Netnography is a contemporary and extremely useful research method. As more and more of us are turning to the Internet to share our experiences, views and opinions, researchers are provided with an easily accessible way of collecting data.
Whether you are investigating consumer holiday preferences, teenage fashion or depression in postpartum women, there is a wealth of data available online. From online forums to social media to blogs, netnography provides many exciting opportunities for research.
But what exactly is netnography, and how is it carried out as a research method? This article explains netnography, how it developed from ethnography, examples of netnographic methods, and its advantages and disadvantages.
What is netnography?
To put it simply, netnography is a form of ethnography, whereby the data is located on the Internet.
Much of modern life now takes place online. People build friendships, discuss work, attend classes and conferences, and share their experiences on the internet – a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the growth of the shut-in economy.
It therefore makes sense for researchers to use the internet to collect research data too.
Researchers have long used the internet for many aspects of research. Data analysis techniques and literature reviews are often undertaken using Internet programmes and software, for example. Collecting the data itself online, however, has historically been less common.
Netnography offers many advantages: online data is often free, readily accessible and naturally occurring. For example, Stainton’s doctoral research on TEFL tourism used netnographic analysis of travel blogs, which provided rich data without the need for interviews or surveys.
Netnography is not perfect – no research method is – but there is a wealth of valuable data online for researchers to use.
The term netnography was coined by Robert Kozinets in the 1990s, when the internet was far less developed than it is today, and it gained wider recognition in the 2000s.
According to Kozinets (2002, p62), netnography was first defined as;
‘A new research methodology that adapts ethnographic research techniques to study the cultures and communities that are emerging through computer-mediated communications’
Since his early writings, Kozinets has moved towards a more detailed, justificatory approach, most recently (re)defining netnography as;
‘A specific set of related data collection, analysis, ethical and representational research practices, where a significant amount of the data collected and participant-observational research conducted originates in and manifests through the data shared freely on the Internet, including mobile applications.’ (Kozinets, 2015 p80)
Video: What is netnography?
From ethnography to netnography…
To understand netnography, it is first necessary to understand ethnography.
Ethnography is a form of anthropological research. It is research about people.
Ethnographers study people’s everyday lives and cultures. Ethnography allows us to study beliefs, values and behaviours. A form of qualitative research, it helps us to understand.
Ethnographic research can be undertaken in different ways, such as:
- Interviews
- Participant observation
- Surveys
Netnography is essentially an extension of ethnography. It is the examination of people online.
One of the major limitations of traditional ethnography is that it is subject to geographical boundaries (i.e. we can’t adequately observe someone who is on the other side of the world).
Modern day technologies however, have provided ethnographic researchers with an entirely new research realm! When examining people online, geography is no longer a problem. This opens up many exciting opportunities for researchers.
Read more: Kozinets, R. (2020) Netnography: The Essential Guide to Qualitative Social Media Research, 3rd edition.
Research that is undertaken online essentially extends the traditional notions of ethnographic study. It moves ethnography from the observation of co-located, face-to-face interactions, to technologically mediated interactions in online networks and communities (Kozinets, 2010).
Examples of netnographic research methods
So how is netnography carried out in practice?
There are many ways that netnography can be conducted. And this is likely to increase as we utilise the Internet more and more in our day-to-day lives. Some examples of research methods that use netnography are:
- Blog analysis
- X (formerly Twitter) post analysis
- Facebook analysis
- Pinterest analysis
- TikTok analysis
- Reddit and WeChat analysis
- Instagram analysis
- YouTube analysis
- Examination of behaviour in online forums e.g. Trip Advisor or the Professional Pilot Rumour Network
- Analysis of online teaching and student responses
- Analysis of online conferences/webinars etc
- Analysis of group interactions using video call software e.g. a choir singing via Zoom or a counselling session conducted via Microsoft Teams
There are many contexts in which netnography can be particularly useful.
Take airline recruitment as an example. There are many aspiring Cabin Crew who use the online forum cabincrew.com as a valuable source of information. Here people discuss interviews, industry developments and ask a wide range of questions about working in the aviation industry and becoming cabin crew. If an airline wanted to know more about the people who aspire to work for them, this would be a great place to look!
Another example could be a tourist resort that wants to appeal to families. There are many groups on social media platforms, such as Facebook, where people discuss this topic. For example, the group Club Bebe Voyage is filled with parents discussing the best travel cots or tips for travelling whilst bottle feeding etc. If the tourist resort wants to understand how to better please their tourists, assessing the content of this group may prove to be extremely beneficial.
Netnography can be ‘pure’ if the research is conducted entirely online. Or it can be blended with traditional ethnography, by combining face-to-face interaction with online analysis.
The growth of netnographic research
Whilst the term netnography remains unknown by many, it has gained significant gravitas in recent years. This is because the Internet and online social networking have become an integral part of society.
As a result of the importance and reliance placed on online presence, researchers have begun to turn to Internet sources, such as blogs or social media networks, as valuable sources of data. This has been recognised in the research methods literature too (e.g. Carson and Schmallegger, 2008; Hookway, 2008; Punch, 2014).
