The Cultural Understanding of Ethnography - Essay Example

? Ethnography Lecture Introduction In the past two decades, ethnography has obtained a fundamental function hypothetically and empirically in media studies, in addition to that, it has obtained a rhetorical role. Ethnography represents a disagreement to positivistic paradigms towards collecting and analyzing information, in addition to the connection between study and the studied, and this implies that its representation of a move from empirical practices of data collection pushes scholars to launch non-objective strategies to audience analysis and a bigger level of self-reflexivity among investigators. Ethnographic study is defined as a tool used by cultural anthropologists to study a culture up close and personal, whereas living amongst the people learning, anthropologists detect behaviors and ask questions about cultural norms (Fetterman 2010, p.11). Therefore, their idea is to gather new and direct information on a culture with the perception of the people being studied. On the other hand, other scholars assert that some cultural studies have theorized about the significance of ethnography to an understanding of media and cultural practices. They continue arguing that they have reached an almost paralyzing position in which the political and epistemological debates concerning the function of the researcher have restricted rather than endorsing the production of ethnographic media studies. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to study the strengths and limits of ethnography as a methodology for the study of media institutions with reference to specific ethnographic studies conducted by other researchers (Coman & Rothenbuhler 2005, p.141). Additionally, the research about audiences in media emphasizes on methodological pluralism through examining a sequence of approaches ranging from media ethnography, research on the reception of media, surveying the audience, and carrying out experiments on audience studies. The cultural understanding of ethnography Ethnographic studies can twirl predetermined ideas and misapprehension regarding a specific culture into positive conceptions, likewise, they can also lend trustworthiness to other elucidation from studies regarding a specific culture that have been done in the ancient times. Additionally, ethnographies can grant people a better comprehension and approach into their own culture, but the ethnographic study of a culture consumes a lot of time. For instance, before an anthropologist submerges in a culture's natural environment, he has to be familiar with the language along with the respective culture of that community. Culture is important for society and individual since the routine activities are based on the simple unwritten rules of participation in social interactions, therefore, ethnographers require proper investigation and research, and may take a long period making it very dangerous for an anthropologist who does not quickly comprehend a culture's traditions and forbidden practices. In addition to that, an anthropologist has to acquire time and obtain the confidence and respect of a culture's people, as well as seeking an okay to carry out an ethnographic research before proceeding (Coman & Rothenbuhler, 2005, p.141). The strengths of ethnography The benefit to employing ethnography to fit into the audience studies relies on its likelihood to offer both a domestic and a communal environment of television reception among the diverse groups in the society (Murchison 2013, p.204). Ethnography facilitates a comprehension of the manner in which the reception framework can influence the interpretation of the message by viewers, individually and in groups, conversely, it also permit the inspecting of the phenomena not only in its immediate social, political, and economic situation, but also in a bigger chronological structure. Moores argue that the media industries should provide audiences with a stable “stream” of figurative equipment to help audiences understand and approach their logic of self. These pictures and reverberations are creatively appropriate by social issues because they look forward to lay jointly individual characteristics and lifestyles (Moores 2000, p.139). As much as there are disputes that the idea of lifestyle has to be harmonizing instead of a substitute of ancient time sociological ideas such as social class, Moores and his colleagues of scholars go ahead and argue that the means of communication in media and famous culture present important sources for daily social relations. They assert that this source work like indicators of preference and personality, and associated are the arbitration and verification of media links between individuals of certain regional surroundings. Another advantage of ethnographic methods in studying media audiences is the explanation that is being provided for analyzing multiple structured environment of action with an aim of producing a rich descriptive and interpretative explanation of the lives and values of those involved in the research. The significance of ethnography rests upon the likelihood of evaluating the diverse components incorporated in the reception process (Moores 1993, p.27). In addition to that, it evaluates the manner in which these elements interrelate within the setting of the area in which the examination is happening, in conjunction with the culture and distinctiveness of the community members. Audiences are different and they portray different features in different circumstances as well as toward diverse programs, for example, looking at television should be considered a difficult and active cultural process that fully integrates the complexity of daily life, and at all times definite in its implications and impacts. Therefore, ethnographic study is the suitable methodology for better comprehension and viewing behavior in the specific actual situation, in which it takes place (Ayass & Gerhardt 2012, p.11). Moreover, other scholars argue that ethnographic research should be able to take responsibilities for situational practices and the familiarity of those who television provision served them by institutions is unrestricted dialogues that envisage quality as something comparative rather than unconditional, many rather than one, context particular rather than general. Besides that, it should depict a collection of esthetic, moral, and cultural principles that comes up in the social procedure of watching television rather than through decisive factor enforced upon it from above. Consequently, other researchers argue that media ethnography depicts on a multiplicity of classical anthropological and ethnological processes of investigation. Whereby partaker surveillance, unofficial discussion and exhaustively or life course interrogate, diaries reserved by the informers and self-reports reserved by the investigator. Additionally, the ethnographer might use textural analysis of selected television programs, musical tallies, or magazine genres. To these scholars, these procedures and theoretical approaches do not certainly give a more veridical picture; rather, the inconsistencies that are most important and informative. Limitations of ethnography The practice of audience ethnography remains a challenge because of the need to emphasize on the difficulties of the bordering environment and on individual ideational principles and attitudes, which makes this process loaded with limitations. For instance, observing and participating in the process of media consumption may limit a universal study of the societal process as well as the common styles that can