Ethnography and the use of digital platforms

Learning from WhatsApp

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.48006/2358-0097/V10N1.E101011

Keywords:

WhatsApp; platforms; platformization; ethnography; digital.

Abstract

This article aims to discuss WhatsApp, an instant messaging app that is undergoing a process of platformization discussing some of the theoretical, methodological, and ethical implications of its use in fieldwork research. In this sense, WhatsApp can be both the field context and a strategic tool for establishing relationships with interlocutors. The axes that guide the argument revolve around the importance of producing good descriptions of the digital platforms that we use in ethnographies, the process of platformization of WhatsApp, the mundane nature of the platform, and the issue of the intimacies that its use makes possible.

Author Biography

Carolina Parreiras, Universidade de São Paulo

Departamento de Antropologia, Laboratório Etnográfico de Estudos Tecnológicos e Digitais | São Paulo, Brasil

References

BAINOTTI, Lucia; CALIANDRO, Alessandro; GANDINI, Alessandro. 2020. “From archive cultures to ephemeral content, and back: Studying Instagram Stories with digital methods”. New Media & Society 23(12). Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820960071 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820960071

BONINI, Tiziano; TRERÉ, Emiliano. 2024. Algorithms of resistance. The everyday fight against platform power. Cambridge: MIT Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/14329.001.0001

COLOM, Anna. 2021. “Using WhatsApp for focus group discussions: ecological validity, inclusion and deliberation”. Qualitative Research 22(3). Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794120986074 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794120986074

CRUZ, Edgar G.; HARINDRANATH, Ramaswami. 2019. “WhatsApp as ‘technology of life’: Reframing research agendas”. First Monday 25 (1-6). Disponível em: http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i1.10405 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i12.10405

DAS, Veena. 2020. Textures of the Ordinary. Doing Anthropology after Wittgenstein. New York: Fordham University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5422/fordham/9780823287895.001.0001

DEUZE, Mark. 2023. Life in Media. A Global Introduction to Media Studies. Cambridge: MIT Press.

DiMAGGIO, Paul; HARGITTAI, Eszter. 2001. “From the 'Digital Divide' to 'Digital Inequality':

Studying Internet Use as Penetration Increases”. Working Paper Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies 15. Princeton.

DOURISH, Paul; GRAHAM, Connor; RANDALL, Dave. 2010. “Theme issue on social interaction and mundane technologies. Personal and Ubiquous Computing 14: 171-180. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-010-0281-0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-010-0281-0

GARCIA E SILVA, Hermann; MARQUES, Rodrigo. 2019. “Falsa percepção de gratuidade: a prática do zero-rating e o Marco Civil da Internet”. Transiformação 31. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/2318-0889201931e180021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/2318-0889201931e180021

HINE, Christine. 2015. Ethnography fot the Internet. Embedded, Embodied and Everyday. London: Bloomsbury.

JOHNS, Amelia; MATAMOROS-FERNÁNDEZ, Ariadna; BAULCH, Emma. 2024. WhatsApp. From a one-to-one messaging app to a global communication platfortm. Cambridge: Polity Press.

LINS, Beatriz; PARREIRAS, Carolina; FREITAS, Tânia. 2020. “Estratégias para pensar o digital”. Cadernos de Campo 29(2): 1-11. Disponível em https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9133.v29i2pe181821 DOI: https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9133.v29i2pe181821

MATASSI, Mora; BOCZKOWSKI, Pablo; MITCHELSTEIN, Eugenia. 2019. “Domesticating WhatsApp: Family, friends, work, and study in everyday communication”. New Media & Society 21(10). Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1177/146144481984189 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819841890

MOCHEL, Lorena. 2023. A fluidez da unção: raça, gênero e erotismos evangélicos nas materialidades de um Ministério digital. Tese de Doutorado, Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro.

NEMER, David. 2021. Tecnologia do Oprimido. Desigualdade e o mundano digital nas favelas do Brasil. Vitória: Milfontes.

PARREIRAS, Carolina. 2008. Sexualidades no ponto.com: espaços e homossexualidades a partir de uma comunidade on-line. Dissertação de Mestrado, Programa de Pós-graduação em Antropologia Social, Unicamp, Campinas.

______. 2015. Altporn, corpos, categorias, espaços e redes: um estudo etnográfico sobre pornografia online. Tese de Doutorado, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências Sociais, Unicamp, Campinas.

______. No prelo. “Extreme speech, community resonance and moralities: ethnographic notes on the use of WhatsApp in Brazilian favelas”.

TRERÉ, Emiliano. 2020. “The banality of WhatsApp: On the everyday politics of backstage activism in Mexico and Spain”. First Monday 25 (12). Disponível em https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i12.10404 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v25i12.10404

VAN DIJCK, José. 2022. “Ver a floresta por suas árvores: visualizando plataformização e sua governança”. Matrizes 16(2): 21-44. Disponível em https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1982- 8160.v16i2p21-44 DOI: https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1982-8160.v16i2p21-44

VAN DIJCK, José; POELL, Thomas; de WAAL, Martjin. 2018. The Platform Society. Public Values in a connective world. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190889760.001.0001

VENTURI, Robert; BROWN, Scott; IZENOUR, Steven. Learning from Las Vegas: the forgotten symbolism of archictectural form. Cambridge: MIT Press.

ZIMMER, Michael; KINDER-KURLANDA, Katherine. 2017. Internet Research Ethics For The Social Age: New Challenges, Cases, And Contexts. New York: Peter Lang. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/b11077

Published

2024-10-17

How to Cite

Parreiras, C. (2024). Ethnography and the use of digital platforms: Learning from WhatsApp . Novos Debates, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.48006/2358-0097/V10N1.E101011

Issue

Section

Forum