Confronta i metodi

	Etnografia Digitale	Analisi del Discorso	Analisi Tematica
Campo	Qualitativo	Ricerca qualitativa	Ricerca qualitativa
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anno di origine	Late 1990s – 2000s	1989 (Fairclough); 1987 (Potter & Wetherell)	2006
Ideatore	Christine Hine (virtual ethnography); Robert V. Kozinets (netnography)	Norman Fairclough; Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell	Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke
Tipo	Qualitative research method	Method	Method
Fonte seminale	Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. Sage. ISBN: 978-1847875228	Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. Longman.	Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
Alias	online ethnography, virtual ethnography, internet ethnography, netnography	DA, Critical Discourse Analysis, Discursive Analysis	TA, Reflexive Thematic Analysis
Correlati	6	2	3
Sintesi	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.	Discourse analysis is a qualitative research methodology that examines how language, communication, and power shape meaning, identity, and social reality. Developed across linguistics, sociology, and psychology (particularly by Norman Fairclough and Jonathan Potter), discourse analysis goes beyond content to analyze language use as a social practice that constitutes and reflects power relations, ideologies, and social structures.	Thematic Analysis (TA) is a qualitative research methodology for identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns (themes) in qualitative data. Developed systematically by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke (2006), TA is flexible and accessible, applicable across diverse theoretical frameworks and data types, making it one of the most widely used qualitative methods in psychology, health research, and social sciences.