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