach nearly lost his job because a student created a profile on Facebook for the debate coach and then would send inappropriate things to other students. This students actions nearly made him loose his job.
• the demographic online is evolving.....anyone is welcome . Not only are teenagers into Facebook, their parents may have a profile as well

Putting the pieces together

I have been honnestly working on this research paper all day. I have finish a draft but it is in dying need of revision. My biggest problem is organising everything so that it flows well. These are some of my topics that will be covered....giving you a glimpse as to what to expect in the oral presentation. Just a reminder i am reviewing a book length ethnography about online social networking sites

• What the campfire means to Ryan
• Her argument in the thesis
• making judgments about others by observation
• Why Ryan is interested in studying social networks
• A brief history about Facebook, MySpace and Tribe
• private vs public
• online shrines
• identity online
• other studies on social networking sites reviewed by Ryan
• what is a "friend"
• stalking online
• addiction

Added interview question

I sent one more question to the author today,

1. What is your definition of an ethnography?

Being that i will briefly discuss what is an ethnography and what goes into doing an ethnography i thought it would be good to get her take on it.

Interview questions for the author

one of my tasks were to send questions to the author of my book length ethnography that i'm analysing. i sent the following 5 questions today to her. the prof suggested one of the questions do any of you have any comments or suggestions

1.Do you think there is an accepting view towards doing an ethnography online?

2.Based on your work what were the advantages and disadvantages to doing an ethnography online? Any major obstacles encountered?


3.In doing ethnographic work, learning a new language may be a problem. Did you encounter any problems with language? The glossary of words in your appendix were familiar to you beforehand?


4.The campfire metaphor do you consider it to be idyllic?

5. what do you think the futur holds for social networking sites?

Update on research

so far i have been skimming through books looking specifically for what is ethnography all about and doing ethnographies. so far i have found much info and will piece everything together in the next comming days. i finish reading 'the virtual campfire" but this time around i'm going to reread it and jot things down. The book that i'm currently taking notes on is "Relflexive Ethnography A guide to researching selves and others".

Readings for Feb.9.2009

A few comments on the readings....

I like the aspect of e-mail interviewing, it has its advantages and disadvantages like everything else does. I agreed with all the advantages put forth such as being comfortable, not expensive, access etc.

As for using the internet to check health related things, I would say that is somewhat reliable. I use this as a first step, however I do so because it's fast and easy. Also no one wants to run to the clinic or the hospital for every minor quetion about a symptom they may have. The internet is a first step but you should always follow up with going to the doctor eventually.

Research approach

the way I plan on doing this is to read and take notes along the way then format everything toghether in the end. The page numbers of referering to the Jennifer Ryan's thesis-The Virtual Campfire: An ethnography of Online Social Networking. Theese are some of my notes so far...



The author uses part of her title in the first sentence of her introduction. “Thousands of years ago, our early human ancestors gathered around campfires, creating communal hearths of warmth and light.” P.6


What is a campfire?......A place where you hang out and talk, laugh etc. with acquaintances, friends, family. She is using the idea of a campfire as a metaphor for the virtual world. Quite interesting because if I had to think of a word to explain what a community online is like the thought of campfire would of never crossed my mind.


She mentions the traditional role of storyteller, gatekeeper and matchmaker and how they have been transformed. A thought that crosses my mind is all the dating sites available. You no longer have to depend on friends to set you up with someone. You can create a profile and leave it into the hands of the online world to find you a great companion. P.7



“Rather each new medium builds on prior media…” P.7. when I read this part makes me think of last Christmas I asked my younger cousin what she wanted as a gift. She told me a WEBKINZ doll! I had not the slightest clue of what she was talking about……. Did my research and basically it’s an animal that you can virtually take care of. You buy the stuffed animal at the store and it comes with a code and you use that code to log into the website. Here is the website if any of this interest you http://www.webkinz.com/us_en/. …It is possible to take a reductionist point of view in explaining how most things in the virtual world evolved.



