Page 178 - Decoding Culture

THE RISE F THE READE R 171
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subjects' points of view and, in so doing, understand social activity in
its context. But that would be true also of symbolic interactionism,
or, indeed, any of the many alternative research methodologies that
emerged in 1970s sociology and cast themselves in broadly
'phenomenological' terms.
Compared with the classical form, then, what is missing from
the recent audience research version of 'ethnography' is extended
participant observation. As Moores (1993: 33) observes of Lull
(1980): 'his project is one of the few audience ethnographies to
have relied chiefly on long periods of participant observation', a
strategy Lull adopted to minimize disruption caused by the inves­
tigator and thence allow a fuller appreciation of the role of everyday
family activities. In contrast, most audience research in the 'ethno­
graphic' tradition has utilized open-ended and semi-structured
interview techniques rather than participant observation, some­
times with individuals, sometimes with groups. In this respect, a
more appropriate term for this style of inquiry would be 'qualitative
audience research', which catches its distinctiveness more effec­
tively than does 'ethnography'. However, the usage is widely
established by now, and even recent writers on 'ethnography' more
generally, such as Hammersley (1992: 8), tend to use the term as
interchangeable with 'qualitative method'. While it is unfortunate to
lose the holistic sense conveyed in the expression 'an ethnogra­
phy', provided that no one assumes that 'audience ethnography' is
distinguished by application of systematic participant observation,
then the label will make little difference.
What does make a difference is the researcher's understanding
of the purpose of such research and of the epistemology that the
methodological practice presupposes, and here it is vital to recog­
nize the ways in which audience ethnographies depart from the
classic naturalist-empiricist model. Morley (1992: 183) has sug­
gested that the ethnographic approach to communication 'rests

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