❂ Advantages & Challenges of Ethnographic Study ❂

Ethnographic research is one of the most in-depth research method. An ethnographer sees what people are doing as well as what they say they are doing. It provides researchers which rich insights into human, social and cultural aspect. The main purpose of ethnography is obtain in a deep understanding of people culture. Ethnography is one of the method in entirely in fieldwork. 

“Ethnographic accounts are both descriptive and interpretive:  descriptive because detail is critical and interpretive because the ethnographer must determine the significance of observations without gathering broad, statistical information.”  Clifford Geertz coined the term “thick description” to convey the methodology of the ethnographer.

To conduct their research, ethnographers, also called fieldworkers, often live among the people they are studying, or at least spend a considerable amount of time with them.  While in the field, ethnographers engage in “participant-observation” which means that they participate as much as possible in local daily life, while also making careful observations.  An ethnographer might partake in important ceremonies and rituals of a culture or might share in ordinary activities such as meal preparation and consumption.  This technique is intended to provide an “emic” perspective or native’s point of view, without imposing the observer’s conceptual framework.  The emic viewpoint, which may differ from the “etic” or outsider’s perspective on daily life, is a unique and critical component of ethnographic research.  In addition, ethnographers use a technique known as triangulation to identify multiple data sources, such as fieldnotes, interviews, and site documents, which work together to support their research claims.

There are several advantages of Ethnographic in market research as:

• One of the most valuable aspects is the depth of understanding

• Can challenge ‘taken for granted’ assumption.

• Ethnographic can account for the complexity of group behaviors, reveal interrelationships among multifaceted dimensions of group interactions, and provide context for behaviors. 

• Ethnographic can reveal qualities of group experience in a way that other research methods cannot.

Besides that, there are some challengers when we use ethnographic in our field work. Because it is take a long time, it some challengers in data collection. The challengers as:

• It can be difficult to write up the findings for a journal article- it is because ethnographers utilize the participant-observation method, recording field notes, conducting interviews, and collecting additional data to supplement their research.
• By using ethnographic, it is needed to emphasizes a 'thick description' and critique
• Time commitment – significant length of time required in the field (months/years)
• Orientation of researcher – learns from people of the observation

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