Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Ethnographic Research
Introduction
In this chapter, you will learn how to do ethnographic studies of communication beginning with research
claims of description, interpretation, evaluation, and reform. You will learn to identify and select ethno-
graphic data sources using participant observations, interviews, and archival texts/artifacts. You also will
learn how to conduct participant observations and interviews with key informants, record and organize
your field notes, and analyze your data. In the last section of this chapter, you will learn to apply the war-
rants of the interpretive paradigm to your ethnographic research project, including the values of subjectivity
and rich description, and the standards for demonstrating your credibility as a researcher, the plausibility of
your interpretations, and the transferability of your findings.
Outline
Ethnographic Claims Strategies for Data Analysis
Descriptive Claims Transcribing Interviews
Interpretive Claims Coding and Reducing Field Notes
Evaluative and Reformist Claims Applying Descriptive Frameworks
Writing Case Studies
Ethnographic Data Some Ethical Issues .
Sources for Data Collection
Participant Observation Ethnographic Warrants
Interviews With Key Informants Valuing Subjectivity and Rich
Archival Documents Description
Artifacts Researcher Credibility
Strategies for Data Collection Degree of Membership
Gaining Access to the Setting Faithfulness
Selecting Key Informants Plausible Interpretations
Taking Field Notes Adequacy and Coherence of Evidence
Exiting the Field Negative Case Analysis
OUTLINE \ 233
Ethnography does not have one universal definition, Grounded theory is a methodology used to develop
perhaps because there are several different forms of eth- theories by systematically gathering and analyzing field
nographic research (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003; Duranti, a
data. Rather than imagining how communicative pro-
1997; Stewart, 1998). Tn general, ethnography is a method cess might work in practice, grounded theory "evolves
for grasping "the native's point of view" (Malinowski, during actual research, and it does this through con-
1922, p. 25), and "it is the trademark of cultural anthro- tinuous interplay between analysis and data collection"
pology" (Schwartzman, 1993). Communication scholars (Strauss & Corbin, 1998, p. 158). For example, Stamp
tend to differentiate ethnography in its anthropological (1999) examined 288 interpersonal communication
sense from four different forms of ethnographic research research studies published in Human Communication
including autoethnography, ethnography of speaking, Research between 1974 and 1999 and used constant
ethnography of communication, and performance eth- comparison to place those articles into a 17-part cate-
nography. These ethnographic forms can be grouped gory system (e.g., cognition, nonverbal communication,
with conversation and discourse analysis under the compliance gaining, etc.). By examining the categories in
umbrella term language and social interaction research. relationship to one another, Stamp developed a theoretic
One good place for you to start sorting out differ- model of interpersonal communication. Thus, grounded
ent ethnographic forms is to distinguish between mac- theory begins with observed evidence, whereas other
roethnography and microethnography (Spradley, 1980). kinds of theories begin with researchers' ideas about how
Macroethnography involves years of field research, communication happens, ideas tested in subsequent data
sometimes by numerous ethnographers, whereas micro- collection and analysis or in logical argument and reason-
ethnography refers to studies of much shorter duration, ing. Stamp's (1999) study shows us that grounded theory
usually focused on a single social situation and conducted can be used in ways that are quite distinct from the goals
by one researcher. Spradley (l980) argued that a micro- of ethnography (i.e., grasping the natives' point of view);
ethnographic project is "no less sophisticated, but only yet ethnographic research shares with grounded theory
more limited in scope" (p. 47) than a macroethnography. a preference for starting with data: "The analysis must
The general goals are the same, to "discover the cultural be made on the ground. We must know what patterns
knowledge people are using to organize their behavior and are available in what contexts, and how, where, and when
interpret their experience" (Spradley, 1980, p. 31). Since it they come into play" (Hyriles, 1962, p. 20).
is a short step from interpreting behavior and experiences In the same way, naturalistic inquiry complements,
to evaluating them, or thinking
\
about how they might be but is different from, ethnographic research. Naturalistic
reformed, ethnographiC- research bridges the interpreta- inquiry is "the study of how people behave when they are
tive and critical paradigms for communication research. absorbed in genuine life experiences in natural settings"
Autoethnography, ethnography of speaking, ethnog- (Frey, Botan, et al., 2000, p. 427). Both grounded theory
raphy of communication, and performance ethnography and naturalistic inquiry are inductive methods that are
are related to both grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, more local than general. Naturalistic inquiry may be used
1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1998) and naturalistic inquiry to test communication theory, but it is not necessarily
(Frey, 1994b; Frey, Botan, et al., 2000; Y. S. Lincoln & meant for developing theory, as is grounded theory meth-
Guba, 1985). So let's look more closely at those two broad odology (e.g., Browning & Beyer, 1998). Ethnographic
terms for field research and consider how they relate to researchers sometimes make use of grounded theory and
ethnographic research. naturalistic inquiry, and they usually view those methods
~ CHAPTER 13 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
as complementary rather than competitive (Strauss & tion process, is particular to a culture and/or group
Corbin, 1998). (Phillipsen, 1989). There is a "community-specific system
Let's turn now to the four forms of ethnographic of resources for making shared sense and for organizing
research we mentioned earlier. We'll start by defining coordinated action" (Philipsen, 1989, p. 260). As you can
ethnography of speaking because that was the first eth- see from this description, the main difference between
nographic form to be used extensively by communication EOS and EOC is that EOC does not make specific use of
scholars. You will see that each of these four ethnographic Hymes' (1962) SPEAKING framework.
forms build on or extend the forms that emerged before In the past decade, there has been a growing use of
it in our field. auto ethnography, the interpretive or critical analysis of a
Ethnography of speaking (EOS) is a specific method social setting or situation that connects "the personal to
for describing and explaining culturally distinct commu- the cultural" (c. Ellis & Bochner, 2003). Like EOS and
nication patterns and practices using the sociolinguist EOC, auto ethnography relies on systematic gathering
Dell Hymes's (1962) SPEAKING acronym as a theoretic and analysis of field data from people involved in genu-
framework. (The SPEAKING framework is depicted ine life experiences, whether at the rnicroethnographic or
in Exhibit 13.1, later in this chapter.) You'll learn more macroethnographic level. But autoethnography extends
about the SPEAKING framework in the claims sections the interpretive paradigm values of subjectivity and rich
of this chapter. In practice, EOS studies are often associ- description to include one person's multiple realities, and
ated with Philipsen (1975, 1976, 1989, 1992) and his col- it extends the ethnographer's focus on degree of member-
leagues from the University of Washington. ship to describing and interpreting one's own sense mak-
Ethnographers of communication (EOC) focus on ing in a cultural situation or setting. In autoethnographic
speech communities and assume that "the effective com- research, the key informant is the researcher himself or
municative resources for creating shared meaning and herself (e.g., Crawford, 1996; K. Miller, 2002; A. F. Wood &
coordinating action vary across social groups" (Philipsen, Fassett, 2003). Autoethnographic writing also differs from
1989, p. 258). Ethnographers do not assume that there the interpretive research reports you typically see for EOS
is one most effective way to communicate in any social and EOC studies: "Usually written in first-person voice,
group. Rather, because there are multiple plausible reali- autoethnographic texts appear in a variety of forms-short
ties, "there are moments of communicative effectiveness" stories, poetry, fiction, novels, photographic essays, per-
in which participants "act as if they express a common sonal essays, journals, fragmented and layered writing,
sense" (Philipsen, 1989, p. 258). For the interpretive and social science prose" (c. Ellis & Bochner, 2003, p. 209).
researcher, these moments of acting as if meaning is truly Autoethnography can be used in ways that fit the assump-
shared suggest ways that participants are able to coor- tions of the interpretive and/or critical paradigms.
dinate their actions and share some of the meanings in Performance ethnography, sometimes called perfor-
their everyday lives. mance (auto)ethnography (Denzin, 2003), builds on the
Furthermore, since interpretive researchers bdieve three previous forms as a way of studying culture and
that truth is subjective, they take participants' coordinated communication by systematically gathering and analyz-
actions as evidence of their common sense of a situation. As ing field data. But, "performance ethnography enters a
we pointed out in the previous chapter, on conversation and gendered culture in which nearly invisible boundaries
discourse analysis, language and social interaction research- separate everyday theatrical performances from formal
ers view social life as a communicative accomplishment: theater, dance, music, MTv; video, and film" (Denzin,
2003, p. x). In paradigmatic terms, performance ethnog-
Participants "... coordinate their lines of action in such raphy is explicitly critical because it goes beyond describ-
a way that potentially divergent actions fit together into ing and interpreting participants' cultural meanings and
what the interlocutors perceive to be a harmonious pat-
uses public performances (and performative writing) to
tern. There is order, at least what the participants sense
evaluate those meanings and to "make sites of oppres-
to be order, in social life. This order consists of the fit-
ting together of potentially divergent lines of action" sion visible" (Denzin, 2003, p. 14).As you read the rest of
(Philipsen, 1989, p. 259). this chapter, we give you examples from published EOS,
EOC, autoethnographic, and performance ethnography
But the coordination of lines of action, the creation studies, starting with the claims you can examine using
of these harmonious patterns in the collective percep- ethnographic research.
