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Before you collect and analyze your sample evidence on the audience of your choice, it can be helpful to understand the context in which a similar audience has already been studied.

To begin, on our home page - choose the Articles tab.

Consider searching using a Subject Term such as Ethnology + Audience or Ethnography + Audience

Ex: DE "Ethnology" + Sports Fans or DE "Ethnography" + Gamers

Click below to explore how other scholars have studied the following audiences:

Social Media:

Ethnography and the digital fields of social media.

An activist in the field: Social media, ethnography, and community.

Emotional practices of unaccompanied refugee youth on social media

Tip: Get familiar with how other scholars have approached the same broad topic, by reading a couple of articles on your broad topic below. What research method did they use? Was it a qualitative research method, such as interviews, focus groups, oral history, participant observation, or textual/narrative analysis? Or quantitative?

Protesters:

Networking #Ferguson: An Ethnographic Study of Ferguson Protesters' Online-Offline Community Mobilization.

Tip: Get familiar with how other scholars have approached the same broad topic, by reading a couple of articles on your broad topic below. What research method did they use? Was it a qualitative research method, such as interviews, focus groups, oral history, participant observation, or textual/narrative analysis? Or quantitative?

Sports fans

Fan culture and motivation in the context of successful women’s professional team sports: a mixed-methods case study of Portland Thorns fandom

Digital Orientations in the Lives of Football Fans

Exploring the experiences of female sport fans: A collaborative self-ethnography

Out in the bleachers: Sexual identity and women's sports fans.

Examining culture-specific sport consumption in a host country: The roles of ethnic identity and acculturation.

The Story of an Ethnography: The Experience of Watching the 2002 World Cup in the Pub.

Tip: Get familiar with how other scholars have approached the same broad topic, by reading a couple of articles on your broad topic below. What research method did they use? Was it a qualitative research method, such as interviews, focus groups, oral history, participant observation, or textual/narrative analysis? Or quantitative?

Gamers

Talking to Gaymers: Questioning Identity, Community and Media Representation.

With few exceptions, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) individuals are generally ignored in the realm of digital games. This ethnography of members of an online gay gamer, or gaymer, community allowed me to better understand their thoughts on LGBTQ representation in games, as well as the construction of the gaymer community. How gaymer identities are constructed, how this community is formed, and how its members discuss the representation of LGBTQ individuals in video games are discussed here. Gaymer identity was found to be more complex than the simple 'homosexual gamer' definition often used implies. Finding a space to express this identity was much more important to members than the invisibility of LGBTQ individuals in video game texts. The relative importance of in-game representation was tied to the context of play. 

Making Meaningful worlds: role-playing subcultures and the autism spectrum.

F*uck You, Noob Tube!: Learning the Art of Ludic LAN War.

Television viewers

Is fantasy just fantasy? An ethnography of female fanship viewing Sex and the City.

Wrestling Audiences: An ethnographic study of television viewers

Television coverage has influenced professional wrestling, expanding its popularity and legitimacy as an entertainment form. The purpose of this study was to examine the culture of professional wrestling audiences as interpretative communities, and to determine how they understand and use wrestling. Using ethnographic analysis and unstructured interviews, five sets of observations were made of 18–23-year-old TV viewers in small-to medium-sized groups. The findings suggest when social viewers become fans, they collectively interpret, in creative and adaptive ways. These audiences also use knowledge of the wrestling viewing experience to shape their understanding of the world, and to bind together their particular, shared culture.

Radio/music listeners

You are what you listen to: Young people's stereotypes about music fans

The extended leisure experiences of music scene participation.

Social media users

#anawarrior identities and the stigmatization process: An ethnography in Italian networked publics.

Young, black, and connected: Facebook usage among African American college students.

Theater attendees

Naming their world in a culturally responsive space: Experiences of Hmong adolescents in an after-school theatre program.

Borat the trickster: folklore and the media, folklore in the media.

Book/magazine/newspaper readers

Tip: Consider checking Brand Catalyst to understand the demographics representing consumers of specific media, such as Vogue vs. Men's Health

Consider exploring these media-specific journals for more information on the media audience of your choice.

Global Media Journal;

International Journal of Communication;

International Journal of Cultural Studies;

Critical Studies in Media Communication (18 month delay)

Media, Culture & Society;

Communication/Critical Cultural Studies; (18 month delay)

New Media & Society;

Communication, Culture & Critique;

Journal of Communication. (12 month delay)

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