How to Do Qualitative Research. Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching any other popular TV show? This question was chosen to clearly outline the process of ethnography, and how it is useful in f

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Introduction:

        Qualitative research is about asking questions and gathering information through words, to then later analyze. One way of doing this is through ethnography. But before any research can be done, there must be a research question. In this case, “Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching any other popular TV show?” This question was chosen to clearly outline the process of ethnography, and how it is useful in finding out the information needed to answer this research question.

Methodology:

        An ethnography is “A Research approach to understanding the culture of a group (patterns of behaviour/attitudes, how they create meaning), by immersing oneself in the activities of the specific group over a period of time and then writing up a descriptive summary.” (Savage 3). An ethnographic approach includes being engaged in and listening to conversations, taking regular notes and collecting “artifacts” of the group being studied (Savage 7). All of these things later help in writing up a summary of findings that where gathered from the ethnography. There are two main types of ethnography, first there is an overt ethnography where the participants are told they are being observed. This type of ethnography is most commonly used and is less risky because the participants are aware of the study that is taking place. The other type is covert. This is where the researcher is unknown by the participants (Savage 10).The ethnography done about whether the Olympics change the way an audience acts is a covert ethnography. The subjects were unaware of the researcher and the fact that they were being studied and just watched TV as they normally would. Although this study was in a closed setting, there is always a chance of a risk when doing a covert study, because one of the participants may not want to be studied (Savage 9-10).

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        Another important aspect of doing an ethnography is gaining access. Gaining access all depends on whether it is a closed setting or an open setting. Open settings are public settings are are fairly easy to gain access to. They include places like a street corner, or a movie theatre lobby, or city council meetings (Savage 9). Closed settings are non-public settings that are harder to gain access to because they usually require a contact, or permission to get into. Closed settings include families, firms, doctors offices and political parties (Savage 9). These are places that access is only granted to ...

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