ETHNOGRAPHIC CLAIMS \ 235
Ethnographic Claims writing the questions on note cards and sorting them in
different ways to see, for example, how a structured set
As a novice ethnographer, you should first select a of interview questions might emerge. If you have more
research topic you sincerely care about. After all, you will than four or five questions, try grouping them into major
be immersed in collecting and analyzing ethnographic questions and subquestions. "Drafting and itetating a set
data for an extended period of time. Start where you of six or seven general research questions should take
are now; survey your personal situation, both in terms at least 2 or 3 hours" (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 25).
of your current involvements and activities, and those Your. questions are likely to improve if you do this work
situations to which you are related because of your per- in more than one sitting.
sonal history (Lofland & Lofland, 1995; Morse, 1998).As Ethnographic'research can be used to support claims
a student, perhaps working full- or part-time to pay your of description, interpretation, evaluation, and reform. In
way through college, perhaps you are a waitperson in the the sections following, you will learn how to develop each
food service industry, or a sales representative, or a cus- type of claim whether you are conducting EOS, EOC,
tomer service representative in a retail environment. autoethnography, or performance ethnography.
Ethnographers often "'make problematic' that which
is problematic in our lives" (Lofland & Lofland, 1995, Descriptive Claims
p. 13). What situation in your life most stands out as
In doing ethnography, you will very likely claim to describe
you consider moments of communicative effective-
the norms and practices used by people in a particular
ness (Philipsen, 1989), or ineffectiveness, or cultural
group or culture (Philipsen, 1989). Since you already
knowledge used to organize experiences and coordi-
know something about social practices and norms from
nate actions?
the last chapter, "Conversation and Discourse Analysis:'
Because interpretive ethnographers value subjectiv-
let's briefly define the terms group and culture. A group
ity and aim to privilege participant views, you probably
is a set of "3-12 people who interact regularly over a
will use an inductive approach to framing your research
period of time and conceive of themselves as a social
questions. You might start by specifying a social setting
entity" (Lofland & Lofland, 1995, p. 107). By contrast,
or situation and then collect some initial data without
a culture is defined as a system of shared meanings, or
articulating specific research questions. You need to know
webs of significance, held in common by group members
something about the nature and quality of the relation-
(Geertz, 1973).
ships in a social context to know what questions can be
EOS describes the ways that members of a culture
effectively pursued there (Katrie(1995). For instance, is
name their speech events, the components of those speech
it acceptable for outsiders to observe and ask questions
events (e.g., senders, receivers, message forms, channels,
in that setting? Of course, if you are doing autoethno-
etc.), and the functions of speech events (i.e., what is
graphic research, you will already know a great deal about
being accomplished by that speech event?). To conduct
the nature and quality of relationships in the setting or
EOS, you will use the SPEAKING framework developed
situation you intend to study.
by sociolinguist Dell Hymes (1962). Exhibit l3.1lists the
Once you have selected a topic area, and perhaps
elements of the SPEAKING framework.
collected some initial participant observations, texts,
The elements of the SPEAKING framework are used
or informal interviews, you can start thinking more
to describe
specifically about your research questions. Start writ-
ing down some general research questions as early what a child internalizes about speaking, beyond rules of
as possible in your ethnographic research project. As grammar and a dictionary, while becoming a full-fledged
you write your questions down and review them, you member of its speech community. Or, it is a question of
will be making your theoretical and methodological what a foreigner must learn about a group's verbal behav-
ior in order to participate appropriately and effectively in
assumptions more clear, which will help you figure out
its activities. (Hymes, 1962, p. 16)
the choices you should be making in your data collec-
tion and analysis. Exhibit l3.2 contains two sample claims from published
Once you have a list of potential research questions EOS studies.
about the situation or setting you intend to examine, and Philipsen (1989) also suggested two kinds of descrip-
after you have conducted an initial literature review, try tive claims that you might pursue by conducting EOS or
i
::!J CHAPTER 13 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
EXHIBIT 13.1 Hymes' (1962) SPEAKING Framework wan t to describe the nature and scope of cultural variation
in some communicative conduct. Exhibit 13.2 contains
Scene and setting (from the perspective of members) examples of each of these types of descriptive claim.
Participants (age, role, gender, ethnicity, etc.) A speech community is a group of people who share
Ends (goals of the participants and actual outcomes rules for using and interpreting speech (Romaine, 1982).
of the event) Some of the speech communities that have been repre-
Act sequence (structure and topic of the messages) sented in published EOS and EOC research include street
Key (tone or manner of the communication) youth (Dollar & Zimmers, 1998), a charismatic church
Instrumentalities (channels of communication, jargon, (Sequeira, 1993), a regional symphony (Ruud, 1995), orga-
dialects, etc.) nizational groups in a television station (Carbaugh, 1988),
Norms of interaction (how to do communication) and a group of Vietnam veterans (Braithwaite, 1997c).
and interpretation (how to make sense of messages) Each of these studies has described the culturally distinct
Genre (categories like poetry, myth, jokes, etc.) knowledge used by members of a social group to orga-
nize and interpret speaking. Within a particular speech
community, the communication code is a set of rules
EOe. First, you may want to describe distinctive commu- for speaking and interpreting others' speech (Carbaugh,
nication resources-the knowledge shared by members 1993; Dollar, 1999; Philipsen, 1992, 1997). Of course, you
of a culture or group and used to interpret and organize also could use auto ethnography to describe the commu-
action (e.g., communication rules). Second, you might nication code used in your own speech community.
Ethnography of Speaking:
What are the scenes, participants, ends, act sequences, key, instrumentalities, norms, and genres for speaking in a given cultural context?
1. "Does Teamsterville's view of the situated appropriateness of speaking implicate something about the meaning and
significance of speaking to its people?" (Philipsen, 1976, "Places for Speaking in Teamsterville;' p. 15).
2. "'Communication' is examined as a cultural term whose meaning is problematic in selected instances of American speech about
interpersonal life.... In the discourse examined here, 'communication' refers to close, supportive, flexible speech, which functions
as the 'work' necessary to self-definition and interpersonal bonding" (Katriel & Philipsen, 1981, p. 301). Katriel and Philipsen
(1981) outline the topic, purpose, participants, act sequence, setting, and norms of interaction on pp. 311-313.
How does the use of communication resources or knowledge vary within a culture or group?
1. "The present analYSis first explores variations in the identity experiences of Oklahoma Indians.... Additional analyses test the
linkages between ... participation in communicative relationships outside one's own ethnic community ... participation in
communication relationships with other Indians ... [and) development of intercultural identity" (Y. Y. Kim et aI., 1998, p. 259)
2. "Instances of morphophonemic variation ... may express a number of various meanings that express, reflect, and reproduce
speakers'life experiences. The analysis also enables us to develop a set of theoretical statements that explain the motivations
of workers' selections of a low prestige variant and why workers' reliance on a low prestige variant persists" (Huspek, 1986,
p. 149, on ing/in' variation in North American workers' speech).
ETHNOGRAPHIC CLAIMS
Autoethnography:
"The experience of teaching in the days following the Texas A&M University'bonfire' collapse in November of 1999 is examined
.,. by considering the intense experience of emotions and the struggle to balance the needs of students with the need to cover
course material" (K. Miller, 2002, p. 571).
Performance Ethnography:
1. "This interpretive ethnography describes the barbershop in a Black community as a cultural site" and "a centralized occasion
within a cultural community that ... meets at the intersection of culture and performance" (Alexander, 2003, p. 105).
2. "I decided Menopause and Desire would be ccmposed of interconnected prose poems and scenes dealing with such topics as
sexuality in middle age, how to admire the postmastectomy body, and whether or not it is possible to learn anything about
love, even if you live to be a hundred" (Jenkins, 2005, p. 254).
