ethnographic paper

Potential Topics for Digital Ethnographic Paper (with references to relevant chapters and pages)
• The immigrant experience (Push and Pulls, Barriers and Bridges Chapter 11: pp.318)
• Race/Ethnicity and Healthcare (Race, Ethnicity, Health Chs. 5, 6, 10 and 14)
• Police, BLM and institutional Racism (Race, Ethnicity, Politics and Power Chs. 5, 6, 10
and 12)
• Climate Change
o And disease (differing attitudes, fact, fiction and fake news)
o And consumer culture (Chs.1 and 11)
• Consumer culture and economic success (differing attitudes, similarities and differences)
(Chs 10, 11, 12)
• Pandemic response (belief in science, variety in community responses along racial or
ethnic lines) (This can also be a media study coupled with interviews). (Chs. 4, 13, 15)
• BLM, gatherings and quarantine (Ch.5, 14)
• Media influence and participatory government (conduct interviews to see how FB use
aligns with attitudes on the upcoming election) (this can also be used on a variety of
topics) (Ch. 12 and 15)
• Digital communication and gender (this can be a survey of the different strategies and
frequency of media use along gender lines)
o This can also be linked to age. Generational use of media and attitudes.
o Talking vs. texting.
o How are people communicating now?
o Who’s communicating more? (Chs. 7 and 15)
• Kinship/Family and communication in the pandemic. How are families reacting? Are
they closer, more inclusive, fragmenting, unifying? This can be supported by mining
media examples (articles etc.). (Chs. 9 and 14)
• Access to speeds and bandwidth and education in the Pandemic. (again, interviews will
be useful) (Chs. 10 and 12)
• Digital advertisement, consumer culture and class/race.
o What groups are targeted when you disable cookies (files that you can turn on
and off that track your internet habits). (Chs. 4, 5 and 6)
• Communication/Language
o And Gender
o And Race
▪ In connection to hiring, respect, perception (etc.)
**NOTE the above chapters are not exhaustive, please think about other chapters and readings
when you’re formulating your paper. Many, if not all of these subjects/topics overlap
significantly. **
You can mix and match different aspects of the above suggestions or come up with your own
ideas for your paper. I want you to consult the textbook as well as do your own research by
using the internet to find well sourced, reputable/peer-reviewed articles to back up interviews