Carrying out an Ethnographic Study - Article Example

An Ethnographic Study of the ASICS Victor Harbour Triathlon Name Institution Course Unit Instructor Date In recent years, there has been a huge outcry on the number of hours that children spend indoors watching television, or surfing on the internet, playing video games on computers and gaming consoles as opposed to playing outside in physically demanding games. Research studies and health experts have pointed out to risks associated with such lifestyles which comprise obesity, stroke, cardiovascular illnesses, and diabetes among others. These children are not to blame. Technological advancements such as the internet and video games have redefined society and socialization. The modern generation of youngsters has a very narrow definition of society and socialization as their universe is largely defined by their video games, social media and movie stars. They lead an unhealthy sedentary lifestyle that lead to low cultural and social competence, low cognitive response rates, low physical strength and the like. Outdoor activities, especially those that that involve family and friends provide rich opportunities for children and family to interact, have fun, develop children’s key skills, interact with the outdoor environment to stimulate sensory development, communication skills, develop physical strength, sense of competitiveness, develop team building skills, promote problem solving skills, increase attention span among other benefits. Societal has responded to these glaring facts and there is a growing trend to discontinue the influence of technology and engage children more in physical and social activities for more balanced development. The ASICS Victor Harbour Triathlons event provides such an opportunity for families and children. The event combines swimming, running and cycling in a sequence can which can develop needed skills in children and also allow them and their families to have fun. This event is organized as both a professional athletic event and family run/walk athletic event. This year’s event I attended this year’s event which was held on Sunday the 9th March with the intention of not only enjoying the event but also to carrying out an ethnographic study of the event to assess how the event functions as a social event as part of sociology studies. Of interest general pattern of behaviour among the event staff and the event participants that included professionals, individuals and families. The study used both unobtrusive observations and conversational interviews to collect data. Although I was aware about the race, I interviewed one of the event’s organizing staff to understand the history and purpose of the event. I learnt that the ASICS Victor Harbour Triathlons targets persons of all ages including children thereby making it a perfect family entertainment event. The event takes place every month of March at the Fleurieu Peninsula. It is widely marketed all over Australia through fliers, social media and mainstream media. The event is marketed as four-categories event with different distances covered. The short distance triathlon comprises of 180m swim, 8km cycle and 1.5km; the Olympic distance comprises 1.5km swim/40km cycle/10km run, the mini distance race which largely targets children comprises of 50m swim/2km cycle/400m run and the family run comprising of just 5 km of running/walking. I talked to one of the volunteers to understand what really is required to participate. She indicated an individual had to register one month prior to the event by stating the chosen event and paying the required fees. The fees also vary with age and mode of participation-individual or relay team. The short distance run caters to persons of all ages with fees at $10-60 for individuals and $50-70 for relays teams. Participants in this race are further categorized by age and sex with males categorized in 20-49 age group, below 20 years, above 50 years while females are categorized as below 20 years, 20-39 years and above 40. The different categories donned swim caps of different colours. For instance, the 20-49 years male SD racers wore white swim caps while above 40 years old females wore purple swim caps. I compared this to market segmentation by marketers where a slight product variation is used to target a different market segment. This also makes individuals feel unique and retain their individuality through products and in this case the race and age category that they participate in. from a different perspective, categorization by age also allowed participants to compete amongst their peers and not to feel disadvantaged by having to compete outside the age group. The event organisers largely rely on volunteers. The volunteers serve a wide range of functions such as assigning numbers to participants, briefing participants, supplying amenities such as water and after race refreshments, attending to injured, assisting persons with difficulties and such roles. Given that the area where the race takes place is large, these volunteers are also responsible for sneering that the display signs and signboards to amenities such as the lavatories are visible and well maintained. Furthermore, volunteers are responsible for ensuring that trash cans are visible to all and also emptying full trashcans during the course of the events. The event kicked off at 7 am. At the very beginning, all participants were briefed about the event, participation requirements, race schedule, safety issues, refreshments, routes to be used and other issues. All the event staff and volunteers were stationed at different locations. Announcements were made to inform where different participants could gather. Volunteers came in handy as they guided the people based on what event they had registered for to different starting points. Racing numbers and category codes were issued together colour coded swim caps. I observed that is was carefully planned as race (OD) codes were placed on the right arm and the category code on the lower leg. There was a lot of excitement especially among the below 20 males who would start off the event against the few over 50’s males. Ordinarily, the participants start with swimming, then move on to cycling and then finish off by running. This means that participants must be well trained in swimming, cycling and running. Majority of the participants were ordinary citizens. Professional athletes concentrated on the Olympic distance event and the short distance event. Of