Dtes554

This week’s seminar felt like an intellectual expedition—a journey not just through theory, but also through our collective questions about the limits of digital and physical systems that we engage both as researchers and users. As we gathered to explore digital ethnography, our discussions wove together multiple strands of thought, from the intricate workings of algorithms to the politics and even tabloid matters regarding digital platform owners such as E. Musk. Drawing on rich theoretical …

This blog post reflects after the DTES554 – Digital Ethnography Class dated March 10, 2025—special thanks to my professor Suncem Koçer-Çamurdan, and all my colleagues. When you withdraw to a topic, the first question you must ask is why. Why do I want to dedicate months, years, or even decades to this? What is appealing to me? Ethnography is not just about studying others, it’s about aligning yourself with your subject. Hey, who said ethnographers …

Digital ethnography allows us to explore different ways of being in the field of the social sciences. But how is digital ethnography received among those practicing traditional ethnographic methods, and to what extent is it accepted in the scientific community? Moreover, do all these questions matter for ethnography, or do we need to have a broader perspective on the reliability and validity of new field methods? This week's class discussion about objectivity and subjectivity in …

A graduate seminar is a unique, collective journey. It is more than just reading books, critiquing perspectives, analyzing articles, or writing research papers. In a graduate seminar, the class culture becomes greater than the sum of its parts. We learn from one another, creating an intellectual discourse that is irreplicable. The experience feels almost magical. I was especially excited to hold a graduate seminar in one of my favorite areas, Digital Ethnography. At the same …