Digital Ethnography Research Articles

Russia was ‘Doomed to Expand [its] Aggression’ Against Ukraine: Cultural Property Criminals’ Responses to the Invasion and Occupation of the Donbas Since 20th February 2014

ABSTRACT This study explores how Russia’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine has affected cultural property crime and how cultural property criminals have responded to those practical, social, political and economic changes. To do so, this online ethnography draws on netnographic data from 184 artefact-hunters across Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Greece, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, two artefact-dealers and one violent political operator, whose discussions spanned 19 online communities. It examines the legal fictions and legal nihilism of antiquities looters; the criminal operations of antiquities looters and antiquities traffickers in the occupied territories of Ukraine; the international networks of artefact-hunters that facilitate the trading of equipment and antiquities, plus the movement of the artefact-hunters themselves and the conduct of their criminal operations. Thereby, it documents the pollution of Western markets with tainted cultural goods from the occupied territories of Ukraine and elsewhere in Eastern Europe and the contribution of Western consumers to the conflict economy.

Analisis Fenomena Hyperhonest Penggunaan Fitur Instagram Close Friends Dalam Batasan Privasi

With the development of new social media features that now make social media not only limited to exchanging information, but also used as a space for self-disclosure, one of which is self-disclosure on the Instagram "Close Friends" feature. With this feature, users can use it as a place to vent, express themselves more or be more honest by sharing private matters that are only known by the list of followers of their close friends. In terms of this phenomenon, it is called the hyperhonest phenomenon, namely venting more honestly. The purpose of the importance of this research is to find out and understand the hyperhonest phenomenon experienced by generation Z women in the Instagram close friends feature and the cyber culture of self-disclosure that is formed in the Instagram close friends feature, as well as to contribute to readers so that they consider disclosing personal information on the media. social. This study uses the study of Communication Privacy Management theory by Sandra Petronio (2002) which focuses on privacy management systems to regulate the level of privacy boundaries. The method used is Virtual Ethnography with in-depth interviews with 6 female respondents in the Z generation category and participant observation by researchers. The data validation technique uses data triangulation. Most of them set boundaries in sharing personal problems in the close friends feature that there is trust given to people they trust for shared information ownership, then cyber culture is formed in the Instagram close friends feature where the close friends space becomes a place of refuge to reveal personal information, share hyperhonest story.

What Teams Do: Exploring Volunteer Content Moderation Team Labor on Facebook

Social media sites such as Facebook depend on tens of millions of volunteer moderators across the globe to facilitate platform-based discussion forums. While research has revealed much about the work that these moderators do, some fundamental questions remain. For example, why do volunteer moderators commonly work as teams rather than individuals? In this article, I use data gathered through digital ethnography with Facebook Group moderators to explore the benefits and challenges of moderation team work. I develop a three-part framework to articulate how teams facilitate logistical, discursive, and emotional labor. Finally, I argue that this empirical analysis reveals otherwise hidden and unacknowledged dimensions of volunteer moderation work that make platform-hosted discussion groups possible.

The Use of Instagram in the Halal Food Information Sharing among Virtual Communities

Virtual communities refer to people who use and share information on social media through the Internet. A virtual community that cares about the Halal lifestyle creates and shares content widely using Instagram to raise people’s awareness of halal food. This article explores the use of Instagram in sharing information on halal food. This article is qualitative in nature and applies Virtual ethnography. The research subjects are the Halal Corner team and followers. The data is collected through observation, interview, and documentation. They are analyzed using the virtual ethnography method by Boellstorff. This article finds numerous reasons to share information on halal food through Halal Corner Instagram. The reasons are effective communication, social connectedness, content production, content characteristics and features, and reliable information source.

Sensemaking through Adaptive Collective Storytelling: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Non-Islamic Postings on Twittersphere under Enhanced Virtual Ethnography

Sensemaking through Adaptive Collective Storytelling: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Non-Islamic Postings on Twittersphere under Enhanced Virtual Ethnography

Diskursus Hermeneutis Penafsiran KH. Sya’roni Ahmadi di Channel Youtube

Technological developments have an impact on almost every aspect of human life. It was responded well by religious leaders, including in Islamic da'wah. KH Sya'roni Ahmadi is one of the Kudus scholars who utilizes YouTube-based technological developments as a medium for delivering commentary material. This paper aimed to reveal his model of interpretation, and to see how far he understands the audience textually and contextually. The author uses the virtual ethnography method, which is a method to reach the audience's interaction life on the YouTube page. The results of this study indicated that KH Sya'roni Ahmadi uses the tahlili or sequential method in conveying commentary material. He really understands the social conditions in society and the heterogeneity of the Majlis Tafsir congregation. Therefore the character of KH Sya'roni Ahmadi's preaching has transitional gradations, starting from being hard, firm to soft and straightforward. In addition, by presenting elaborative exegesis material, he explained coherently in depth starting from the point of view of the science of qiroat, then entering the exegesis material correlated with the context when the interpretation was delivered.