~ CHAPTER 13 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
intercultural communication research. Exhibit 13.3 con- calling for a rebalancing of power" (Dollar & Merrigan,
tains two sample claims from EOC studies of codeswitch- 2002, p. 62).
ing. Of course, if you want to make an interpretative Perhaps the earliest and most well known pro-
claim about codeswitching, you'll first want to describe ponent of critical ethnography in communication is
the communication code(s) in terms of the verbal strate- Dwight Conquergood (1983, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995).
gies or other communicative resources that members use Conquergood's participatory research with a Chicago
to organize their actions (e.g., Schely-Newman, 1997). Latino gang included actions aimed at helping gang
You also may want to interpret the functions served by members stay out of jail, learn to read and write, and gain
the code(s) in a particular social setting or situation. To a more empathic voice in the media (Conquergood &
conduct a study of codeswitching, you'll need to be flu- Seigel, 1990). Conquergood's (1992, 1994) attempts
ent in the codes you want to study; we talk more about to understand this cultural group moved well beyond
your degree of membership as a researcher in the war- description and interpretation for its own (or for the-
rants section of this chapter. If you are one of the key ory's) sake. An equally important goal of that research
informants for your ethnographic study, then your work was the attempt to redress power imbalances experi-
will be autoethnographic. enced by members of the cultures (Conquergood &
To study the communal functions of communica- Seigel, 1990).
tion, or to study codeswitching in cross-cultural settings, As you read critical ethnographic studies and con-
you may stake claims of evaluation and reform as well duct those studies yourself, you may notice a blurry line
as description and interpretation. Interpretive ethno- . between making claims with ethnography and writing
graphic research stops short of evaluating participants' about or performing a culture. Goodall (2000) argued
cultural communication, but critical ethnography is used that critical ethnographers approach writing as inquiry.
to support claims of evaluation and reform. Let's con- In critiquing power relations within a culture, or between
sider those claims next. cultural groups, writing is not merely something you
do after the research is conducted. Instead, writing is
the manner of interrogating and exposing power rela-
Evaluative and Reformist Claims tions within the social situation. It may even be a way
Claims of evaluation are advanced when you judge the of interrogating your own beliefs and participation in
worth or value of the communicative practices or mes- an oppressive social system, if you use autoethnographic
sages that you are studying. As we pointed out in the first writing or if you participate in collaborative writing
part of this book, evaluative claims are quickly put to (Trujillo, 1999). Exhibit 13.4 contains several examples
use in support of changing communication practices in of evaluation and reform claims from published ethno-
particular groups or cultural contexts. Perhaps you, the graphic research.
researcher, will decide what changes are needed, or you Furthermore, ethnographers use participant obser-
may give the results of your analysis to another person vations, interviews, and textual analyses to create pub-
or group who will then decide what changes to attempt lic performances that evaluate cultural communication
(Dorazio & Stovall, 1997). Either way, it is a short step and suggest how it might be changed (e.g., Jenkins, 1999,
from evaluating communication practices to reforming 2000). As such, performance ethnographers are always
them. consuming and producing texts, and since both con-
Around 1990, critical ethnographies (whether sumption and production are power-laden, both activi-
EOC, auto ethnography, or performance ethnography) ties require reflexivity (Bowman & Kirstenberg, 1992).
began to emerge that focused on showing how norms Exhibit 13.4 contains one such sample claim (Rusted,
of communication and power usage privileged some 2006). Jenkins' (2000) play,A Credit to Her Country, pro~
group members and oppressed others (e.g., Ang, 1990; vides another example: The play is about gays and lesbi-
Conquergood, 1992, 1994; Crawford, 1996; Gordon, ans who served in the U.S. military, and it was based on
2002; Trujillo, 1993; Witmer, 1997). Critical ethnog- Jenkins' ethnographic oral history interviews with men
raphers go beyond describing and evaluating cultural and women who were discharged from military service
variations in speech codes. They also "attempt to take because of their sexual orientation. The use of ethno-
action against the social inequalities exposed in their graphic data in performance studies has expanded sig-
research, action aimed at challenging the status quo and nificantly in the past decade.
ETHNOGRAPHIC DATA
Autoethnography:
1. "Inferential sexism and racism are endemic to U.s. higher education and classrooms and are as dangerous as overt forms of
sexism and racism because they are harder to identify, and more naturalized and acceptable" (Patton, 2004, p. 60).
2. Autoethnography can extend previous studies that frame "CMC or computer-aided instruction (CAl) as Iiberatory without
accounting for the cultural and political realities of the classroom" (A. F. Wood & Fassett, 2003, p. 287). Second, "technology is
not simply present in the school. Rather, it schools us" (A. F. Wood & Fassett, 2003, p. 287).
(
3. Autoethnographic research "highlights the need among practitioners to correct ourselves, as much or more than the need for
us to correct them (offenders)" (Williams, 2006, p. 23).
Performance Ethnography:
1. "Artwork themed on the activities of the North American cowboy and the North American west has a marginal status
in contempora ry art worlds despite its iconic place in popular culture. The expression of such a social distinction is embodied
in the performative practices of institutions that collect, legitimate, or exhibit such work" (Rusted, 2006, p. 115).
2. Public performances of interview data from uninsured or underinsured California workers can"engage readers, the public,
and policymakers to address difficult issues associated with the lack of health insurance" (Saunders, 2008, p. 528).
Now let's turn our attention to the different sources analyze communication norms and rules of interaction,
and strategies for ethnographic data collection and and writing case studies. All of these ideas will build on
analysis. the concepts you learned in chapter 5, What Counts as
Communication Data?"
Ethnographic Data
In this section, you will learn more about the major Sources for Data Collection
sources for ethnographic data collection, including Two of the defining characteristics of ethnographic
participant observations, interviews, and analysis of research are that the investigator goes into the field,
archival documents and cultural artifacts. We help you instead of bringing the field to the investigator"
consider the procedures you can use to collect these (Schwartzman, 1993, p. 3) and that data are represented
data, from gaining access to selecting key informants, from the view of the participants (Stablein, 1996).
taking field notes, and exiting the field. Finally, you'll Participant observation is the process of watching and
learn more about the basic strategies for analyzing eth- learning about the setting and participants while you
nographic research data: transcribing interviews, coding are participating in the daily realities you are studying
and reducing data, applying descriptive frameworks to (Lofland & Lofland, 1995; Spradley, 1980). Intenliews
240 I CHAPTER 13 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
with key informants are interactions between you, the study, Trujillo (1992) "attended a total of 67 home games"
researcher, and informed, articulate members of the cul- (p. 353) where he participated as a fan, invited observer,
ture or group you want to understand. If any of the key and ballpark wanderer, observing and conducting brief
informants are the researchers, then the work is at least interviews in many locales. During these interviews and
partially autoethnographic. Archival documents are observations, he took extensive field notes to reconstruct
written or symbolic records of cultural communication the communicative actions of workers. We discuss pro-
such as letters, newspapers, Web sites, instant messages, cedures for taking field notes in more detail later in this
billboards, or memos. Artifacts are objects used by group chapter.
or cultural members such as clothing, jewelry, buildings, Whatever your degree of participation during obser-
tools, or toys. vations, it is important that you develop and maintain
In doing ethnography, you will typically triangulate trusting relationships with the group members you study.
two or more data sources either simultaneously or in Your access to participants' knowledge is relative to the
iterative sequences. For example, you may follow a period kinds of relationships you establish with group members
of document analysis and participant observations with and, in particular, with which group members you estab-
some interviews and then do some more observations. lish relationships. The roles that these members play in
Your ethnographic data collection will likely proceed their local network and their goals in relating to you also
from making broad descriptive observations to making influence your degree of participation and the observa-
increasingly more selective and focused observations tions you are able to collect. As a case in point, Schely-
(Spradley, 1980). In this section, we outline how you can Newman (1997) observed instances of codeswitching as
proceed to collect each of these four sources of ethno- she interviewed members of her family and friends who
graphic data. all lived in an Israeli moshav or cooperative community:
Members of the older generation speak Arabic, French, and
Participant Observation
Hebrew with varying degrees of fluency, and codeswitch-
Your level of participation in an ethnographic setting can ing is an unmarked choice within the community.
range from nonparticipant (i.e., observer only) to com- Nevertheless, because each language has different conno-
plete participation, depending on your research question tations and prestige, the choice of a dominant language
and the access you have to that setting, which we discuss may result from the immediate context (participants), the
later in this chapter. For example, Braithwaite's (1997b) subject discussed (Israeli politics are discussed in Hebrew;
ethnography of Navajo educational communication prac- the concerns of women and children, in Arabic), or the
image being presented by the narrator (sophistication is
tices was based on 8 months of participant observation,
marked by French). (p. 405)
during which Braithwaite (1997b) lived in a dormitory
at Navajo Community College in Tsaile, Arizona. As Schely-Newman (1997) observed that "as the formality
he observed over 100 hours of classroom interactions, of the event and the heterogeneity of the participants
Braithwaite (1997b) collected more than 300 pages of increases, the mixing of languages occurs less often"
field notes, including descriptions of class content and (p. 405). Such an observation could be made only if she
specific verbal and nonverbal speech events. In this set- selected informants capable of performing multiple lan-
ting, Braithwaite (1997b) was a participant in the sense guage codes and if her relationship to the informants
that he resided in the dormitory with the Navajo stu- allowed them to share stories with her, during which
dents, but he was a faculty member rather than a student, codeswitching occurred naturally because she was a fam-
and he is not of Navajo descent. ilymember.
