Week 7, Post 1: Ethnography

I first heard of ethnography in the beginning of the semester in my Qualitative Communications class. I'd never heard of it before and had no clue as to what it was. Now that I've actually done an ethnography, I have a better understanding of what it is. Ethnography can be found on page 252 of Chapter 19. According to the text, ethnography is "discovering who people within a culture think they are, what they think they are doing, and to what end they think they are doing it" (252). It involves going to a particular site and observing the place, the people, and taking in the culture. Thick description is what is actually done by ethnographers. They compile notes and information on what they observe. The ethnographer may not understand what is going on in the culture at first, but observation lends itself to understanding.

My own experience with ethnography was different than anything I'd ever done, as far as research goes. I went to my site for several hours and just observed what was going on and took a lot of notes. I watched people, I watched how they interacted, and I took in the smells, sights, and sounds of the site. Ethnography differs from traditional research in that it forces the ethnographer to experience a culture "as members experience it" (252). It is almost like being a fly on the wall. When immersed in a culture, you start noticing how they communicate with one another, why they do certain things, and how they conduct themselves. These are things that ethnographers pay attention to and it is how cultures and organizations can be understood.