to talk about what they know best, because you'll find that the final product for the class is better, than if you started from scratch and didn't have the time to devote. I've been involved with policy debater for 10 years now; 4 years in high school, 6 on the college level, and the last two years as a coach. We are our own culture, of that I've always been sure, but I never felt incredibly compelled to show everyone else that culture, until we were thrust into the limelight two years ago for an after round discussion about a debate went wrong at one of our final tournaments of the year (CEDA Nationals.)
A little bit about that incident can be read about here:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/14/national/main4350183.shtml
as well as here:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/08/14/debate
I don't know that I think either one of those articles is really "representative" of what happened, but they provide an outside look in on the community that opened my eyes to what others think of us, and forced me to defend the activity on more than one occasion to people I knew who saw the video and didn't know much about debate.
For my "big project" in Digital Ethnography then, I'm going to investigate the debate, weaving the media uproar, the voices of the community, and the images of debate that exist on the web in hopes of conveying a stronger, more cohesive (and certainly I hope, more representative) view of what it's like to be a part of the NDT/CEDA debate community.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Digital Footprints
Hello digital world!
This will be the first of (I hope) many footprints I will begin to leave on the internet this semester as I explore the digital side of ethnographies. So, where to begin? I suppose a good first print should tell you who I am- and why I'm doing this.
My name is Natalie, and I'm working on my M.A. in Communication Studies. I study things like impression management, visual communication, and social networking. This semester I will finish my thesis that looks at Erving Goffman's concept of "saving the show" as it pertains to image management on Facebook. When I started looking for course's to take to fulfill my requirements to graduate, I stumbled upon a course from Michael Wesch in the Anthropology Department, Digital Ethnography. I find the study of people fascinating, and while I like the ability to use text to express the output of the data I've collected, there was a definite pull to study the communication of people from an entirely different (and far more visual) perspective. So that's where I'm at- school started last week, I'll finish my thesis in a month (fingers crossed!) and the only class I have is this one- I've got a lot to learn, and a lot of ideas, so hopefully they all come together, wish me luck!
This will be the first of (I hope) many footprints I will begin to leave on the internet this semester as I explore the digital side of ethnographies. So, where to begin? I suppose a good first print should tell you who I am- and why I'm doing this.
My name is Natalie, and I'm working on my M.A. in Communication Studies. I study things like impression management, visual communication, and social networking. This semester I will finish my thesis that looks at Erving Goffman's concept of "saving the show" as it pertains to image management on Facebook. When I started looking for course's to take to fulfill my requirements to graduate, I stumbled upon a course from Michael Wesch in the Anthropology Department, Digital Ethnography. I find the study of people fascinating, and while I like the ability to use text to express the output of the data I've collected, there was a definite pull to study the communication of people from an entirely different (and far more visual) perspective. So that's where I'm at- school started last week, I'll finish my thesis in a month (fingers crossed!) and the only class I have is this one- I've got a lot to learn, and a lot of ideas, so hopefully they all come together, wish me luck!
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