Objectification and Exploitation of Women's Students Content in Social Media

This research aims to examine more deeply how female students become objectified and exploited on social media. The contribution of this research is to fill the existing knowledge gap and provide a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of highlighting female students, who are a vulnerable group to exploitation and abuse. This research also pays attention to the negative impact of exploitation content that can harm female students physically, emotionally, and socially. The main motive of female students on social media is because they want to project a pious identity into a place to form a personal popularity existence on behalf of piety. Researchers used the Digital Ethnography approach to identify narratives, images and videos that show the exploitation of female students. The results and implications of this research can be a guide for women, especially female students.

A First Glance at the NFT Quebec Gaming Scene

This article examines the discourses surrounding non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in gaming and identifies companies involved in NFTs in the Quebec gaming scene. NFTs boomed in the gaming industry in 2021 and continued to grow in 2022, even as the value of gaming coins plummeted. If successful, some believe they could bring new opportunities to the gaming landscape. We conducted an online ethnography in early 2022 through an innovative web-scanning approach and curation process powered by a professional market intelligence platform. Data was collected from various sources and analyzed via statistical analysis software to understand the discourses of companies, gamers, researchers, and insiders. Findings show that the technical and economic discourse is at least ambivalent if not negative, while the gamer discourse is mostly negative. The burgeoning Quebec scene is currently very limited and divided into two groups: large gaming companies and startups. Despite the crypto-enthusiast craze, our analysis shows that early projects were often criticized by traditional gamers and that professionals in the sector remain skeptical.

Strategi Marketing Berderma Melalui Crowdfunding di Akun Instagram @ikoy2an

Crowdfunding has now entered the world of marketing. The presence of a different crowdfunding concept through the ikoy-ikoyan game is a new thing in the realm of social media. Crowdfunding activities utilize Instagram social media by uploading campaigns in the form of videos and images on Instagram accounts. This study aims to find out the social media marketing strategy that has been carried out by Arief Muhammad in the @ikoy2an account. Using qualitative research methods and virtual ethnographic approaches. Researchers found that the ikoy-ikoyan trend has succeeded in shifting the giveaway trend that has developed in the last year. The ikoy-ikoyan trend has proven effective in increasing charity awareness, strengthening brand, customer engagement, and increasing the number of followers on Instagram accounts.
 Keywords: Crowdfunding, Marketing Strategy, Virtual Ethnography.

Share with care: negotiating children’s health and safety in sharenting practices

Sharenting – a new term emerged over the past 10 years – refers to the practice of sharing textual and audiovisual contents concerning children online by their parents or guardians, potentially impacting the construction of children’s digital identity before they can reach the age of consent. Based on a passive virtual ethnography carried out comparatively in Italian-speaking and English-speaking virtual communities focusing on children’s wellbeing and health, this paper offers an empirical contribution to the study of sharenting. While contributing to the wider debates on the practices and discourses about sharing in digital media, this paper provides an analysis of how online and offline parenting cultures affect sharenting practices; how the consequences of sharenting are addressed in online communities; and how the privacy vs openness tension about sharing contents is negotiated by parents with regards to their own and children needs even in terms of digital security.

Cultivating Digital Reflexivity as Resistance to Digital Dualism: Doing Digital Ethnography with U.S. Congregations During the covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract This article reflexively reviews methods for training researchers developed during a national studying of thriving congregations in the United States during the covid-19 pandemic (2020-2022) as a case study on doing digital ethnography (ethnography that uses digital methods to study and engage critically with digital culture). The article outlines the importance of digital culture (expressions of identity offline are not separate from online formation; see Campbell 2012) and digital dualism (outmoded assumptions about binaries between online/offline spaces; see Jurgenson 2011) for doing digital ethnography, and argues that as long as digital dualism lurks not only among congregations, but also within researchers and their methodologies, it undermines knowledge of congregations. Therefore, the article develops the concept of digital reflexivity (the interrogation of one’s own digital cultural experiences, identities, and power, in tension with one’s relationships), arguing for its usefulness for ethnographic studies of congregations, practices of congregational ministry, and theological education.

