Ethnographic Content Analysis Paper

Focus groups provide a rich and detail source of information. The purpose is to discover how they feel about a product, concept, idea or organisation. The views of one person may become the stimulus for another’s ideas or may start a useful discussion. People tend to be encouraged to talk when they realise that others have similar experiences and attitudes.

While conducting my ethnography I have interviewed five All-Girl members, and four Coed members of the Spirit program. By interviewing one more All-Girl members I hope to even out my biases due to being a part of the Coed team. Yet, before defining the differences found between the two teams, I will share the apparent similarities. Both teams show strong linguistic accommodations which I have observed at numerous appearances, such as changing the way one would speak due to their audience. When present at an appearance all members of the Spirit program are expected to intermingle and socialize with attendees. During the course of this exchange it became apparent that accommodating for the age of audience drastically changed the way the team members spoke. For example, when Jules Wazny was speaking to an elderly man she reduced the tempo at which she spoke and asked questions about the game and respectfully shook his hand; yet when she was speaking to a child she spoke in a higher pitch tone, offered the child her poms to play with, and asked questions such as how old the child was. These actions represent convergence, changing ones language to better fit the style of the recipient, which was not only found with All-Girl Cheerleader Jules Wazny, but also throughout the program. An example from a Coed member was Vivi Benbrook changing how she spoke with a middle age male, in a calm and respectful manor asking questions of the game such as where his seats where, and if he thought we were going to win. Contrast this to when she spoke to an elderly women, she used a higher pitch when asking if she was excited, and telling her to stay warm in this cold weather. All members, once wearing affiliated attire, whether it is practice gear,

A norm is a socially expected behavior that may change based on a person, place, or situation. An agency is a freedom of choice. For my ethnographic research, I have to observe a public place in which people commonly interact with each other. A public place that stood out to me was the Lockwood library third floor. I chose this location because it is not similar to a usual library, it is the complete opposite. Libraries enforce strict rules like no eating and no talking. Lockwood floor three says otherwise. The floor is filled with long tables that can seat around twenty people each. Ironically, there are no bookcases on this floor, just tables everywhere. There is one group study room on this floor which can be reserved by students which is the size of an average classroom.

The site chosen for this ethnographical study was The Square on downtown Arcata, California. This location was selected based on what we speculate is an increased population of transient individuals. Many Humboldt State University students and faculty are represented in this area due to its close proximity. The question this study will address the question of what it means to be a member of the transient community and how it is that they interact with the permanent residents or students of Arcata. This question will be examined by analyzing information collected in the field while observing and interviewing members of transient and non-transient populations.

Ground Rules: Participation in the focus group is voluntary, that it is all right to abstain from discussing specific topics if you are not comfortable, that all responses are valid-there are no right or wrong answers, to please respect the opinions of others even if you do not agree, to speak as openly as you feel comfortable, and avoid revealing very detailed information about your personal health. (University of Massachuetts, nd)

Facilitating focus groups, interviews, allowed us to strengthen our qualitative research skills. As an outsider, the qualitative process was the most enjoyable to me. I was able to learn their way of living, strengths and challenges of their community. The process of creating the pretest and posttest surveys collectively was a challenge, yet another beneficially learning experience. I realized effective surveys take time to develop and need to be reviewed by multiple people. Developing poorly constructed questionaries’ is highly possible if no one takes the time to actually

Focus groups can be an excellent way to collect data and be able to identify if the interventions have an effect on the clients (Stringer, 2007). I’m interested

A total of two 90-minute focus groups will be held. Each will take place Tuesday, September 15, 2015, noon – 1:30pm at the Hawthrone Bed & Breakfast. This location was selected because it’s easily accessible to all participants. The enclosed patio of the Hawthrone Bed & Breakfast offers privacy, a fire pit and comfortable seating arranged in a circle. The trees, flowers and serenity water fountains create a relaxing environment for open honest

Flexible and inexpensive, focus groups consist of six to ten participants (Hartman, 2004, p. 408). Additionally, a moderator guides the discussion among its panel members that allows researchers to observe real-time verbal responses and nonverbal cues (Hartman, 2004, p. 402; Cooper & Schindler, 2014, p. 160). Focus groups moderators also have the ability to introduce new ideas to gain a greater understanding of concerns from respondents (Hartman, 2004, p. 402). However, a concern with focus group is the lack of anonymity due to the face-to-face participation.

This article represents a focus group type of qualitative research. According to Qualitative Research Consultants Association (2015), in focus group qualitative research, a group of individuals who share a need, life circumstance, or habit relevant to the research issue(s) at hand are led in a discussion by a modulator. The focus group discussions often include between two to ten respondents, and are often held face to face. They can also be conducted remotely through videoconferencing, teleconferencing, or

In order to gather a lot of data, a focus group is recommended. According to Howitt D. (2013), an optimal focus group consists of six to ten participants (Howitt, 2013; Morgan, 1997). The fact that an experienced interviewer conducted the interview led to good control and desired data(Morgan, 1996). Furthermore, a thematic analysis provided a systematic overview of the results.

Demographic analysis of an audience improves the effectiveness of a speech and ensure that it is delivered in an appropriate manner. Demography is the study of the changing nature of human populations- age, religion, occupation, gender, ethnic background among other variables (Van et.al, 2016). Different populations have different characteristics and expectations. Failure to meet the expectations of an audience has a negative impact. While children expect a speech that frequently involves them in answering questions or makes them laugh, scientists, require a factual speech. Thus, demographics determine the types of evidence that are important for a given group without necessarily changing the speech topic.

Focus groups are a popular method used to capture views and opinions for qualitative research.

Each interview and focus group audio was transcribed within 24 hours by a research assistant. Data analysis was conducted using the Statistical package for social science to analyze the data set collected from the

Focus groups are a prominent method of enquiry, regularly used within the field of social science and in particular, qualitative research. The focus group practice involves a number of participants having an open discussion on a specific topic, set by a researcher. The researcher acts as a moderator to aid discussion by using probes to collect desirable data. This process is recorded and transcripts are used to interpret and analyse given information.