مقایسهٔ روش‌ها

	قوم‌نگاری دیجیتال	تحلیل اسناد
حوزه	کیفی	پژوهش کیفی
خانواده	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
سال پیدایش	Late 1990s – 2000s	1920
پدیدآور	Christine Hine (virtual ethnography); Robert V. Kozinets (netnography)	Max Weber and Karl Mannheim
نوع	Qualitative research method	Method
منبع بنیادین	Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. Sage. ISBN: 978-1847875228	Scott, J. (1990). A Matter of Record: Documentary Sources in Social Research. Polity Press. ISBN: 978-0745608419
نام‌های دیگر	online ethnography, virtual ethnography, internet ethnography, netnography	documentary analysis, textual analysis, content analysis of documents, archival research
مرتبط	6	4
خلاصه	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.	Document analysis is a systematic qualitative research method for examining written, visual, or audiovisual sources—such as policy documents, historical records, organizational records, media reports, emails, social media posts, photographs, or videos—to extract meaning, identify patterns, and understand social phenomena. Developed by Weber and Mannheim in early 20th-century sociology, the method bridges historical research, content analysis, and textual interpretation. Document analysis is used across disciplines to understand organizational change, policy evolution, media representation, historical events, and cultural meaning. Documents provide evidence of what organizations, institutions, or societies value, decide, and communicate, often revealing contradictions between policy and practice.