all the five participants that I talked to who participated in the OD event were professional athletes. They indicated that the event was not friendly to amateurs especially the swimming part where participants had to swim for 1.5 km before taking up their bikes. One of the participants in the short distance event that I talked to, McQueen indicated that he could not imagine himself ever swimming for 1.5km nonstop. He indicated that the event was his sixth in a row and that he was participating to challenge himself and for the fun of it. The mini distance race was largely patronized by children. What was interesting was that majority of them were overweight or obese. In fact, this is the race that recorded the highest number of person failing to finish the race and also the highest in number of injuries reported. One of the common injuries reported was muscle pulls that threatened to overwhelm the medics on site. In fact, nearly a quarter of the children did not finish the first activity of swimming either due to muscle pulls or fatigue. This highlighted the physical unfitness of the children and poor preparation. Of the three kids that I talked to that pulled out at the swimming phase, they indicated that this was the first event that they had ever participated in. Two of them said they had swimming pools back at home but rarely used them preferring to use video games. They had participated in the event out of pressure from parents. However, from a different perspective, it must be acknowledged that parents had made attempts to get their children to participate in the mini triathlon as individuals to gain a competitive spirit, interact with fellow students and most of all keep physically fit. However, fitness is not a one-off activity but one that requires to be maintained and pursued all times and in all ways. One parent, though not participating in any event indicated that he had enrolled his 11 year old in the mini distance event as he wanted him to become a professional athlete in future. The family run event was the most divers in terms of participants. This race as the name involved families. Most of them had kids below ten years accompanied by their parents and several senior citizens. It was evident that the persons participating in this race were mot keen on the trophies or the price money but rather having fun. I observed that majority of such families would compete in mini sprints of about 100 yards among themselves. One family comprised of a mum and her six year old twins of boys. The two compete against amongst themselves in everything from eating brushing teeth and thus the race was not any different. In another family of three, dad and three daughters, they were running holding hands. The youngest girl seemed about 8 years and the oldest 13 years. I talked to the father upon finishing the race he indicated that he was trying to teach his young girls the importance of exercise and the fun in it. He indicated that he had lost his wife to cancer about four years ago. He seemed convinced that a sedentary lifestyle contributed heavily to his wife illness. He added “personally, I take exercise very seriously and if it were not for my girls, I would have gone for the short distance category.” I talked to one of the organisers to learn whether the event had taken a marketing approach in marketing the event. She indicated that Asics as a sports apparel making body thrives and believes in people staying physically fit and healthy. She indicated that Asics had engaged in several CSR activities that involved visiting elementary schools to encourage young children to eat healthy and be active in sports. She viewed the triathlon thus as an opportunity for ordinary citizens, professional athletes and the young and the old to test their physical and sporting capabilities against others in fun way. The prizes and trophies presented to the winners and other participants were just to motivate the people to adapt a healthier lifestyle. From this event, it is very clear that our society is soon realizing the challenges that technology brings in terms of lifestyle. The event not only captures the efforts being made by corporates and government to address the situation, but also highlights the fact the most affected are children. Parents spend little time with children due to busy work schedules leaving them with computers, mobile phones, and television as company. The result is that few children engage in physical fitness. For other parents, such physical fitness facilities are provided by their workplaces hence do not bother to look into the physical fitness of children. The event highlights the problem of an increasingly unfit society and the same time points current efforts and the potential they have in encouraging families to seek alternative ways of entertainment that promote a healthy lifestyle. Commentary Theoretical understanding of ethnographic study is not enough without properly learning its application in the field and the issues that face its use as a data collection approach. In the current case, I learnt this first hand in a very interesting way. I noted that in some situations, observation is not enough. As a curious person, realized that just observing people engaged in an activity from a distance of participating alongside them is not enough to justify the data collected depending on what type of data is being sought. In this case, I observed that the event received a huge turnout of children. I needed an explanation for such an observation hence the need to approach one of the organisers to understand whether the event is in any way marketed to target children. Another issue that I observed in carrying out an ethnographic study is that it is very easy to get carried away in the field and forget about data collection. I noticed this because I participated in the family run and interacted with so many people that it is hard to clearly recall all the topics and individuals I interacted with and were potential sources of data. All in all, the experience has been great fun and very informative. References Davies, C. (2012). Reflexive Ethnography: A Guide to Researching Selves and Others. London: Routlegde. Eggleston, J. (2013). Contemporary research in the sociology of education. London: Routledge. Gratton, C. & Jones, I. (2010). Research methods for sports studies. Brisbane: Taylor & Francis. Getz, D. (2012), “Event Studies: Discourses and Future Directions. 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