In his ethnographic study of baseball, Trujillo (1992) As these examples suggest, you will need to possess
used participant observation and interview methods to or develop certain skills and attitudes to be an effective
gather data over 2 years at a major league baseball sta- participant observer. The skills you will need involve
dium, including over 500 hours of fieldwork. His par- recognizing and performing communication that is
ticipant observations included a variety of roles and the normal standard in the social group you are study-
settings. Trujillo (1992) began the process of data col- ing (Dollar, 1995; Lindlof, 1995). You also will need to
lection by observing numerous off-season "luncheons, be good at "creating sharp, detailed, and theoretically
banquets, autograph appearances, and speaking engage- informed descriptions" (Lindlof, 1995, p. 135). That is,
ments" (p.353). Then, during the two seasons under you must be skilled in writing, organizing, filing, and
ETHNOGRAPHIC DATA
synthesizing field notes. These skills can be learned if you 1995, p. 170). Ethnographic interviews take the forms of
do not already possess them. conversations and storytelling between participants and
To be an effective participant observer, though, you researchers. The interview is a way to find out things that
also will need certain attitudes and sensitivities. You you cannot directly observe (Newman & Benz, 1998;
will need to be capable of and comfortable with fading Patton, 1990).
into the background of a social situation-what Lindlof Just as selecting participants to interview is critical
(1995) called a tolerance for marginality. You also will to your participation in and observation of a setting,
need to be sensitive to all the verbal and nonverbal com- establishing rapport with in.formants is essential if you
munication cues that are available in a social setting, not are to gain useful interview data. Rapport means that the
just visual and auditory cues. Instead, we can "open up people you interview and observe feel comfortable with
our sensing to the tastes, smells, tempers, touches, col- you and trust you; it-does not mean that they see you as
ors, lights, shapes, and textures of the cultures we study" naIve, "or an easy target for deception" (Madison, 2005,
(Lindlof, 1995, p. 138). Finally, to be an effective partici- p. 32). Your demeanor and appearance, listening skills,
pant observer, you will need to be good at "giving people. and nonverbal style all contribute to your effectiveness as
the benefit of the doubt, getting along by going along, a human research instrument in the interview process. In
and not being overly querulous or contentious" (Fine, a collaborative ethnography, you may want to use inter-
1993, as cited in Lindlof, 1995, p. 139). If you are observ- viewer training to ensure that interviews are conducted
ing yourself, you will need to use all of the skills we just consistently (i.e., interactions with one informant are
mentioned, and you will need to develop reflexivity: comparable to interactions with another informant, and
interviews conducted by one researcher are comparable
A researcher must reflect on their own experiences in
to interviews conducted by another researcher working
order to discern how they are both product and producer
of a given cultural phenomenon. However, rather than on the same research project).You may want to revie'Y
lapse into solipsism or catharsis, the researcher must artic- the information in chapter 7, "Survey Research:' on
ulate such moments so as to engender similar reflection in interviewer training as well.
the reader, so that the reader might understand how they There are three main forms of ethnographic inter-
stand in relation to the same phenomenon. (A. F. Wood & view: (1) "oral history which is a recounting of a social
Fassett, 2003, p. 288) historical moment reflected in the life or lives of indi-
viduals who remember them and/or experienced them";
Participant observation will allow you to see what the
(2) "personal narrative, which is an individmil perspective
members do and say in their setting; interviews with key
and expression of an event, experience, or point of view" ;
informants, on the other hand, will help you to describe
and (3) "topical interview, the point of view given to a
what members report that they do and say and what sense
particular subject, such as a program, an issue, or a pro-
members make of those actions and interactions. For
cess ... each type will often and necessarily overlap with
example, you may observe the stories participants tell, to
the others" (Madison, 2005, p. 26). Each of these types of
whom those stories are told, where, with what structures,
interview can be structured or unstructured (Spradley,
forms of elaboration, and so on. The stories participants
1980). If your interview is structured, check your written
tell one another in their natural settings may be quite dif-
interview schedule to be sure that each of your questions,
ferent than the stories they relate to you, the researcher in
and the overall organizational pattern, are consistent
the context of an interview. Thus, observations provide a
different window into the participants' worlds than does with your study's purpose and your claim(s).
Whether you are adopting the interpretive or critical
participants' talk about their world. Interviews with key
informants are one of the ethnographer's methods for paradigm perspective, you will likely use unstructured,
uncovering participants' talk about their world. or minimally structured, face-to-face interviews. You
may not have any questions written out before begin-
ning to observe the setting and participants because the
Interviews With Key Informants participants' actions will indicate to you what questions
Compared to the individual or focus group interviews are important to ask (Schwartzman, 1993; Spradley,
that you learned about in chapter 7, "Survey Research:' 1980). Indeed, participant observations will almost cer-
the ethnographic interview is "the most informal, con- tainly be needed to determine whom you will want to
versational, and spontaneous form of interview" (Lindlof, interview.
242 I CHAPTER 13 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
in rhetorical criticism and critical studies (see chapters of participation you desire in the setting, ranging from
14 and 15 for examples from published communication pure or even covert observer, to full, overt participant, or
research). somewhere in between these two.
Ethnographers sometimes refer to the period prior to
Strategies for Data Collection gaining access as "casing the scene" (Lindlof, 1995).Your
initial entry into the settihg may be "simply a matter of
Now you know something about the sources of data for walking through the dobr" (Witmer, 1997, p. 329). While
ethnographic research. But before you can conduct eth- casing the scene, you can collect some initial impressions
nographic research, you will need to know some proce- of the setting and participants, and consider, "Is this the
dures for collecting these data. In the following sections, right project now,for me?" (Lindlof, 1995, p. 82). Go into
we briefly describe these procedures. Their sequence these places, "looking, listening, touching, and smell-
can vary across different ethnographic research forms, ing-hanging out" (Lindlof, 1995, p. 82).Of course, you
depending on the participants and the kinds of claims will already have some idea that this setting and your
you are attempting to support (Philipsen, 1982). timing are appropriate, but your initial observations may
You will need to think about the issue of time man- change your idea of whether your study is actually fea-
agement at the beginning of your ethnographic project. sible. For example, can you devote the amount of time
Allow extra time to develop skills you do not already have, needed to adequately study communication in this set-
since things go more slowly the first few times whether ting? What expenses (or other risks) might you incur for
it's interviewing, taking field notes, coding data, writing traveling to and/or participating as a group member in
reports, or whatever. As you think about the amount of this setting? Finally, consider whether you are competent
time needed for your project, consider some of the tasks in the cultural communication code(s) needed to func-
you will need to accomplish. You will be entering a site of tion effectively as a research instrument and participant
data collection; conducting a literature review; spending in this setting (Lindlof, 1995; Philipsen, 1997; Spradley,
days, weeks, or months at the site; writing up and coding 1980).
interview transcripts; analyzing data within and across One often debated topic among ethnographers over
cases; writing up notes from site visits; holding weekly the years has been the issue of the researcher's member-
meetings with other researchers, if applicable; and writ- ship in the culture being studied. SOIlle ethnographers
ing interim and final reports. Miles and Huberman feel it is essential that you be a full member of the culture;
(1994) estimated 185 days for such a task list, which is others acknowledge that degrees of membership are pos-
probably a conservative estimate. Trujillo's 2-year study sible and helpful in data collection and interpretation,
of baseball culture involved over 500 hours, or over especially in gaining access to the setting (Ellingson,
60 workdays, 8 hours a day, in just the fieldwork tasks! 1998; Lindsley, 1999).Your degree of cultural member-
"Time plans usually suffer from excessive optimism. Get ship impacts your ability to enter the setting, to choose
a cynical skeptic to critique them" (Miles & Huberman, which concepts to attend to, and the interpretations you
1994, p. 47). One issue in planning your timeline is gain- are able to make about the data (Dollar, 1995; Dollar &
ing access to the field. Merrigan, 2002; Spradley, 1980).
