In the previous post, I have introduced about the topic of my ethnographic research, which is why people take photos of food before meals. To continue, I would like to explain further on the method I am going to conduct and specific questions I look to answer.

• What motivates people to take pictures of their food?
• What is the relationship between their food posts on social media and their self-identity?
• Is there any exceptions that they will avoid taking pictures?

This project is going to be a collaborative, two-way and future-focused one since I am looking to collect and analyse inputs from my participants, listen to their feedbacks about the project’s materials and realise practical implications. As put it by Goffin, the professor of innovation and new product development (NPD) at Cranfield School of Management (Burrows, 2014):

“Ethnography isn’t just about filming an interview with your customers. You’re looking for contradictions between what people say they do and what they actually do”

In details, I particularly look at Marsha Berry project and Digital Living and Sensory Perception for inspirations of methodologies.

Berry (2016) applied digital ethnography in order to observe the creative vernacular of artists and writers in social media via photographs and videos. He did that by approaching people through his Facebook and Twitter accounts and asking to interview them about their activities on social media. In advance, he obtained the participants’ permissions to examine their online communication with others.

Sensory ethnography carried out by Pink (2015) in Digital Ling and Sensory Perception is “a way of thinking about and doing ethnography that takes as its starting point of the multi-sensoriality of experience, perception, knowing and practice”. This approach challenges the conventional ethnographic methods which normally revolve around observing and interviewing.

Implementing in Low Effort Energy Demand Reduction project, researchers used primarily videos – home tours, video re-enactments, the recording of daily activities – to uncover the invisible and unspoken components of everyday living which provide insights into household energy consumption of digital devices. As participants show them around the house, the ethnographers video recorded and listened to the narrative of how and why energy was needed for this device at this specific time.

My executing plan

For my project, I will break it down into 7 steps:

• Conduct a secondary research about food photography on Instagram, which is the most popular platform for image sharing by following hashtag to get a general impression.
• Observe and reach out to 3 – 4 friends in my online network who frequently take pictures of their food (using Berry’s method).
• Interview them individually about their motivations for food photography and any context that they would be willing share those pictures online.
• Capture videos of their dining experience when we eat out (using Pink’s method).
• Analyse the collected data and identify possible patterns
• Make a Youtube video that summarises the findings of my project
• Share my results with participants by sending out my blog post and Youtube links and ask for feedbacks.

During my process, I will try to note down my observations and findings as much as I can. I will update with you guys in my next blog when things are put together. So see you again soon! Enjoy your weekend x.

References:

Berry, M 2016, ‘Out in the open: locating new vernacular practices with smartphone cameras’, Studies in Australasian Cinema, 10 (1): 53-64, DOI: 10.1080/17503175.2015.1084173

Burrows, D 2014, ‘How to use ethnography for in-depth consumer insight’, Marketing Week, weblog post, 9th May, viewed 12 October 2019, <https://www.marketingweek.com/how-to-use-ethnography-for-in-depth-consumer-insight/>

Pink, S 2015, ‘Digital Living and Sensory Perception: Implications for Ethnography and Design’, EPIC, weblog post, 14^th April, viewed 11 October 2019, <https://www.epicpeople.org/digital-living-and-sensory-perception/>