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100 I Digital Media and Storytelling in Higher Education
A good example of the autoethnographic approach is Mészáross (2014)
research on school subculture, in which he analyzed literature, sampling
data, as well as his own experiences with emerging new research guestions.
The researcher was fully immersed in his environment during the fieldwork,
the purpose of his participation being detailed data collection. He described
the research process in a reflective narrative diary. During his direct contact
with the group, the researcher himself underwent the process of initiation
and fulfilled different roles in the group. The study revealed the dual position
of the researcher, being both a member of the group and the objective,
interpretative researcher. This research also highlighted that the researcher
is the main measuring instrument in field research. Observing and selecting
data from his interrelated position, developing and formulating new research
questions during the process.
Ethnographic research can be considered narrative when the researcher
collects and analyzes the individual and group stories of respondents during
their fieldwork. Narrativity can also become a methodological category
when the researcher reflects on the research process in a narrative diary,
and researchers create academic texts which feature narrative structures.
In this case, the researcher analyzes and creates a new text as an author. in
qualitative research, the notion of validity can be replaced by the concept of
authentic voice, which the researcher can provide by gathering information
from as many sources as possible (Mészaros, 2014).
The main methods of data collection in fieldwork are observation and
unstructured autobiographic interviews. The ethnographer is a storytelling
researcher, so the emergence of ethnographic and anthropological research
in the 21 century can also be realized in multimedia environments. Cultural
information can be presented in multiple layers (e.g., story, film, and photo) in
online environments. Recipients can engage and create interactive dialogues
on new platforms, thus realizing the open-endedness and continuity of
narrative processes. Digital interfaces enable ethnography and anthropology
to engage in collaborative processes between data providers, researchers, and
recipients. Online action research can be carried out with the participation
of all parties (cf. Underberg & Zorn, 2013; Forte, 2004).
At the same time, digital environments also enable the self-representation
of certain closed cultures. Researchers and research subjects can work together
to collect data and design and present online content. Together they can
create a thematic website with a gallery of images, hypertext links, an online
game, or a social media platform where offline events can be discussed (e.g.,
a cultural festival). Through research, the community can jointly develop
a transmedia story-making process to preserve cultural heritage, and can
make their community more attractive through images, language-related
audio materials, and games on thematic websites and social media platforms
(Underberg & Zorn, 2013).