As mentioned in the above paragraph, netnography is a method of data collection used primarily for when one wants to research textual discourse and interaction online. The netnographic method will be applied because it is specialised in the online context, and therefore netnography is applicable to blogs. The
netnographic research will result in primary data collection. The definition of netnography that will be used in the thesis is: “Netnography is ethnography adapted to the study of online communities. As a method, netnography is […]more naturalistic and unobtrusive than focus groups or interviews. It provides
information on the symbolism, meanings, and consumption patterns of online consumer groups” (Kozinets, 2002, p. 61). In order to observe the phenomena, netnography as a data gathering approach is optimal, as it focuses on the stakeholders involved, the symbolic meanings and the manifestations all stressed in the model developed by the author.
Netnography stems from the anthropological method ethnography. As a method, netnography takes a step back from the traditional ethnography and therefore follows the social constructionism thought of
considering social actions from a bird’s-eye view. Social relations are creating the perspective, from which the data collection should stem, as is also evident in the model proposed by the researcher, because the stakeholders play a key role in creating the dynamic of the model. Thus, the netnography methodology is an ideal supplement to the social constructionism thought.
32
Because netnography is closely related to ethnography, Kozinet recommends following an ethnographic model of data collection. This means there are five steps that shape the observation of data. The following criteria will function as a guideline in the data collection process.
Step 1) Entrée. The researcher should first create a specific research question and then identify online forums, which in this case is blogs. Second, the researcher should do background research and learn about the online forum in order to get a basic understanding of the communicative methods of the stakeholders. In terms of selection of online forum, the following cases are preferred:
“[blogs] that have (1) a more focused and research question-relevant segment, topic or group (2) higher
“traffic” of postings (3)larger numbers of discrete message posters (4)more detailed or descriptively rich data (5)more between-member interactions of the type required by the research question”(Ibid, p.63).
Step 2) Data collection and analysis. In this phase, the two most important elements are to 1) directly copy all relevant material 2) create a research methodology diary with observations, which may be used later on in the research process to understand “the community and its members, interactions and meanings”(Ibid, p.63).
The data gathering should be guided by the research question (Kozinets, 2002). When data is gathered, messages should be “classified first as primarily social or information and as primarily on-topic or off-topic” (Ibid, p.64). The process entails that online data is logged and saved within a specific amount of time in order to code and interpret it.
Step 3) Providing trustworthy interpretation. Discoursive methodology and quality checks need to be applied. The focus of this type of data should be on its trustworthiness, that is the data should not be presented out of context (Ibid), especially so because informants participate in a social game of discourse creation. In order to be trustworthy, the conclusions made from this phase in the data collection “must reflect the limitations of the online medium and the technique” (Ibid, p.65).
Step 4) Research ethics. According to Kozinets (2002), the researcher should answer the two following questions, when doing netnography: (1) Are online forums to be considered a private or public site? (2) What constitutes informed consent in cyberspace. The author assumes that blogs can be considered a public site, where informed consent is applicable, as commenters on blogs are made aware when they post that they are not private and that their meanings may be traced via IP addresses, please see ethical considerations in sections below.
Step 5) Member checks. In this final step, the findings are presented to members of the group. The author assumes that this may be difficult to do, as it requires the author to write to the blogger and get the blogger to make the research results public. Therefore, the author may use other methods, depending on what is deemed the best fit method for the particular blogs. Thus, the author may not follow the guidelines completely for step 5, as member check may prove impossible to do.
33
Having established the guidelines for the data collection process, the author will now proceed to describing the benefits of netnography.
One of the benefits of doing research online is that consumers “contact fellow consumers who are seen as more objective information sources” (Kozinets, 2002, p. 60) and that bloggers as mentioned are seen as more credible sources of information. Thus the consumer who react to blog posts online expect that the blogger has some degree of objectivity. What is especially interesting is that netnography “is a way to understand the discourse and interactions of people”(Ibid, p.64) and thus a prime benefit of this research method is that falls within the realms of discourse analysis. Another benefit of using netnography as method is that it is
“particularly useful for revealing the rich symbolic world that underlies […]meanings”( Ibid, p.62). Thus netnography will help in creating ‘richness’ in the analysis. Netnography’s benefits are many other, among which are that the information is publicly available online, it can be an unobtrusive research method and it may provide more timely and easilier codeable information (Ibid). To sum up, netnography is “both naturalistic and unobtrusive – a unique combination not found in any other marketing research method”
(Ibid, p.62).
The limitations of netnography are a.o. the focus on the narrow subject online communities, the fact that the researcher needs an interpretive tool and needs to have good interpretive skills in order to get a fulfilling analysis, that informants may present a more carefully chosen and controlled self-image online, that data must be recontextualised, and the fact that informants may remain anonymous which may present problems with authencity of the data (Kozinets, 2002).
When using a method like ethnography, the researcher must also take the ethical element into account. As mentioned in the guidelines, the researcher must answer to the following questions “(1) are online forums to be considered a private or public site ? and (2) what constitutes “informed consent” in cyberspace”
(Kozinets, 2002, p.65). Because a clear consensus does not exist on this subject matter, the author will now use the statements from Kozinets to describe the approach to the ethical aspect. Regarding public vs. private site, the blogs which will be used for the case study are public sites. This does not mean though, that one should not take into account that sensitive information may be posted on blogs and that the stakeholders may not “not necessarily intend or welcome the data’s use in research representations”(Ibid, p.65). On a
relatively large amount of blogs, when stakeholders comment, they actually give consent to publish the comments online on the blogs site, as well as consent to they can be tracked, therefore the author assumes that stakeholders will be aware of the fact that their comments are public on a public site. Furthermore, there is not necessarily a possibility to contact the commenters, making the checking of comments and approval difficult.
34
Having established how discourse analysis and netnography are connected as research approaches, the author will now explain the case study approach, the ideal process for a case study and why it is a relevant approach to use for studying co-branding.