Ethnographies of Cyberspace and Hybrid Communities: Reflections of Self-Reflexivity, Agency, and Issues of Representation

• In Event: Postcolonial Ethnography: Bridging Ethical and Theoretical Divides

Abstract

The emergence of new media technologies invites new methods of visual and ethnographic research and new ways of creating reflexive texts. The Internet and other computer- mediated communication (CMC) forms and technologies have provided a vast amount of possibilities for diasporic, postcolonial, cosmopolitan and globalized individuals to express and represent themselves, to connect to their home-nations and the citizens of these home nation-states, and create virtual communities among various diasporas for economic and emotional support. Cyber ethnography as a method is concerned with communication in cyberspace and on the Internet. Thus, cyber ethnography has emerged as a new way of examining cyber communities and creating reflexive and hybrid texts that capture shape-shifting nature of cultural identities. In this paper, I theorize cyber ethnography as a productive way of examining globalized, postcolonial and cyber communities, and cultural identities. I also articulate how issues of self-reflexivity, agency and representation contribute to the practice of associated ethnographic work.

Author

• Ahmet Atay, The College of Wooster