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".