Not only can you gain access to the setting more
Gaining Access to the Setting easily as a cultural insider, but membership also allows
"Stepping into a setting for the first time is probably the you to recognize features of meaning that would be
most significant phase of the entire ethnographic pro- unrecognized by a nonmember. For example, Dollar and
cess" (Schwartzman, 1993, p. 49). "Everything counts" Zimmers's (1998) use of the term houseless, rather than
(Goodall, 1989, p. xv, as cited in Schwartzman, 1993). homeless, youth stemmed from Zimmers's 5-year par-
Ethnographers call the process of getting participants' ticipation as a job placement coordinator in that com-
permissions and approvals for doing research in a par- munity. Zimmers recognized that the youth in this study
ticular setting gaining access or entry (Lindlof, 1995; intentionally used the term houseless to mean something
Spradley, 1980). It is at this stage that you will have the different than homeless. They constructed themselves as
opportunity to make the strange familiar and make the being without a house (i.e., the building), but as having
familiar strange (Frey, Botan, et al., 2000). You can elect homes in the places they hung out, ate, and slept. Your
different roles at this point, depending on the degree degree of membership and the roles you can enact in a
244 / CHAPTER 13 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
setting also will influence your selection of key infor- for participant observations or interviews will be to think
mants for ethnographic interviews. about how you will record and organize your field notes.
naIve, or perhaps both. Your ability and motivation to Strategies for Data Analysis
record detailed notes during or shortly after interactions
For the ethnographic researcher, "The analysis of data
with participants, and to organize these notes effectively
begins shortly after the data collection commences and
to later make sense of them, is vital to doing good ethno-
continues during data collection and beyond" (Morse,
graphic research.
1998, p. 75). You will amass field notes from observa-
tions, interviews, and~rchival and artifactual texts; and
Exiting the Field at some point, you will have to face the daunting task of
As you can see by now, ethnographers may be involved somehow reducing and interpreting these large amounts
with members of a group or culture over months or even of data, and reporting (or otherwise representing) the
years. You are likely to develop a variety of relationships whole process, from conceptualization through data col-
with group members, if you did not already have those lection and analysis, to interpretations and conclusions.
relationships prior to beginning your study. So the idea "Transcripts and notes must be easily retrieved, easily
of exiting the field, as it has been traditionally called in cross-referenced, and easily separated from and linked
anthropological research, is more complicated than just with their original sources" (Morse, 1998, p. 75).
closing your notebook after writing your last field note Strategies for data analysis in ethnographic research
and then not returning for additional observations or typically begin with transcription, that is, translating
interviews. audio taped or videotaped records of interview conversa-
Of course, you could just leave the field of data tions with key informants into written form. You will be
collection, but more likely, you will have some process trying to integrate the transcripts with your field notes,
of disengagement over time. For example, your offi- including observations of and reflections about the par-
cial observations may cease by agreement between you ticipants, the setting, relevant artifacts, and so on. One,
and your key informants, but unofficial reflections may way to integrate multiple sources of data and multiple
come to YOll in the setting long afterward. Perhaps you types of inferences is by reducing many specific obser-
will continue to interact with participants on topics not vations into themes or categories. This process is called
rr~lated to t h ,. research project per se. Or you may invite coding the data. At some point, you may apply a descrip-
g:.-oup meml.:':'rs to read and respond to your interview tive framework that consists of predetermined categories,
transcripts, a report of your interpretations of the group's such as the SPEAKING mnemonic used by ethnographers
communication practices, or some prose or poetry based of speaking presented earlier in this chapter. Finally, you
on your data collection in that setting. In any case, exit- might write a case study, a narrative account of the com-
ing the field of human communication relationships is munication practices in a particular setting and among
as delicate and important an issue as entering that field, specific participants (Philipsen, 1982). Each of these data
and for ethnographic researchers, both access and exit analytic processes is outlined in more detail following.
require serious attention and ethical care. Morse (1998)
advised that it is time to exit the field when one of two Transcribing Interviews
things happens: Either you recognize that you are putting
At some point during or after field observations, you will
other goals ahead of the research, or you realize you have
need to produce written transcriptions of your interviews
reached theoretical saturation.
with key informants. At the very least, your transcripts
For instance, the researcher may suddenly realize that will reproduce the verbatim verbal interaction between
he or she did not record an event, because it may reflect you and the informant(s), although your transcripts
poorly on the participants, or because it was every- may also contain paraverbal indicators such as pause
day and not special or interesting enough .... If the length, word stress, interruptions, and so on. Plan, at a
researcher is not learning anything new, he or she may minimum, to spend "as much time immediately studying
be reasonably sure that the data are saturated. (Morse,
and analyzing the interview material as you spent in the
1998, pp. 78-79)
interview itself" (Lofland & Lofland, 1995, p. 87). This
Of course, you will need to be continually analyzing your means studying transcripts as you go along, so that you
data to know when you've reached a theoretical satura- will know when you need to collect more data; where to
tion point. So let's now consider some strategies for ana- classify and file observations, notes, or transcripts; and so
lyzing ethnographic data. on. Doing your own transcription is a chore but one of
'.
~ CHAPTER 13 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
enormous value since it keeps you close to your data. You (1999) used inductive reasoning to categorize different
will be making interpretations as you listen to the tapes types of misunderstandings and conflicts encountered by
many times. U.S. American and Mexican employees at a maquiladora
Ethnographers' transcripts range from verbatim (i.e., a u.S.-owned assembly plant located in Mexico).
texts of verbal and nonverbal interactions to summaries Based on data collected in interviews, nonparticipant
of what was said at what point, combined with your own observations, and written periodicals on the maquiladora
tentative ideas, early bits of analysis, as well as notes on industry, Lindsley used constant comparison to group
methodological difficulties and your personal or emo- problematic interactions into three categories (e.g., neg-
tional experiences from an interview or observation atively stereotyped identities).
session. You already know some elements to consider in Another way that you can begin to analyze a cul-
formatting transcripts and some of the conventions for ture or group is to identify and describe the participants'
notating paraverbal interaction cues from the last chap- rules for interaction. Rules are prescriptions for who can
ter. Next, let's look at the steps you might take to make speak, on what topics, in what settings, and how speaking
sense of your collected field notes. by others is to be interpreted. One form that a commu-
nication rule can take is "Do X in order to be seen as Y:'
Coding and Reducing Field Notes College students know many such rules, such as "Show
Feldman (1995) described the problem ofworking through up for class on time to be seen as a serious, motivated
massive quantities of field data that included audiotapes, student:' Rules are followable, prescribed, and contex-
floppy disks, documents, field notes, and thousands of tual (Shimanoff, 1980, 1985). Therefore, rule-governed
pieces of electronic and hard mail. Feldman (1995) noted behavior is controllable, criticizable, and contextual
that the complexity and ambiguity was at times over- (Dollar & Beck, 1997). All of these characteristics suggest
whelming: "The task at hand is to create an interpretation strategies you can use to describe and evaluate the rules
of the setting or some feature of it that will allow people for conduct within a culture or group. For example, you
who have not directly observed the phenomena to have can look for breaches-instances when members violate
a deeper understanding of them" (p. 2). Ethnographers rules and are called to account for their behavior; you can
create interpretations based on participants' meanings. try to analyze what rule has been violated in that case.
To do so, you have to somehow get away from two kinds
of prepackaged interpretation. First, you must avoid cre- Applying Descriptive Frameworks
ating interpretations that are based only on what you Frameworks are favored by some ethnographers who
knew about the setting before you began collecting data. believe that it is impossible to enter a social scene com-
Second, you must avoid creating interpretations that are pletely free of any interpretive categories (Philipsen,
based only on what you know about other similar set- 1992). A variety of descriptive frameworks may be used
tings. In other words, your interpretations need to come to analyze communication within a group or culture.
from your field notes. As we mentioned earlier in this chapter, Hymes's (1962)
Accordingly, then, as an ethnographer, you neces- SPEAKING framework is used by ethnographers of speak-
sarily will be involved in reducing and coding data as ing to analyze a variety of cultural groups (e.g., Dollar,
you form interpretations and develop theoretic proposi- 1999; Katriel & Philipsen, 1981; Philipsen, 1975, 1992;
tions about relationships between concepts in the setting Ruud, 1995; Sequeira, 1993).One of the benefits of using
you study. You may impose coding categories onto your the same descriptive framework across many groups is
data from the outset, as is the case when ethnographers the ability to compare interpretations across more than
of speaking apply the SPEAKING framework. If you are group or culture. If your interest is in comparing groups
planning to "perform or adapt the data for the stage, or cultures, you will probably tend to see a description of
you may also code with scenes for your performance in anyone social setting as a case study.
