Virtual Ethnography Design

Increasingly, our social interactions are being mediated (whether we like it or not) in virtual spaces. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people spent dozens of hours per week on social media sites, online video games, topic/activity oriented web-forums, and engaged in other activities mediated wholly or in part by the internet. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated prescriptions to socially distance and physically isolated, the amount of time people are spending online has increased staggeringly (source (Links to an external site.)).

For this assignment, you will design, complete, and report on a (mini) ethnography of a virtual space. The goal of this assignment is to prompt you to think about and reflect on how the internet (and other related technologies) affect our everyday social interactions.

Your assignment submission will consist of three components:

1. Your Study Design;
2. Your Field Notes; and
3. A report describing and discussing your findings.

Study Design (25% of assignment grade)

Due: September 27, 2020

The planning portion of your submission should address the following questions:

1. Will your theoretical/methodological approach be “top-down” (extended case) or “bottom-up” (grounded)?
   • This distinction will be addressed in lectures during weeks 3 and week 5.
2. Why have you chosen the approach you have?
   • If you’ve chosen a “top-down” approach, what existing theory will you be testing/extending with your ethnography?
   • If you’ve chosen a “bottom-up” approach, do you have a phenomenon you are interested in?
     • If so, how did you become interested in it?
     • If not, reflect on entering into a study with no particular question or interest? What are the “pros/cons” of doing so?
3. What is your field-site and how/why have you chosen it?
4. What do you know (or think you know) about the field-site already?
5. What is your plan for observing your field-site?
   • Have you chosen a particular schedule for observing your site? If so, how have you chosen this schedule? How might this schedule affect what you are observing?
6. What is your plan for making field notes?
   • Have you decided on any particular system for making field notes? If so, how might that system affect what you do or do not record? If you’ve decided not to pre-define a system for making field notes, explain how and why you made that decision.

There is a 750-word limit for this submission.