be observed in a sociological research, however, the comprehension of single and collective media consumption applications may assist to understand the function of media texts. Scholars have criticized this development arguing that it is too theoretical, prejudiced through populist agendas, and purely unknowing rediscoveries of previous approaches in communication study (Spitulnik 1993, p.298-299) Unlike in the past, modern researches of the ideological roles of mass media and the mass mediation of culture focus mainly on media texts, with the general deduction that meanings used in media are only found in media's messages. As much as this textual analysis is important for establishing the possibility mass media sites, a growing number of writers have argued that this picture is partial. Their reasons for incompleteness are based on the analysis of the culture of media production, the political economy, and social history of media institutions and the various practices of media consumption that exist in any given society (Spitulnik, 1993, p.295). Another crucial limitation of media power is the problem regarding the whereabouts of locating the production meaning and ideology in the mass communication procedure, and the way of characterizing the processes of agency and interpretation whereby message production, message transmission, and message reception have been the most pervasive paradigm of the mass communication process since 1980s. For instance, Marxist and critical theory questioned the manner in which mass media serves the interests of the ruling class. The developing of a research model: the case study The above analysis reveals that it is important to reflect on media consumption like a verbalization among other parts of daily life because it cannot be comprehended fully in separation, therefore, one way of examining it is by using opportunistic ethnography. It emphasizes on instants of associating in which there is reference of consumption. Our present ethnographic field assignment entails a major study of two mixed ethnic elementary schools in the United States of America and the schools have come together for a symposium. We will use participant observation, radio-amplifiers and interrogations to gather information because they produce an oddly friendly examination of daily life; in addition to that, we will use the schools’ policies along with media items to position this study materials in an extensive manner. The general analysis will be analyzing interactions in which the teachers, and students familiarize to media and famous cultures, as well as ethnicity, the social division of famous cultural practices, the rapport between customs and their demonstration in local descriptions and in syllabus and strategy dialogue. The mixing of methods in the assignment presents a full comprehension of the importance of famous culture consumption in the teen partakers’ daily connections and social procedures. The illustration at this point is to compare the kind of research materials that our methods provide, and consider the associated issues in relation with the investigator and the investigated, thus the emphasis will be on the main key empirical techniques namely participant observation, radio-microphones, and interviews. Participant- observation and taking of short notes illustrates the idea of wider institutional procedures, issues, incidences in everyday livelihood of the schools, and the provision of orientation description and interpretation for other team members. In the process of carrying out the research, the researcher should create a good rapport with the teachers and other staffs to ensure effective results are obtained. Selected participants choose to put on radio microphones and the investigator listening using headphones. However, on the process, there is no part that is allowed to come there unless with consent, at that particular time, the radio microphones are turned off. Nevertheless, the participants are assured of the confidentiality of their information, and the quantification permits some helpful evaluation amid young men and women, in the two schools, which may provide a better comprehension of human beings and provide a wider examination of youngster media consumption (Freidenberg 2011, p.267). On the other hand, the face-to-face interview provides information that the partakers are not willing to provide publicly. This is where questions like “come again?”, “where?”, “what?”, and why are being used to get information regarding media and culture, similarly, these are fundamental apprehensions in media consumption researches and the data gained harmonizes the study objects from the aural footages. By interviewing teachers and other staff members is also significant because other positive or conflicting discussions rising from documented study materials in the schools, on syllabus and learning strategy, and simultaneous media reports of education, ethnicities and famous cultures, will as well be measured. Conclusion Ethnography is time consuming and costly making it hard for most researchers to dedicate an extended period outside other job responsibilities and family, additionally, it is still somewhat hard to get financial support to carry out extensive ethnographic study. Therefore, the incapability to oversimplify from ethnographic data should not be identified as a limitation but rather as part of a methodological procedure that permits scholars to achieve a deeper comprehension of specific processes. However, oversimplifying may be attained in partial means, for instance, through explicability of ethnographic studies across numerous items. Conversely, ethnographers need high standards of dedication and a readiness to share their work and life with particular groups that they care about, therefore, many scholars such as Scheper-Hughes (1995), have argued that they should at all times take part in militant ethnography. In addition to that, good ethnographic effort has to make sure that self-reflexive affiliation is clear and is built on the knowledge of people’s own limitations and the role they have in the research process, however, it has to also recognize the fundamental and crucial function that community members have in the final research product. Apart from that, a good ethnographic research has to present proof that the information reported, the investigation, as well as the procedures explained are the effect of an extensive and cautious procedure of maturation of the data gathered. This revisit to sound methodology does not prevent a bigger standard of self-reflexivity and familiarity of the ethical insinuation of carrying out fieldwork. References Ayass, R., & Gerhardt, C., 2012. The appropriation of media in everyday life. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co. Coman, M., & Rothenbuhler, E. W., 2005. Media anthropology. Thousand Oaks: Calif. [u.a.], TSage. Fetterman, D. M., 2010. Ethnography: step-by-step. Los Angeles, SAGE. Freidenberg, J. 2011, "Researching Global Spaces Ethnographically: Queries on Methods for the Study of Virtual Populations", Human organization, vol. 70, no. 3, pp. 265-278. Moores, S., 2000. Media and everyday life in modern society. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press. Moores, S., 1993. Interpreting audiences: the ethnography of media consumption. London : u.a, Sage. Murchison, J., 2013. Ethnography essentials designing, conducting, and presenting your research. San Francisco: Calif, Jossey-Bass. http://rbdigital.oneclickdigital.com. Spitulnik, D 1993, 'ANTHROPOLOGY AND MASS MEDIA', Annual Review Of Anthropology, 22, 1, pp. 293-315. Read More