Social-Media-Ethnography

Abstract

Social media platforms are an integral part of the everyday life of many people and, accordingly, they are increasingly becoming the subject of ethnographic research. On and with social media, how can one engage in ethnographic analysis? What ethical implications does digital fieldwork entail? This contribution outlines the basics of social media ethnography, suggesting concrete steps looking at various dimensions. In addition to questions of how ethnographic fieldsites in are constituted in digital spaces we will ask how participant observation and chat interviews can be made productive for ethnographic research on social media. Software-supported coding of collected data is also an integral part of social media ethnography. Furthermore, dealing with the (in)visibility of algorithms and the analysis of big ethnographic data will be adressed. Since ethnography is always adaptive, the article is not to be understood as a static guide. Instead, it aims to provide an overview and an orientation on which researchers can build there individual research designs.