Ethnography is the discipline that studies different populations and builds models of their societies. It is crucial for understanding different cultures and nations, which otherwise seem alien and hard to comprehend. In addition, it helps to understand the different elements of one culture, which is especially useful in a multicultural society full of subcultures. Ethnography methods are mostly involved in information gathering because it is the most critical and challenging part of ethnography research.
There are different methods for information gathering, such as observation, interviewing, and archive studies. Field researches and observation are two commonly used ethnography methods (Nixon & Odoyo, 2020). Direct observation is a simple but time-consuming method, and the researcher’s personality can bias its results. To avoid this method’s weakness, the researcher should be impartial and flexible. The strengths of this method include its unobtrusiveness: researchers can study and note the behavior of representatives in their familiar medium (Sangasubana, 2014). Field researches are similar to observation but include direct contact with the representatives. Thus, it allows to gather more information; however, as it includes intrusions, its results may be hard to interpret and understand.
Interviewing is the other common method of information gathering: it always includes direct contact and gathering information via communications. There are three interviewing methods: focus group, structured and in-depth interviews.
- The focus group method includes encouraging people to participate in group interviews, gathering information from their responses, and observing their behavior in groups (Nixon & Odoyo, 2020). The limitation of this method is that it can be challenging to encourage participation.
- Structured interviews use a set of specific questions asked to the representative: it allows to obtain specific information, but it will be less detailed. The downside of this method is that it is very rigid and inflexible.
- In-depth interviews imply a detailed talk with the representative in an informal atmosphere: the information is much more detailed, but the method is much more costly, and its results cannot be generalized.
In that way, interviewing allows for gathering more information and is more detailed, but it is also more challenging; in addition, it can be intrusive.
Literature reviewing is important in ethnography research: it includes analyzing previous research articles, notes about the target population, and the literature written by the representatives of the target population. One of the methods is a narrative review, in which “the objective is to summarize or synthesize what has been written on a particular topic but does not seek generalization or cumulative knowledge from what is reviewed” (Nixon & Odoyo, 2020, p. 55). In that way, a narrative review is helpful if the ethnography researcher wants to know the present state of knowledge about the particular topic. However, by using it, researchers analyze information only superficially and without a deep understanding. It is important to remember that the information that results from this method’s usage can be used only to evaluate the present state of knowledge but cannot display all that knowledge.
In addition, researchers can use the existing literature to gather information. Archival research, which is “the analysis of existing materials stored for research, service or other purposes officially and unofficially,” is the method of ethnography information gathering, along with observations and interviews (Sangasubana, 2014, p. 568). It allows saving time and resources by learning the data which have already been gathered. However, this method’s weakness is that it does not include direct contact with the population; thus, its results can be biased or even irrelevant.
As one can conclude, information can be gathered in three general ways: via observations, interviews, or work with literature. Observations are direct watching of the target population’s life, without intrusions, or with minor ones, in the case of field research. Interviews are direct talks with the populations representatives: they allow gathering more information but require more resources and involve the researcher’s intervention in the population’s life. Literature and archives analysis saves time and resources, but one should remember to check whether this information is actual.
References
Nixon, A., & Odoyo, C. O. (2020). Ethnography, its strengths, weaknesses, and its application in information technology and communication as a research design. Computer Science and Information Technology, 8(2), 50–56.
Sangasubana, N. (2011). How to Conduct Ethnographic Research. The Qualitative Report, 16 (2), 567-573.