השוואת שיטות

	אתנוגרפיה דיגיטלית	אתנוגרפיה	תצפית משתתפת
תחום	איכותני	איכותני	מחקר איכותני
משפחה	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
שנת המקור	Late 1990s – 2000s	c. 1922 (Malinowski's Argonauts of the Western Pacific)	1922
הוגה השיטה	Christine Hine (virtual ethnography); Robert V. Kozinets (netnography)	Bronisław Malinowski (modern ethnography); rooted in 19th-century anthropology	Bronislaw Malinowski
סוג	Qualitative research method	Qualitative fieldwork tradition	Method
מקור מכונן	Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. Sage. ISBN: 978-1847875228	Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P. (2019). Ethnography: Principles in Practice (4th ed.). Routledge. ISBN: 978-1138504462	Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books. ISBN: 978-0465026432
כינויים	online ethnography, virtual ethnography, internet ethnography, netnography	Etnografi, participant observation, fieldwork, ethnographic research	ethnographic observation, participatory observation, overt observation, immersive observation
קשורות	6	5	4
תקציר	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.	Ethnography is a qualitative research tradition in which a researcher immerses themselves in a social group or community over an extended period — typically three to six months or longer — to study its culture, values, and behaviours in their natural setting. Originating in social and cultural anthropology, and consolidated as a rigorous method by Bronisław Malinowski in the early twentieth century, ethnography produces rich, contextualised accounts of how people live, work, and make meaning together.	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.