your mind" (Madison, 2005, p. 37). Alternatively, you
could induce categories for coding data after consider- Writing Case Studies
able immersion in the setting as is the case when you c. J. Mitchell (1983) and Philipsen (1982) have argued
use constant comparisons to develop a grounded theory that theoretically plausible interpretations can be made
(Glaser & Strauss, 1967) or when you use analytic induc- from one good case (e.g., Bastien & Hostager, 1992;
tion (Goetz & LeCompte, 1984). For example, Lindsley Braithwaite, 1997a; Eisenberg, Murphy & Andrews, 1998;
ETHNOGRAPHIC DATA \ 247
fl.J. Hall & Noguchi, 1993; M. Miller, 1995). A typical and doing so in the field, over a long time, is much more
case is one instance of communicative behavior or prac- complicated than doing so in a one-shot experiment,
tice that "is similar in relevant characteristics to other interview, or .questionnaire (Tinney, 2008). In this sec-
cases of the same type" (c. J. Mitchell, 1983, p. 189). tion, we stress some of the particular ethical choices you
Philipsen (1977, 1982) has advocated that researchers must make in doing ethnographic research. If you want
scan a number of cases for familiar concepts that can be to look at a professional code of ethics that was devel-
analyzed and to hypothesize links between those cases oped with ethnographic research in mind, you might
and particular theories. The data for comparing cases check out the American Anthropological Association's
can be gained from participant observations, interviews, code of ethics, or the American Folklore Association's
archival documents, artifacts, or some combination of codes of ethics, on those organizations' respective Web
these data sources. Let's consider one published example sites (Madison, 2005).
in detail. As you conduct your initial participant observations
Braithwaite's (l997a) ethnography of interaction in the field setting, think about how you might be open
management rules in naturally occurring conversations and transparent with participants in that setting about
at a blood plasma donation center well illustrates the your ethnographic project (Madison, 2005). For exam-
value of a single case study. Braithwaite (l997a) donated ple, at what point, if ever, would you share your motiva-
plasma 16 times over a 2-month period to observe con- . tion for selecting that setting and those informants? If
versations between other donors and the technicians who your study was funded, would you let participants know?
worked at the center. He discovered that conversational Would you use some of your funding to benefit partici-
rules that are normal in other settings were consistently pants, such as paying participants for interviews or buy-
violated at the plasma donor center. His analysis showed ing food for homeless informants (Dollar & Zimmers,
how task requirements in that setting took precedence 1998)? How will your interactions with the participants,
over the usual rules for interaction management. But or your departure from those relationships once you fin-
Braithwaite (l997a) also showed how the normal rules ish data collection, affect them (Tinney, 2008)?
for conversation management applied in this setting, As you write up your ethnographic study, and in the
even though they were routinely violated whenever "suc- case of performance ethnography, prepare public perfor-
cessfully accomplishing a task takes precedence over a mances based on field data collection, think about how
'normal' conversation" (p. 70). Braithwaite (l997a) gave you will avoid harming the people with whom you have
several examples from other settings in which partici- worked as well as the places and materials you studied
pants prioritize task requirements over following normal (Madison, 2005, Miller et al., 1998). What impact will
conversational rules, such as parents conversing together your research report, or your performances, have on
while watching their children play in a park or profes- their safety, dignity, or privacy? Will you offer them any
sors trying to get to their next class while engaging in a assistance, or reciprocal use of your time, in exchange for
hallway conversation with a student. Consistent with the their assistance in your data collection? It is not uncom-
interpretive paradigm's view of truth as subjective and mon for communication researchers to offer training
comprised of multiple realities, in congruencies among workshops, or simply volunteer in the community of
cases will likely be seen as illustrative, rather than prob- their ethnographic projects, to benefit the participants
lematic, by the interpretive researcher. But while we are and as a way of compensating participants for their con-
thinking about contradictions, let's look at some of the tributions to the ethnographic research.
ethical issues you will need to consider in your ethno- Some ethnographic data collection is now occur-
graphic data collection and analysis. ring over the Internet (e.g., Bakardjieva & Smith, 2001;
Cezec-Kecmanovic, Treleaven, & Moodie, 2000; LaRose &
Whitten, 2000), and ethnographic data collection solely
Some Ethical Issues from Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) data
Recall from chapter 2, "Ethics and Research," the four brings with it particular ethical issues, whether the data
rights of research participants: to freely choose their par- come from a chat room, e-mail messages, or a listserv
ticipation in research, to privacy, to be treated with hon- group. CMC interactions are more readily observed in
esty, and to be kept free from harm. It is your obligation as a covert fashion, and there are still vast "unsettled dis-
a researcher to protect these rights for your participants, tinctions between 'public' and 'private' behavior across a
248! CHAPTER 13 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
range of cyberspace contexts" (Lindlof & Schatzer, 1998, If your ethnographic project includes claims of eval-
p. 186). The processes of gaining participants' informed uation and reform, then you also will need to draw on the
consent, disclosing research procedures and making agree- critical paradigm values and standards to warrant your
ments with participants, negotiating access, and so on are project. To make a coherent argument about the need for
all impacted by differences between virtual and embod- ideological change, your critical ethnographic research
ied communities. Finally, because the data for such (most likely an auto ethnography or performance eth-
research projects already exists in digital form, the stor- nography) should include elements from the interpretive
age and later use of those data must be approached with and critical paradigm warrants that we outlined in chap-
particular attention to maintaining participant privacy ter 6. In the sections following, we bring into play the
and assuring freedom from harm. values of voice and liberation and the standards of coher-
In fact, deciding when to pursue institutional review ence and researcher positionality, as those are relevant to
board (IRB) approval for your ethnographic project is an critical ethnographic research.
ethical matter. You must get IRB approval before you inter- Let's start by considering how the interpretative val-
view participants, but you may want to do some initial par- ues of subjectivity and rich description are enacted in
ticipant observations in a setting before you know whom ethnographic research.
to interview, let alone what questions you might ask. If you
are observing legally competent adults, in a setting that is
observable by anybody, you can conduct your initial obser- Valuing Subjectivity and Rich Description
vations before pursuing IRB approval of your project. Subjectivity refers to your ability to know using your own
Finally, reform claims pose particular ethical dilem- mind, your thoughts, feelings, and reasoning processes.
mas for the ethnographic researcher (Markham, 1996). Your perceptions of the social situation you study, and your
Namely, your presence affects the lives of your research ability to represent participants' perceptions of communi-
participants, for better or worse. "Just as there are many cation in that situation, are as important in ethnographic
political ideals which can claim the allegiance of persons research as is any objective reality that exists independent
of good will, so ethnography leads you to the careful of your perceptions or the participants' perceptions.
study and appreciation of many discourses, including, on Interpretive researchers stand for the value of sub-
occasions, discourses of power" (Philipsen, 1992, p. 329). jective knowledge. In doing ethnographic research, you
With these sobering thoughts in mind, we turn to the will act on this value by privileging participant views and
warrants for ethnographic research. field settings for data collection. If you are doing autoeth-
nography, you will privilege self-knowledge (your own
experiences and feelings) in data collection and analysis,
Ethnographic Warrants but you will still need to be rigorous and reflexive about
your own standpoint (Pelias, 2003). The kinds of ethno-
In this section, we reiterate some of the ideas that we graphic data you collect, the time you spend immersed
first presented in chapter 6, "Warrants for Research in the group or culture, and the detail level of your inter-
Arguments"-ideas about the standards for what counts views and field notes will allow you to richly describe that
as good interpretive and critical research. You already situation, its participants, their actions, and relationships.
know that interpretive researchers illuminate multiple Ultimately, you will be presenting your subjective under-
realities by valuing subjectivity and rich description in standing of those participants' meanings.
their data collection sources and strategies, data analytic We mentioned earlier in this chapter that triangu-
moves, and conclusions. In this chapter, we show you lation is customary in ethnographic research because tri-
how to demonstrate that you are a credible ethnographic angulating data sources, settings, collection and analytic
researcher, that your interpretations of the field data you strategies, or researcher perspectives can enrich your
collect are plausible, and that the insights you gain in a descriptions of communication and help you flesh
particular setting or situation are transferable (i.e., that out multiple plausible interpretations. Collaborative
they are heuristic, or thought provoking to those inter- ethnography, the use of more than one researcher
ested in culture and communication, not that they are to provide multiple viewpoints on a setting, or on
generalizable in the discovery paradigm sense). similar settings, can actually help you warrant your
ETHNOGRAPHIC WARRANTS \ 249
to be "both or either" of these roles (Lofland & Lofland, Both you and your informants enact your degree of
1995, p. 23). Don't expect to always be the Convert or membership when you competently recognize and per-
always be the Martian. form culturally appropriate communication (Dollar,
Membership is partly a matter of knowing the cul- 1995, 1999). Your abilities to recognize and perform
tural rules of the situation that you intend to study: If you a range of communicative practices, to avoid making
are a member, you may already know those rules before blunders or mistakes in communication and to recog-
you begin the study; or you may intend to learn as you go nize violations when they occur, as well as to be playful
if you are an outsider. Anthropologists call these emic and with cultural language (e.g., jokes, teasing), all demon-
etic views of culture, respectively 0. A. Anderson, 1987). strate your degree of membership (Dollar, 1995, 1999).
