Howard and Tatum Readings

One of the interesting points Howard makes about online ethnography is the lack of connection or active participation between a researcher and the community they are studying, due to a lack of "physical entry into or exit from the community" (559). Last night, along with several co-workers and friends, I watched a documentary called Century Plaza, about the decaying Century Plaza Hotel here in Portland, that closed down in 2003. The film was an honest and brilliant snapshot of the lives of the low-income people who lived there until it closed. To make the film, Eric Lahey lived there for seven months, and he states, “Making a documentary is very much an exploratory process,” he says. “You don’t know at first where things are going. You find layers, and you wait for the moment that reveals how the story will unfold.” I imagine Lahey trying to study the same thing through online methods and cannot imagine how it would ever work. At least not with this particular community. Lahey's research and approach to interviewing the residents involved asking a question, and then, sitting, observing, and listening. This example illustrates that good research methodology will embrace whatever techniques are appropriate to the community being studied and the reading reflects that any approach, such as the social network analysis approach discussed by Howard, has both positive and problematic elements. The specific suggestions in the conclusion of this piece- such as applying network ethnography in stages and trying to get a "rough sense of community boundaries" before identifying a sample population- are helpful to keep in mind.

The Tatum article was interesting in terms of studying how Google bombs can help define or contribute to a social movement. When I first heard about the "miserable failure" Google bomb earlier this year, I was extremely excited because I felt that this clearly IS a way to make one's collective voice heard in an online environment, and that it is very powerful. Yet I am quite aware that I only felt this way about the ones I personally agree with! I think if the Google-bombing act becomes more of a regular practice, information on the Web will gradually lose its meaning and therefore, its power or validity unless search engines like Google are willing to implement some kind of action (as Tatum mentions) to block its effects. So although I find the humor in Google-bombing at the moment (again, only with the ones I agree with), and although I think it's important to find ways to support free speech and build social movements, I believe at a deeper level it probably does more harm than good.