Confronta i metodi

	Etnografia Digitale Comparata	Etnografia Digitale	Etnografia	Netnografia
Campo	Qualitativo	Qualitativo	Qualitativo	Qualitativo
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anno di origine	1995–2000 (multi-sited framework 1995; virtual ethnography 2000)	Late 1990s – 2000s	c. 1922 (Malinowski's Argonauts of the Western Pacific)	1997 (coined); 2010 (first comprehensive methodology book)
Ideatore	Christine Hine (digital ethnography); George E. Marcus (multi-sited ethnography)	Christine Hine (virtual ethnography); Robert V. Kozinets (netnography)	Bronisław Malinowski (modern ethnography); rooted in 19th-century anthropology	Robert V. Kozinets
Tipo	Qualitative research design	Qualitative research method	Qualitative fieldwork tradition	Qualitative research method
Fonte seminale	Hine, C. (2000). Virtual Ethnography. Sage. ISBN: 978-0761958963	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	Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. Sage. ISBN: 978-1847875907
Alias	CDE, multi-site digital ethnography, cross-platform ethnography, comparative virtual ethnography	online ethnography, virtual ethnography, internet ethnography, netnography	Etnografi, participant observation, fieldwork, ethnographic research	online ethnography, virtual ethnography, cyber-ethnography, digital ethnography
Correlati	5	6	5	6
Sintesi	Comparative Digital Ethnography (CDE) is a qualitative design that applies ethnographic methods — sustained participant observation, interview, and artefact analysis — across two or more digital settings simultaneously. By systematically comparing practices, meanings, and interactions in different online environments (e.g., distinct platforms, communities, or national contexts), CDE surfaces both site-specific patterns and cross-cutting cultural logics that a single-site study would miss.	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.	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.