Ethnography, Its Strengths, Weaknesses and Its Application in Information Technology and Communication as a Research Design

Abstract

Ethnography was originally developed for the study of foreign cultures by the anthropologists. It involves the observation of situations and carrying out interviews with the study population. There are two basic characteristics of ethnography where the observation takes place in a natural setting and secondly, where researchers must understand how an event is perceived and interpreted by the people in a community. Ethnography is therefore a qualitative research method that is used to study people and cultures for in-depth knowledge about a socio-technological realities surrounding everyday software development practice. Ethnography can help to uncover not only what practitioners do, but also why they do it in terms of human computer interaction and user interfaces design. This is due to its unique strength to involve the researcher, the research process and the research, making it a potential ideal method for undertaking research where the community and its members interact with each other. The main objective of this paper is to examine through literature review, the strengths and weaknesses of ethnography as a research design method for researchers in the information communications and technology (ICT) field. This will therefore provide more insight on how ethnography can be applied in conducting some of the qualitative information communication and technologies studies, especially where in-depth understanding is required.