State crisis response versus transnational family living: An online ethnography among transnational families during the pandemic

Abstract Transnational family living refers to the situation of maintaining relationships across national borders. It is dependent on a certain degree of flexibility from the state. As part of the crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this flexibility was revoked. As a result, existing mobility inequalities became more visible than ever: while travel restrictions came as a shock to many, they created an additional challenge to those who had been struggling in the past. All persons engaged in transnational family living had to find ways to navigate the new situation. Our project is based on policy review and online ethnography taking Norway as a case. We discuss how individuals tried to maintain cross-border and mixed-status family lives during the first year of the pandemic, reacted to the borders closing, and found solace and advice from others in similar situations. The COVID-19 pandemic and the travel restrictions that followed have exposed vulnerabilities associated with transnational living and revealed to those involved that their arrangements were conditioned by the non-interference of the state. Our article engages in the discussion on the complexity of transnational family living and uses the case of the pandemic and the sudden state intervention in mobility regulations to expose the hidden parts of the puzzle that sustain the contemporary attributes of transnationalism.

Gender Digital Divide in Migratory Contexts: The Case of Peruvian Migrant Women in Italy and Spain

Aim. This ethnographic study explores the impact of the digital divide within the collective of Peruvian migrant women employed in a highly precarious sector, such as domestic services. Methods. This has become evident in this multisite and virtual ethnography, with the following objectives: to analyse the variables that affect digital exclusion, in addition to identifying and deepening the different digital competencies and uses of Information and communication technologies (ICT) in the migratory projects of Peruvian migrant women. In order to achieve these objectives, we undertook fieldwork during the COVID-19 pandemic in two contexts, Italy and Spain, using semi-structured interviews and virtual observation, during which we employed online social networks as research tools. Results. Although digital inequality was a reality prior to COVID-19, it has been worsened by the pandemic, at which time we began our fieldwork. Inequalities between men and women in the different areas of society are reproduced within the context of new technologies. This is termed the gender digital divide and is considered a form of social exclusion, which intensifies and feeds back into itself. Gender inequality in terms of the use of ICT and digital skills intensifies in communities that are even more vulnerable, such as migrant women, whose plenary incorporation into information society is limited. Conclusion. The use of ICT can aid in social inclusion of migrants in digitally advanced societies. However, Peruvian migrant women face new forms of social exclusion due to limited digital access, economic difficulties, and individual digital skills, leading to a gender and generational digital gap.

Analyzing Digital Platforms Appropriation to Support Organization Communication through Industry 5.0 Paradigm

The digital revolution through the Internet, connected technologies, and virtual platforms transforms whole human activities including policies, the economy, education, the environment, and so on. Thus, in developed and developing countries particularly, social media and digital platforms appropriation results in virtualization of daily communication practices for human wellbeing in society and organizations. This paper aims to describe how digital platforms like social media transform organization strategies according to the exploration of Industry 5.0 as human centric paradigm to promote business activities resilience and build a social capital in a challenging context. Through a virtual ethnography case study in Cote d’Ivoire, a West Africa Country, observation, interviews and focus groups allowed to collect data from a convenience sample of business owners/managers, employees and clients in 5 start up or enterprises from January to May 2024. Findings underline digital platform marketing strategies adoption, challenges encountered and outcomes for organization stakeholders in term of resilient value creation, and sustainability and human well-being. As recommendation, a communication development approach based on binding communication, social media marketing and Industry 5.0 paradigm is a strategic approach for effective communication in this changing world according to a human centric perspective. This can allow to create business opportunities, reduce poverty, increase resilience, balance organization sustainability through intelligent marketing communication tools and social media platforms integrated human activities

Virtual Ethnography of Social Movements in Addressing Covid-19: Collective and Community Experiences in Latin America

Virtual Ethnography of Social Movements in Addressing Covid-19: Collective and Community Experiences in Latin America

Youth digital activism, social media and human rights education: the Fridays for Future movement

This article examines the social media activity (Twitter) of the youth-led ‘Fridays for Future’ climate movement during the transition from in-person to online strikes early in the Covid-19 pandemic. Our aim was to identify possibilities and challenges for human rights education in youth digital activism. The research question of the study was to explore whether and how the digital environment serves as an educational space for learning about, for and through human rights. Adopting a digital ethnography, we analysed over 9,400 posts in 2020 and 2022, examining the extent to which activists’ understandings of civil, political and socio-economic rights—particularly peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, the right to a healthy environment and adequate standard of living—developed. Findings reveal the responsive, inclusive, and experiential nature of peer-to-peer learning in a social movement and our discussion considers how digital activism might support future human rights-based digital learning.