Netnography can be undertaken through analysis of a number of online means including Facebook updates, tweets, recommendations on Trip Advisor, discussions on specialised online forums and blogs.
These online means fall within the realms of what is collectively known as Web 2.0. This is seen as the second stage of Internet development, whereby generators have stepped away from traditional statically designed web pages, towards user generated content (UGC) and peer to peer applications.
In parallel with the progressive societal movement away from traditional face-to-face interaction and towards a virtual communicative era, netnography has grown substantially in recent years. This growth is predicted to continue into the near future.
The value of netnography in research
Netnography is one of the most important research tools we have today.
While some researchers are less comfortable with online data collection, younger generations of researchers have grown up in a technologically mediated world and are likely to make increasing use of netnography. However, researchers now face new challenges, such as restrictions on access to platform data (for example, changes to X and Reddit’s APIs in 2023) and the growth of AI-generated content online.
Understanding online behaviour and the online environment is useful to many people. Whether it is used as an insight into consumer preferences, behaviour or motivations, there is a wealth of data that can be used to enrich businesses and public services around the world.
Netnography provides rich and valuable data in an infinite range of contexts and situations the world over.
Read more: Get Your Data From Social Media (SAGE Little Quick Fix series).
Advantages of using netnography as a research method
There are lots of advantages of using netnography as a research method. These include:
- There is a high scope of potential valuable data
- It can overcome geographical limitations
- Data is naturally-occurring
- There is the opportunity to discover unexpected findings
- Data may be available online that wouldn’t be unearthed in a face-to-face context
- It is contemporary
According to Kozinets (2015), netnography faithfully exports anthropology’s set of ontological, epistemological and axiological commitments to the study of social experiences within an Internet context. In other words, you get all of the benefits of using qualitative ethnographic research, but in an online environment.
Blichfeldt and Marabese (2014) note that netnographic research is unique in that it is neither observational of a life lived, nor told in a research situation, but is instead posted online. Therefore, it can provide research scope that traditional ethnography cannot. For example, many people feel confident to express their feelings more openly when they are behind a screen than they would in a face-to-face context.
Netnography also allows us to overcome geographical boundaries.
Do you live in the UK but want to research people in Indonesia? This is possible. Researching people in Australia from Argentina is equally feasible.
Whereas traditional ethnography may limit the researcher to a small number of locations, netnography allows for these boundaries to be overcome.
Disadvantages of using netnography as a research method
There are also some disadvantages of using netnography as a research method. Disadvantages include:
- It may not be entirely ‘holistic’
- Researchers may not be familiar with online platforms
- Data collection and analysis may be time-consuming
- There are ethical issues around consent and privacy, even when data is publicly available
- It can be difficult to verify who is posting, and some content may be fake or AI-generated
Some scholars have however questioned the innate nature of netnography by definition, specifically its correlations with ethnographic fieldwork.
It is suggested that rather than being an extension of ethnography, netnographic research undermines the central tenets of ‘good’ ethnography. Netnography can be argued to lack ‘holism’, reflexivity and contextual sensitivity. Hine (2000) believes that netnography is ‘wholeheartedly partial’ because it lacks context.
In fact, Blichfeldt and Marabese (2014) argue that netnography should not be aligned with ethnography. Instead it is more in line with traditional content or discourse analysis. They emphasise that there are two fundamental acts in play here; ‘being’ and ‘communicating’. They suggest that rather than netnography facilitating the examination of ‘tourist-being’, researchers are instead exposed to the act of communicating about ‘being’.
Despite these arguments posing some valid questions regarding the ethnographic identity within Internet research, it can be argued that a de facto perfect ethnography does not exist, neither within nor outside of the Internet sphere.
In fact, one can question whether arguments such as this are progressing at a pace fast enough to keep up with the constantly and rapidly evolving technological and social developments! The technological world is changing so quickly that there is a real risk that theorists and methods may not keep up the pace…
Netnography: FAQs
Below are answers to some of the most common questions about netnography.
What is netnography?
Netnography is a qualitative research method that adapts ethnography to study cultures and communities online, using data such as social media posts, forums, blogs and reviews.
Who created netnography?
Netnography was developed by marketing scholar Robert Kozinets in the 1990s.
What is the difference between ethnography and netnography?
Ethnography studies people and cultures through face-to-face fieldwork, while netnography studies them through their online interactions and content.
What are the advantages of netnography?
Netnography provides access to large amounts of naturally occurring data, overcomes geographical limits, is relatively low cost and can reveal opinions people might not share face to face.
What are the limitations of netnography?
Limitations include a lack of context and holism, ethical issues around consent, difficulty verifying who is posting, restricted platform access and the time needed to analyse large datasets.
Further reading
Netnography is a fascinating and increasingly important research approach. Key texts include Robert Kozinets’ Netnography: The Essential Guide to Qualitative Social Media Research (2020) and Netnography: Redefined (2015), and Netnography Unlimited: Understanding Technoculture using Qualitative Social Media Research (Kozinets and Gambetti, 2021). If you found this article helpful, the following posts may also be of interest:
- Ontology and epistemology made simple
- The difference between a research question and a hypothesis
- How to write awesome aims and objectives
- Insta tourism
- Tourism management research project examples
