Ethnography

Ethnography has its roots in the enlightenment project of European colonial empires of the 19th century. Scholars, mapping and studying the lands controlled by European powers, began to compile information not only about the natural world but also about the cultural practices among the “primitive” peoples encountered around the world. From the early 20th century ethnography emerged in its recognizable form as a participatory practice providing an in-depth understanding of the conditions under which culture is produced. Over the last century, ethnography has mutated from the purview of anthropology alone, and has become well established and accepted within the social sciences. This entry reviews the introduction of ethnography into communication research from the 1960s, its development and consolidation in the field, and recent ethnographic approaches to online communication.