Cyberethnography as a method of studying the virtual environment

Todor S. Simeonov

Institute of Rhetoric and Communications

E-mail: teo.simeonov@gmail.com

Abstract: Today, different private sciences have the phenomenon called virtual reality in the scope of their research. It is both a subject and an object of study in the fields of cybernetics, psychology, education, marketing, political science, rhetoric, etc. Conventional research methods cannot accurately reflect the existence of a research object in the virtual environment, which is characterized by dynamics, hybridity of multimedia modalities, interactivity and hypertextuality, making this space difficult to explore. This paper examines the potential of the cyberethnographic method as a relatively new approach in studying virtual worlds and their inhabitants.

Key words: cyberethnography, ethnographic methods, quality methods, virtual environment.

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 36, September 2018, rhetoric.bg/, journal.rhetoric.bg, ISSN 1314-4464

Read the original of the text (in Bulgarian)