Page 100 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

ETHNOGRAPHY

Bennett et al., 1999). The second type, qualitative research, utilises in-
depth or focus interviews to identify similar patterns (see Morley,
1980; Morrison, 1998). Both of these methods resemble aspects of
marketing research and are used within the media industry for tracking
TV ratings. The final type of research is ethnography, which relies on
participant observation (see Hobson, 1982). Arising directly from
anthropological approaches, it involves the researcher immersing
themselves with a nominated group in an attempt to gain insight into
their choices and behaviour (for example, their viewing choices and
practices).
Critics of ethnographic research question whether it is possible to
gain an objective viewof a culture simply by observing it. In
particular, individuals involved in participant observation may be
influenced by the observer’s presence, thereby affecting the outcomes
of the research. Can participants act or speak ‘naturally’ in the presence
of a researcher? Do the participants subconsciously perform the role
they believe the researcher wants to see or hear? The immersion of a
researcher within a nominated group cannot guarantee unlimited
access to the lived reality of that group, only a ‘partial truth’ (Clifford,
1986).
There are also concerns over the role of the researcher in
ethnography. Whilst the necessary data collection associated with this
method is acknowledged in ethnographic accounts, little mention is
made of the actual process of writing. As Clifford (1986: 2) argues,
ethnography often ‘reflects the persistence of an ideology claiming
transparency of representation and immediacy of experience’. This
suggests the importance of recognising the researcher’s own
subjectivity and what it is that they bring to the research. The
researcher, much like the group under analysis, will also be subject to
ideologies and discourses that impact on the conclusions drawn. The
researcher, like the objects of study in ethnography, should be
understood as part of the text that may limit the findings of the project.
A development within ethnographic audience research that sought
to avoid the issue of objectivity was the study of fan cultures
undertaken by researchers who saw themselves as part of the same
collective (see Jenkins, 1992; Brooker, 2002). Here, the researcher
makes no claims to objectivity, offering instead an insight from within
a particular group. This subjective approach provides two texts – the
role and the assumptions of the researcher and the findings of the
inquiry. This approach overturns the need to speak on behalf of, and
instead offers the possibility of a ‘two-way transmission of information’
(During, 1993: 22).

85