The ethnographic study of visual culture in the age of digitization

Text Exploration

In this text, the author describes a comprehensive case study of ethnographic work with engineers who work in a large corporation and use digital artifacts to conduct their job. The author presents three main areas of concern for researchers doing this form of work: gaining access to the site, recording interactions with visual representations that are done digitally, and writing about the findings.

The author notes that ethnographic research commonly focuses on observing what people do, but increasingly, people do things mediated by digital artifacts. They don’t simply use the artifacts; the artifacts become the materiality of their work, and “they think with and think through them.”

He then describes a case study with a vehicle company. The work was conducted over two years (in 2004-2006), and included a thorough battery of research methods, including observation, interviews, and artifact analyses.

Gaining access to the site was one of the most difficult parts of the process. The author asked an acquaintance at his university for a connection to someone in the R&D part of the company that was to be studied. He then discussed the work with that individual, and eventually was hired as an intern for a six-month visit. This was negotiated as a trade: he could conduct his research, if he shared recommendations from his observations with the company.

Once he had secured this role, he then worked to find a project champion, which required giving multiple presentations to the director of the research area. He convinced this director of his intention and approach, and writes that “I am confident that it was because I was a (temporary) ‘inside man’ that the directors finally agreed to allow me to collect digital artifacts.”

It was only after ensuring he could visit the site that he then engaged the IRB, who was more willing to fast-track his process because he had a letter of affirmation from the company.

Next, he engaged with the workers themselves, who were skeptical of his intention: they felt he was going to audit their work instead of learn from it. His first interview was spent focused on generating “goodwill and buy-in” rather than gaining useful content, and this is recommended to build a broader acceptance of his presence.

Next, the author conducted his research. In addition to passive observation, he also requested copies of digital artifacts. This allowed him later to quantify his research and analyze the content in more depth, even providing ways to code the data and run statistical tests on the material. To gather these artifacts, the author asked the workers for permission; some were willing to provide the material, while others were skeptical. Reiterating his NDA helped alleviate this concern.

When the author worked to publish this material, journals were skeptical of his use of illustrations and images from the presentations. He warns that even though research was conducted thoroughly, “one should not be under the illusion that these images will appear in print.”