An emie view holds that the participants' understanding Of course, recognizing these communicative patterns
of what they are doing in the situation is the most useful is different from being able to perform culturally com-
or important. An etie view prefers the patterns ofbehav- petent communication such as interacting competently
ior that are available to the outside observer. with members you do not already know or making a
Think back to Y. Y. Kim et al.'s (1998) analysis of joke others in the culture will recognize and appreciate.
identity among American Indians in Oklahoma (from Those competencies will be especially relevant if you
chapter 5, "What Counts as Communication Data"). are conducting performance ethnography since you will
Y. Y. Kim et al. combined the emic and etic perspectives: be trying to recreate verbal and nonverbal elements of
Their six-member research team consisted of "three communicative acts and events that you witnessed in the
members who had Indian backgrounds and were long- field, later, in your public performance(s). If you or your
time residents of Oklahoma. One of the three was an key informants cannot recognize or perform the subtle
active, full-blooded Kiowa. The other three non-Indian variations in cultural communication, then the plausibil-
members were of Asian, Black, and Irish backgrounds" ity of your interpretations about the situation or setting
(Y. Y. Kim et al., p. 259). In addition to the research will be threatened.
team, 26 Indian students served as interviewers and Being honest about your own degree of member-
coders, and 17 Indian residents served as community ship and working to locate and build relationships with
informants. credible key informants are both related to faithfulness.
If your research claim concerns the rules that par- Even if you and your key informants are members of
ticipants in a social situation use to construct and inter- the culture you study, lack of faithfulness can threaten
pret their own and others' behaviors, then the emic, or your credibility as an ethnographic researcher. Let's take
insider perspective, may be your best bet for studying a look at what you can do to be a faithful ethnographic
culture and communication. After all, insiders possess at researcher.
least two kinds of cultural knowledge: Explicit cultural
knowledge is used to interpret experience, or to read cul- Faithfulness
tural artifacts, physical environments, and behavior and No matter how much training and experience you have
events (Spradley, 1980). Tacit cultural knowledge is used as a researcher, no matter what your degree of cultural
to generate behavior in culturally intended ways includ- membership, inevitably there will be limits to your cred-
ing taking actions, feeling, and using cultural artifacts ibility. As the measuring instrument during field data
(e.g., what to wear, buy, eat, etc.). collection, your memory, hearing, and recognition skills
We hope that the concepts of emic and etic perspec- will all influence the credibility of the data you collect
tives, and explicit and tacit cultural knowledge, help you and the interpretations you make of those data. Even
to see why many ethnographers feel that the researcher though some of these limits on your credibility are phys-
who is more of a cultural insider is more credible. ical or biological (such as memory or hearing), some
Regardless of your own degree of membership, you will are limits of faithfulness, your steadfast commitment
need to evaluate the credibility of your key informants. to represent the participants' (or your own) meanings
The people with whom you interact, those you observe fully and fairly. Recognizing and acknowledging these
and interview, must be good representatives of their sorts of limitations is part of operating faithfully as an
group or culture. They should represent different types ethnographer.
of participants in that setting (i.e., different roles) if you Faithfulness is further achieved by spending enough
are to capture the full range of subjective meanings avail- time in the field, going over field notes many (rather than
able to members. a few) times, maintaining close and trusting relation-
ETHNOGRAPHIC WARRANTS ~
ships with key informants, and searching for additional When you embrace the idea of multiple subjective
sources of data to corroborate those already considered realities, you have to consider whether the interpretations
(Lofland & Lofland, 1995; Miles & Huberman, 1994; you are making are believable or can be supported with
Spradley, 1980). Your faithfulness paves the way for you arguments and reasoning (Dollar, 1995; Fitch, 1994). In the
to make plausible interpretations. remainder of this section, we show you how to' make two
kinds of arguments about the plausibility of your interpre-
tations: The first is that you have adequate and coherent
Plausible Interpretations evidence for making those interpretations; the second is
Recall that plausible interpretations are reasonable showing that you've thought about alternative interpreta-
and likely truths-they are not necessarily valid, in tions, in other words, that you can address counterclaims.
the discovery paradigm sense, as one objectively veri-
fiable truth. After reading this much of the chapter, Adequacy and Coherence of Evidence
you should already be able to articulate some ways
that ethnographic methods work to develop plausible The evidence you present in support of an ethnographic
interpretations. claim should be based on an adequate selection of the
First, due to membership and sustained participant total corpus of data (Fitch, 1994). You will be argu-
observation, you can refine your ethnographic inter- ing from the examples that you amassed in,interviews,
pretations over time, allowing them to benefit from observations, and field notes, but having some part of
insights you gain in additional data collection or analy- your ethnographic data come from publicly accessible
sis. Second, in your interviews with key informants, you observation records will help you to bolster the plausi-
will use participants' phrasing and vocabulary when- bility of your interpretations because it will allow other
ever possible, thus increasing your chances of tapping people to check your subjective interpretations of the
into the emic view of the situation and decreasing your data against their own. In addition, you will need to
chances of being misinterpreted by participants. Third, include your consideration of "inferences and interpre-
the everyday settings within which your participant tations as well as concrete phenomena" when you report
observations occur should increase the relevance of the your data analysis (Fitch, 1994, p. 36). For example, when
behaviors you observe, relative to more contrived set- you present examples from interview transcripts as evi-
tings like an experimental laboratory. Fourth, your self- dence of an interpretation that you are making, you will
monitoring process during data analysis requires you to be allowing the reader of your research report to see the
continually question the data and your interpretations of communicative phenomenon of interest, how that event
it. All four of these advantages of ethnographic research was represented in the data set, and your analytical infer-
were pointed out by LeCompte and Goetz (1982, p. 43) ences. That will allow your readers to "decide for them-
when they argued that ethnographic research had supe- selves whether or not to believe fyour 1account of what it
rior internal validity, relative to surveyor experimental is that a particular group of people are doing at any given
research methods. time (McDermott, Gospodinoff, & Aron, 1978, p. 245).
In conducting ethnography, you probably will trian- Philipsen (1977), the scholar most associated with
gulate data as another way to ensure plausible interpreta- EOS and EOC, has suggested three questions that you
tions so that you can compare interpretations of what can ask yourself to test "the adequacy of statements which
things mean across more than one data source (e.g., purport to represent the native's view" (p. 49):
self-reports and other-reports, behavioral observations, First, does the report use the native's own terms or verba-
archival texts, or cultural artifacts). Interviews with key tim description? Second, and failing the first test, do the
informants and participant observations will provide ethnographer's terms or descriptions refer to something
you with instances of verbal and nonverbal communi- that the native agrees is a recognizable feature of his social
cation as practiced in the speech community; archival world, and if so, can the native person give it a name?
documents might also provide such instances but in Third, does the native person agree that the ethnographer's
ways that are more public and verifiable. Artifacts pro- insight enables him (the native) to better understand his
own social world? (p. 49) \
vide additional sources from which you can triangulate
interpretations about participant meanings. Artifacts Of course, ethnographers always allow room for more than
also suggest concepts that you should analyze because one plausible interpretation of a situation or phenomenon.
they seem important to participants. Paying attention to other possibly valid interpretations is
?:E..I CHAPTER 13 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
another way to ensure that your interpretations of eth- another person who had similar access to the same data
nographic data are plausible. or evidence. This is somewhat akin to agreement among
judges, a form of content validity we outlined in chapter 6,
Negative Case Analysis and that is used by discovery researchers. Fitch's (1994)
The second way to ensure plausible interpretations in eth- argument that researchers ought to try to make claims
nographic research is to deal with counterclaims-other for which at least part of the data come from publicly
interpretations that could be supported by your data. accessible observation records comes in part from the
Considering what other claims your data might be used desire for confirmability. You can use Carbaugh's (1988)
to support is especially relevant when you are coding or performance tests (which we first mentioned in chapter 6,
reducing data into categories or themes. As you organize "Warrants for Research Arguments") to establish con-
instances of talk into categories, consider all the instances firm ability. To do so, you will need to return to your data
of talk that don't fit into anyone of your categories. If collection setting and ask members to explicitly confirm
there are too many of those instances, then perhaps your the terms, forms of address, or other interpretations you
overall data set does not support that interpretation ade- have developed from the data. Alternatively, you can
quately. Perhaps another interpretation will make better simply tryout those interpretations in conversation with
use of the data (Agar, 1983). You might try playing with members; if they seem to understand your performance,
more than one category scheme to see which one better or do not show any signs of objecting to your perfor-
fits your total corpus of data. mance, then you have some evidence that your findings
You should also search out disconfirming observa- are confirmable.
