Ethnography: A Powerful Tool for Sociological Data Collection - Essay Sample

Introduction

Ethnography is one of the successful methods of data collection in the filed of sociology. The main of this method is to get the primary data information for the phenomenon being studied. It involves covert participation of the ethnographer to the people's daily lives from some time. The method entails observing what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions to collect whatever data available to solve a problem studied.

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One of the biggest strengths of this method is that the data are very rich in information, all the data that is collected is rich in information (Becker, 2008). The data that are collected using the ethnography method are rich in information because they are collected from the first-hand sources. The ethnographer obtains the information form the participants who are directly affected by the issues making the data errors and full of detailed description. The data are collected from the primary source not the secondary.

The biggest weakness of ethnography is that it is difficult to achieve the full objectives because of the distance and the danger of going to a new area. The full objectives of the research may not be achieved because of the distance that will be covered by the ethnographer to reach the field and all the dangers that are exposed to the researcher while collecting the data, some of the problems that might affect the research are transport cost and the barrier language that may exist between the researcher and the participants (Banaquisto, 2008). Adapting to the new area may be a challenge while collecting data which could hinder the goals of the study.

Ethnography has important role in the field of sociology. Using of ethnography to collect data has helped improve an in-depth understanding of different aspects from the field of sociology and this has attracted more people to study sociology. Most of the research published is from the first-hand information.

The method of collecting data through the use of ethnography is really surprising in that it is the only method of data collection in the field of sociology that ensures the data collected is accurate and rich in information. The method is more successful in data collection in sociology compared to other methods like survey which are based on the participant's opinion (O'reilly, 2012). I prefer this method. Although it is time consuming and has more challenges it is much more accurate, and it can be used to collect data for a research project.

Response to Kishona Bryan's Post

I agree with Kishona Bryan's post on strength, weakness, importance, and surprise. Through the use of ethnography to collect data, the researcher will be able to interact with different nationalities and people's customs. The ethnographer will be able to explore different nationalities and people's customs by learning the culture of his/her participants throughout the study period and become a part of them and it is one of the greatest advantages of this research method. It is always a challenge building trust with the people you are meting for the first time and it will take a lot of time to build that trust to enable you to study them and get the accurate data for the study.

For ethnographers to be able to collect the data from the people they are meeting for the first time then they have the study their participants and enlighten them about the research they are conducting to get the accurate data. Ethnographer must be sure of how he/she is going to approach the data collection procedure to get the data they are looking for from their participants. The ethnographer will have to have the prior information about his/her participants even before interacting with them during the data collection process, for example the ethnographer must be well conversant with the language the participants use to be able to collect the accurate data.