Methoden vergleichen

	Ethnografische Feldforschung	Digitale Ethnographie
Fachgebiet	Qualitativ	Qualitativ
Familie	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Entstehungsjahr	Early 20th century (Malinowski 1922; Geertz 1973)	Late 1990s – 2000s
Urheber	Bronislaw Malinowski; Clifford Geertz (interpretive tradition)	Christine Hine (virtual ethnography); Robert V. Kozinets (netnography)
Typ	Qualitative research design	Qualitative research method
Wegweisende Quelle	Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books. ISBN: 978-0465097197	Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. Sage. ISBN: 978-1847875228
Aliasnamen	fieldwork ethnography, immersive ethnography, ethnographic fieldwork, site-based ethnography	online ethnography, virtual ethnography, internet ethnography, netnography
Verwandt	6	6
Zusammenfassung	Field-based ethnography is a qualitative research design in which the researcher immerses themselves in a social setting or community over an extended period, observing and participating in everyday life to understand cultural practices, meanings, and social dynamics from an insider perspective. It is the classical form of ethnography, grounded in sustained physical presence at a research site, and distinguished from archival, virtual, or document-only approaches by its central reliance on direct, embodied fieldwork.	Digital ethnography is a qualitative research method that adapts traditional ethnographic fieldwork to online and digitally mediated settings. Drawing on sustained participant observation, document collection, and sometimes interviews, the researcher immerses themselves in one or more digital communities — social media platforms, forums, gaming spaces, or messaging groups — to understand how culture, identity, and social practice are constructed through digital interaction. The approach recognises that online spaces are not merely reflections of offline life but distinctive sites of cultural production in their own right.