Comparer des méthodes

	Observation participante en ligne	Groupe de discussion en ligne
Domaine	Méthodologie d'enquête	Méthodologie d'enquête
Famille	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Année d'origine	Late 1990s–2000s	1946 (focus groups); online variant ~1990s–2000s
Auteur d'origine	Christine Hine (virtual ethnography); Robert Kozinets (netnography)	Robert Merton & Patricia Kendall (focus group origins); online adaptation by scholars including Stewart & Shamdasani in the 1990s
Type	Qualitative data collection method	Qualitative group data collection
Source fondatrice	Hine, C. (2000). Virtual Ethnography. SAGE Publications. ISBN: 978-0761958956	Stewart, D. W., & Shamdasani, P. N. (2017). Online Focus Groups. Journal of Advertising, 46(1), 48–60.
Alias	virtual participant observation, digital ethnographic observation, cyber participant observation, internet participant observation	virtual focus group, internet focus group, OFG, web-based focus group
Apparentées	5	5
Résumé	Online participant observation is a qualitative data collection method in which the researcher enters a digital community or online environment — forums, social media groups, multiplayer games, virtual workplaces — both as a participant and as an observer, systematically documenting social interactions, practices, and meanings as they naturally unfold in the digital space.	An online focus group is a moderated group discussion conducted via internet-based platforms — video conferencing, text chat, or asynchronous forums — to explore shared perceptions, attitudes, and experiences on a defined topic. It inherits the group-interaction dynamics of the traditional focus group while removing geographic barriers and enabling data collection from dispersed or hard-to-reach populations.