Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Qualitative Research
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Williams, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Avatar watching: participant observation in graphical online environments

Matthew Williams

School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University

Increasingly, social science researchers are turning to the internet to study forms of ‘virtual’ culture. In tandem there has been a degree of trepidation and innovation in the application of research methodology to the online arena. As its focus this article takes the application of participant observation to the virtual field. Drawing upon narratives elicited from community members of an online graphical social space, methodological questions are raised about the viability of a ‘virtual ethnography’, while a more practical discussion focuses upon the re-engineering of participant observation for operation in an online pseudo-physical field. The impact of graphical pseudo-presence, avatar representation, physical online boundaries and multiple online sites upon the practice of participant observation are examined. The article concludes that the advent of new broadband technologies and the expansion of graphical online environments require online methods that are both responsive and adaptive in order to elicit reliable and valid data from rapidly changing online environments.

Key Words: avatars • internet • online research • participant observation • virtual ethnography

Qualitative Research, Vol. 7, No. 1, 5-24 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1468794107071408
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Field MethodsHome page
J. Burrell
The Field Site as a Network: A Strategy for Locating Ethnographic Research
Field Methods, May 1, 2009; 21(2): 181 - 199.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Qualitative ResearchHome page
M. Travers
New methods, old problems: A sceptical view of innovation in qualitative research
Qualitative Research, April 1, 2009; 9(2): 161 - 179.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Criminal JusticeHome page
D. S. Wall and M. Williams
Policing diversity in the digital age: Maintaining order in virtual communities
JCriminology and Criminal Justice, November 1, 2007; 7(4): 391 - 415.
[Abstract] [PDF]