Fans, Fellows or Followers: A Study on How Sport Federations Shape Social Media Affordances

Increased in-depth knowledge on how sport federations shape their social media affordances to build relationships with their audiences will develop the understanding and ongoing discussion on the effects of social media in organized sports. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate in what way sports federations shape their social media affordances to create an increased understanding of how they interact with their audiences through social media. Three sports federations, the Swedish Basketball Federation, the Swedish Skateboard Association, and the Swedish Equestrian Federation, were investigated through semi-structured interviews as well as digital ethnography. The analytical focus lies on in what way the organizations shape social media affordances as well as in what way they imagine social media uses and users. This study shows that the federations’ imagination of who their users are, what they would like to see and how these users act and react defines their affordances. Further, the results reveal that the federations have differing approaches to in what way they imagine their users (as fans, fellows or followers) as well as what their incentives are for using social media. To learn how ongoing mediations mold long-term changes for sport federations, it is of importance to look beyond mediatization and learn more about their current structure and operations, their history, and traditions, as well as their view of their users.

‘Study-abroad influencers’ and insider knowledge: how new forms of study-abroad expertise on social media mediate student mobility from India to Germany

This paper examines new forms of study-abroad expertise on social media and their role in mediating Indian student mobility to Germany. Firstly, it explores how mutual-support Facebook and WhatsApp groups—used by prospective international students in India to support each other through the process of applying to German universities—have contributed to the emergence of new forms of education consultancy, offered by Indian students or graduates of German universities, whom I call ‘Student Guides’. In addition, it shows how some Indians studying in Germany have started ‘Study in Germany’ YouTube channels, aimed at aspirant student migrants, and have become important ‘study-abroad influencers’. The paper analyses how these new forms of study-abroad expertise offer prospective international students social and cultural capital important for successful student migration, apart from shaping their imaginative geographies of Germany, and embedding them in cultures of mobility. Furthermore, the paper highlights how these new forms of study-abroad expertise intersect with, and critique, a more ‘traditional’ study-abroad expert: the professional education consultant. The paper draws on a digital ethnography of ‘Study in Germany’ Facebook and WhatsApp groups and YouTube channels, as well as interviews with the YouTubers, Student Guides, and Indian students in Germany.

Cancel Culture di Twitter: Etnografi Virtual Kasus Gofar Hilman dan Radio Prambors di Akun @Prambors

The cancel culture phenomenon is an action that has become a culture in today's digital era, especially on social media platforms. The case of Gofar Hilman and Radio Prambors that went viral at that time made us as researchers want to take a deeper look at the virtual ethnography of the case, especially on Twitter. The purpose of this research is to get an idea about the effect of cancel culture on Twitter on people's responses in Indonesia. This study uses a constructivist paradigm using qualitative research methods and descriptive studies. To strengthen the validity of this study, data collection techniques were used through literature studies about new media and document analysis in the form of Tweets in the comments column uploaded by Radio Prambors’s account, @Prambors on Twitter. The results of this study indicates that the cancel culture in Indonesia often shows their cohesiveness by throwing comments in the form of negative sentiments, but in the end sometimes these actions produce something with action after a phenomenon has gone viral.

The transnational prosocial activities of elite African footballers in their communities of origin

Through a digital ethnography of Twitter and Instagram and semi-structured interviews, this paper examined the different forms of prosocial activities of elite African footballers in their home countries. A few studies have examined ‘give back’ activities in communities of origin in the form of remittances to family and friends and social philanthropy initiatives. This approach has proven to be limited as it does not capture their non-material contributions to society. By framing the research problem around the concepts of prosocial behaviour and athlete citizenship, this study added new dimensions to our understanding of African players’ prosocial activities in their home countries. The findings show that African players are socially conscious agents who are obliged by their social norms and cultural values to support their communities in many different ways, including through active citizenship. The implication is that conceptions of the elite African athlete need to recognise them as ‘citizen athletes’ whose non-sporting lives go beyond remittances and philanthropy.