Linganisha mbinu

	Ethnografiya ya kidijitali	Utafiti wa Kina wa Kijamii
Nyanja	Mbinu za Kimaelezo	Mbinu za Kimaelezo
Familia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Mwaka wa asili	Late 1990s – 2000s	1920s (classical origins); refined 1990s–2000s
Mwanzilishi	Christine Hine (virtual ethnography); Robert V. Kozinets (netnography)	Rooted in classical anthropological fieldwork (Malinowski, 1922); systematised for sociological revisits by Michael Burawoy (2003)
Aina	Qualitative research method	Qualitative research design
Chanzo asilia	Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. Sage. ISBN: 978-1847875228	Burawoy, M. (2003). Revisits: An outline of a theory of reflexive ethnography. American Sociological Review, 68(5), 645–679.
Majina mbadala	online ethnography, virtual ethnography, internet ethnography, netnography	extended ethnography, long-term fieldwork, sustained ethnographic study, longitudinal field research
Zinazohusiana	6	5
Muhtasari	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.	Longitudinal ethnography is a qualitative research design in which a researcher conducts sustained, repeated fieldwork with the same community, organisation, or group across an extended period — months to decades. By returning to the field at multiple time points, the researcher captures how social processes, meanings, and structures evolve, making it the only qualitative method capable of directly observing change and continuity in lived experience.