tions, if they do not readily appear in your analysis of the Relevance means that your interpretations are ger-
data, to ensure that your interpretations are plausible. mane or salient to the people in the group or culture that
Refer back to our discussion of negative case analysis in you are studying. An interpretation or conclusion is only
chapter 6, "Warrants for Research Arguments:' Consider relevant if it matters to the participants. You should be
whether you need to collect more observations using devi- able to show how participants orient to and signal others
ant case sampling (Patton, 1990), that is, returning to the about the communication practices that you are describ-
field and trying to find instances of data that do not fit ing, interpreting, or evaluating (McDermott et al., 1978).
the interpretation you have tentatively identified. To the Perhaps members reference the context for their own
degree that no such instances of communicative data can behaviors; they may hold one another accountable to
be located, your interpretations are warranted as plausible. proceed in contextually appropriate ways, or their col-
Now that you have some idea how you might dem- lective positioning and actions may indicate what they
onstrate the plausibility of your interpretations, you will are trying to accomplish together. Your ability to repre-
want to think about the degree to which your find- sent these matters in your research report will make your
ings are transferable, the last warrant for interpretive interpretations relevant and more likely transferable
ethnographies. as a result. For example, if you can show how one par-
ticipant orients to the immediately preceding action of
another member, as a way of making sense of culturally
Transferable Findings situated behavior, then your insight may be relevant to
Interpretive researchers have as a goal "producing mean- a conversation analyst who is working at a microlevel to
ing-centered investigations of social life that can be coher- understand that particular bit of sequence organization
ently tied to other such investigations" (Fitch, 1994, p. 36). (Schlegoff,2006).
In this section, we help you think about whether, and how, Finally, to establish generality means that you try to
the insights from your ethnographic study might transfer, make interpretations and inferences that apply to more
or be applicable to, another group or culture. In addition, than one participant (or moment) in the communica-
we consider how insights from your study might transfer tive group or culture you studied. One way to do this is
to public performances for performance ethnography. by faithfully basing your claims on the total corpus of
The confirm ability, relevance, and generality of your data rather than one or two isolated observations within
interpretations and inferences all contribute to transfer- a data set. Another way is to use the same descriptive
ability. Let's look at each of these concepts in turn. framework in more than one study, so that the find-
Confirmability means that the findings you posit, ings from multiple studies can be compared with one
based on your analysis of data, can be substantiated by another, as EOS scholars do with Hymes's (1962, 1974a)
ETHNOGRAPHIC WARRANTS \ 253
SPEAKING mnemonic. In this way, general interpreta- undoubtedly will be more coherent for some audiences
tions about communication in more than one group than for others.
may be discerned either by you or by other researchers
using the same framework you used in your study. Researcher Positionality
Carolyn Ellis (2004) is one well-known autoethnographic
Coherence and Researcher Positionality researcher in communication studies. C. Ellis's (2004) meth-
odological novel about autoethnography, The Ethnographic
for Critical Ethnographic Research
I: The Methodological Novel About Autoethnograplzy, exem-
As we mentioned at the start of this chapter, ethnographic plifies the standard of researcher positionality as a warrant
research in communication bridges the interpretative for ethnographic research. C. Ellis has been applauded and
and critical paradigms: EOS and EOC studies nearly chastised for revealing a great deal about herself in her
always follow interpretative paradigm assumptions and autoethnographic writing, for making friends with the
values, but autoethnography and performance ethnogra- people she studies, and for fictionalizing characters in the
phy can correspond to either the interpretative or critical novel based on some of the students in her autoethnog-
paradigm. raphy course at the University of South Florida. Each of
If your ethnographic project includes claims of eval- those choices, and other researchers' freedom to disagree
uation and reform, you should integrate the values and with them, make C. Ellis's position as a researcher explicitly
standards of the interpretative and critical paradigms. In relevant in her writing and underscore critical researchers'
this section, we give you some examples from published values of voice and liberation.
works to show you how the critical paradigm warrants In fact, autoethnography demands that you make
of coherence and researcher positionality can be demon- your positionality as a researcher explicitly available to
strated in critical ethnographic research. those who read your critical essay or attend performances
based on your data collection and analysis (Pelias, 2003).
Coherence So even if your autoethnographic claims do not include
When you conduct a critical empirical study of commu- explicit evaluations or suggest reforms of communica'-
nicative action using ethnographic methods, you evalu- tion, you should disclose your standpoint (i.e., your
ate communication and suggest how it might be changed material, social, and symbolic roles in the situation or
to interrupt hegemonic power relations. In that case, you group you are studying). For example, A. F. Wood and
will need to show clear and logical connections between Fassett's (2003) autoethnography of identity, power, and
the data you analyzed (participant observations, inter- technology in communication classrooms included
views, texts) and the power relations you aim to change. quotes from student e-mails, as well as italicized reflec-
A theoretic perspective may help you to make those con- tions of the authors' thoughts and feelings, in the pub-
nections. For example, Y. Y. Kim et al. (1998) began their lished research report.
analysis of communication among Oklahoma Indians In addition to disclosing your standpoint as a
with two broad categories of identity, Berry's (1990) researcher, you may want to disclose your reasons for doing
identity modes and Kim's (l995a, 1995b) cultural-inter- a critical ethnographic project as a way of warranting
cultural continuum. Similarly, Mayer's (2005) essay on researcher positionality. Crawford's (1996) essay on per-
the role of whiteness as a concept absent from most eth- sonal ethnography provides an illustration: He recounts
nographic audience research used poststructuralist theo- a swimming game among five Peace Corps volunteers in
ries (see chapter 15 for more on poststructuralism) to Africa, that ended in the death of one volunteer, who was
argue that ethnographers have essentialized whiteness as eaten by a crocodile; that experience made Crawford "take
either a form of structural dominance or as an individual the ethnographic tum" as a researcher (p. 161).
vulnerability. If you read Y. Y. Kim et al. (1998) or Mayer Finally, your ability and willingness to articulate yotr
(2005) in full, you will get a better idea how using one standpoint will demonstrate your reflexivity as a critical
or more previously developed theories could help you ethnographic researcher: For instance, what has led you
to establish clear and logical relationships among dif- to collect particular kinds of evidence or to favor certain
ferent forms of evidence in your ethnographic project. interpretations of the data? Obviously, a good audit trail
Of course, as a criticai researcher, you will have to ask and faithful, detailed field notes will help you to recover
yourself, "For whom is my narrative coherent?" A critical these concepts and represent them in your critical essay
essay or a piece of performative writing (e.g., a poem) or performative writing.
~ CHAPTER 13 ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
Critical Describe and evaluate Participant Coherence, researcher Critical essay (Le.,
how cultural variations observations, positionality (Le., empirical study of
in speech codes interviews with key standpoint + communicative action
implicate power informants, and texts/ reflexivity) based on ideological
relations and suggest artifacts collected critique)
how those relations in a social setting or
should be reformed situation
Key Terms
Archival documents Ernic vs. etic perspectives Interviewer training
Artifacts Ethnographic interviews Key informants
Autoethnography Ethnography ~acroethnography
Case study Ethnography of communication (vs. rnicroethnography)
Coding Ethnography of speaking Naturalistic inquiry
Codeswitching Etic view of culture Participant observation
Comment sheets Explicit cultural knowledge Performance ethnography
Communal function Explicit vs. tacit cultural Rapport
Communication code knowledge Relevance
Communicative resources Face sheets Researcher credibility
Confirmability Faithfulness Speech community
Counterclaims Gaining access (or entry) Sponsors
Culture Gatekeepers Tacit cultural knowledge
Data logging Generality Transferability
Deviant case sampling Grounded theory
Ernic view of culture Group
"TRY IT!" ACTIVITIES \ 255
Discussion Questions
1. Think about the cultures to which you belong. What interpretations are "common sense" for members
of those cultures?
2. What do you think it means to "make the familiar strange"? What are some of your familiar messages
or ways of interacting that might be "made strange" for ethnographic analysis?
3. Make a list of the speech communities to which you belong. What are some of the rules for speaking,
and interpreting the speech of others, in one of these communities? Compare your list with those of
your classmates. Do you see any commonalities?
4. Think about the groups in which you participate and communicate. Does codeswitching occur in those
groups? How frequently? When do members switch from one way of speaking to another "code" and
why?
5. Write a short essay describing the communication practices in your family of origin. Use the warrants
described in this chapter (i.e., credibility, plausibility, and transferability) to evaluate your description.
Is it adequate?