Comparar métodos

	Etnografía digital	Netnografía	Observación Participante
Campo	Cualitativa	Cualitativa	Investigación cualitativa
Familia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Año de origen	Late 1990s – 2000s	1997 (coined); 2010 (first comprehensive methodology book)	1922
Autor original	Christine Hine (virtual ethnography); Robert V. Kozinets (netnography)	Robert V. Kozinets	Bronislaw Malinowski
Tipo	Qualitative research method	Qualitative research method	Method
Fuente seminal	Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. Sage. ISBN: 978-1847875228	Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. Sage. ISBN: 978-1847875907	Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books. ISBN: 978-0465026432
Alias	online ethnography, virtual ethnography, internet ethnography, netnography	online ethnography, virtual ethnography, cyber-ethnography, digital ethnography	ethnographic observation, participatory observation, overt observation, immersive observation
Relacionados	6	6	4
Resumen	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.	Netnography is a qualitative research method that adapts the principles of cultural ethnography to the study of online communities and social media environments. Coined by Robert Kozinets in 1997 and systematised in his 2010 handbook, netnography treats digital spaces — forums, social networks, blogs, review sites — as naturally occurring field sites where communities gather, share meanings, and construct identities. The method combines unobtrusive observation of digital traces with active participation and, where appropriate, direct member interaction.	Participant observation is a qualitative research method in which the researcher embeds themselves within a community, organization, or social setting for an extended period, engaging in the activities and relationships of the group while systematically observing and documenting behavior, interactions, and cultural meaning. Pioneered by Malinowski in the 1920s and developed in anthropology, the method has been adopted across sociology, education, health sciences, and organizational research. The researcher functions as both insider (participating in group activities) and outsider (maintaining analytical distance), generating thick description—rich accounts of context, behavior, and meaning that reveal how people actually live and interact.