Multiplatform Ethnographic Analysis: Internet Immersions and Field Challenges

Abstract

The last fifteen years have seen the emergence of internet studies. Among the issues and opportunities this raises is the possibility to do virtual ethnography, involving redefinitions of fieldwork: the connections between online and offline relations, implications of technological mediation, and the ethics of such research. In this article, we address an overlooked aspect: multiplatform interactions in social networking sites (SNS).

We conducted a virtual ethnographic study in a community of communication professionals, specifically public relations (CordobaPR) in Argentina. Our results give some insights into methodological debates raised by this type of research. They also illustrate challenges involved in shifting from uniplatform to multiplatform interactions, which imply a growing complexity of exchanges through multiple software layers.