“While these communication technologies allow us to accumulate more information quicker and keep in touch with others at any time and from any place, they are typically seen as lacking the fundamental characteristics of immediacy and presence valorized in the formation of intimate social bonds; namely, eye contact, gesture, and body language.” P.7 I love this paragraph right here because it justifies one of the downfalls of online communities. Basically “real” vs “not real” discussion could emerge here. In my opinion this is one of the disadvantages and perhaps consequence of online. For example I will use the movie Avatara we watched in class. I still see a difference between “virtual reality” and the “real world”. Many of those in the film might not feel the same or feel the same to the extent that I do. Participants in the film as discussed in class make up for the lack of face to face interaction by using their actual voice etc. However to me, there is nothing that can substitute actually seeing and being able to touch that person, or be in front of someone when they speak. You can easily make eye contact with someone online but it is not the same feeling as making eye contact with someone standing right in front of you in the real world.





As I read further p.8-9 I can see that she goes on to discuss a bit the meaning of the use of the words “virtual campfire” that she uses in the title. In Ryan’s opinion involvement with these sites symbolizes a “virtual campfire”. She goes onto say, that the lack of “physical” is one of the obstacles.


P.9 One of the problems she mentions about online is that “it is possible to learn about others and make character judgements without ever interacting with them.” I find this both true whether online or offline


Ryan’s interest in online social networking stems from her own personal affiliation with the following sites; Myspace, Facebook and Tribe.net,. The last one is new to me however Myspace and Facebook I know of.


P.14 Ryan discusses how people start relationships online and end up meeting people face to face that they were interacting with online. For some reason I find that sketchy.



“you don’t exist if you’re not on Facebook” mentioned by Julia a sophomore p.15. It is so funny to read this line because it reminds me of the times when I run into people from high school and they say “oh my god I thought you moved away” or they say something along those lines because they can’t find me on Facebook or any other online community.



The comments made by one of Ryan’s respondents is very sad. P.20 “I look forward to checking Tribe at the end of my day, like calling friends and chatting about my day, when I used to do that. I don’t have friends like that anymore”. Me personally I still have long conversations on the phone with people about how my day went. Things like that just can’t be replace by the virtual world.



P.21 The story from the 47 year old female middle school teacher from Nevada displays a positive advantage to being a member of Tribe. She had no friends where she was residing …made new friends online and at one point they all met up together in person.



P.22 “The struggle to effectively or authentically communicate one’s “true” self is not particular to online social networking…”


P.26 What Ryan has discovered is that “…I have time and again encountered the pervasive belief that experiences with online social networking diminish the quality of interpersonal communication and fail to authentically portray one’s “true” identity. To support her thoughts she gives three reasons that I very much agree with. First; relying on a computer to get one’s point across can be difficult at times. When your face to face with someone they can see your body language, they can easily tell by the tone of your voice whether your serious etc. Ryan goes onto say that the chances of miscommunication are very likely. Secondly; for there to be a successful computer-mediated communication there is a specific language in the online environment. Third; our true identity somewhat gets lost. The idea of “onstage” and “backstage” …..it becomes hard to divide the two.



P.27 research on online social networking is something fairly new. According to Ryan, the first ethnographic research on social networking was done by Dana Boyd’s research which was done on Friendster p.29.



Ryan considers a superficial approach to ethnography would be to evaluate what people say about online social networks p.34. She states that “the “truth” of ethnography lies in the interpretation of lived experiences, and is always partial.” P.35- Ryan, goes onto claim that this ethnography can be called to some extent an “autoethnography” because she aims at understanding her own experiences as well.



The goal of Ryan’s ethnography “ My goal in this ethnography is to juxtapose a variety of representation- scholarly, historical, technological, autobiographical, institutional, and popular- with the subjective accounts of those who engage with online social networking sites as regular facets of everyday life.” P.38


Before Ryan took on her research, she was an active participant in the sites she chose to study. ….which perhaps can be a good thing and bad thing. May be oblivious to some things p.38.

Under the weather/research

Is it just me or this whole blog thing is not so (can't find my words)! It makes me dizzy. I thought keeping up with blogs would of been a little easier. I'll have to comment on this in the comming weeks to see if i feel the same. All of this is a new experience for me. Don't get me wrong.....I like to try new things however it's just not what i expected.

Does anyone understand why you have to go through a verification word "if this is even what it is called" before you post a comment onto someones blog?

Onto the business....I am one of the few who will be doing my research on a book-lenght ethnography. The title is 'The Virtual Campfire: An Ethnography of Online Social Networking' by Jennifer Anne Ryan. No particular reason why I chose her over the other options. Although I sensed more of an ambuiguity with this title than the other one's and it stuck out the most so this one "won"! Any of the options would of been a learning experience for me. I wish I could give a better reason than that but this one is the truth -plain and simple.

this is a test