DIGITAL ETHNOGRAPHY – MIDTERM ASSIGNMENT

The topic is over the debate over whether college football should happen in the fall which happened in August/September or something else American sports-related.

The focus: Social medias role in shaping your current understanding of the issue (this issue can be the one youve selected for final project)

The method: collect digital ethnography data (guidelines: follow influencers, some non-profits or foundations, collect textual data from posts and comments, collect data written over 10-20 weeks); participant observation notes
Platforms: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, other social networking sites which you frequently visit and are host to communities engaged in your topic of choice.

Question: How is this issue discussed and debated on social media? Your data analysis must draw from a range of sources along with your participant observation notes.
Additional questions: Who are the influencers? What are the trends in the conversation? How has the trend in conversation shifted or evolved over time?

Points to consider: What are the most commonly used hashtags? What do these signify? How are these being used? How do they link to the focus of the conversation? Are trends being generated/ given the currency or immediacy of the topic? How are these presented/ played out/ utilized?

Conduct a content/textual, or rhetorical, or discourse analysis of the data collected. Conduct some form of textual analysis of the data + approach some of these folks that you follow and seek electronic or virtual interviews, prepare questions and collect responses; or conduct detailed survey if youre reaching unmarked audiences (all data must be attributed anonymously unless specific organizations are involved).

Your essay/ report must include an explanation of the issue and your justification for conducting the research using these specific parameters. This will be followed by a thorough analysis of the data, your description and discussion about the key players who they are and what role/ purpose do they serve, and their interactions with each other and within the community that has been constructed around the issue/ topic. Incorporate your participant observation notes here. Your conclusion should reflect on the lessons learned about the issue as covered on social media, as well as the challenges of doing this research and the limitations of what this data reveals. This analysis must incorporate a discussion of the topic in light of the translocal an intersection of the global and the local.

FORMAT: 10-15 pages including references (can be written in the form of an essay or report with visuals/graphics)