“Putting Ethnographic Writing in Context.”

Practicing ethnography can help improve the writing process. It requires collecting data, analyzing it, synthesizing, and reflection or a conclusion. According to our article, ethnography highlights human relationships, such as the relationships between a researcher and participates or a teacher and student. The article points out that in learning ethnography writing, there isn’t one set formula The article further discusses how there isn’t one set formula because ethnography is writing requires experimentation, personal voice, style, structure, and a purpose, which can vary depending on who is writing, who the audience is, and the relationship between the sender and receiver (pg 176).

In order to write with a stance there needs to be knowledge and understanding of that particular culture one is writing about or to. This includes knowledge of the values, habits, relationship dynamics, norms, and rituals of that particular culture. As we’ve learned, not everyone is the same, so sometimes generalizing can occur when making a claim about a particular culture that may exclude certain members of that group.   

One important aspect that stood out to me was an important part of ethnography writing is acknowledging the fact that it can affect the lives of those described in that writing piece. One cliché example I can think of is the reality television show, Jersey Shore, a popular show that portrayed Italian Americans living in the Jersey Shore. The show only took a very small population of six Italian Americans, who were loud, obnoxious; by the opinions of most, tan, liked to party, and identified themselves as ‘guidos.’ After the show was aired and gained popularity, there was an uproar response by many Italians in America because they believed the show displayed a false sense of their culture and the people in it. I come from an Italian family, and as I can say yes we are loud, we have far set values of the members on the show Jersey Shore. On a few different occasions 

I ran into some people shortly after the show aired that were from Jersey Shore. Instead of saying where they were from proudly, they felt they had to explain that their culture is nothing like the show and felt they were misrepresented. They almost seemed embarrassed from my observation. This is a shame because obviously MTV did not care or take into consideration that producing this show had the potential to affect other members of the Italian culture in a negative way.  

Understanding different dynamics of other cultures can be done by practicing ethnographic writing as well as improve one’s writing. Research, spending enough time in that culture interacting, learning their values, habits, and asking questions are all techniques used in ethnographic writing, which allows a writer to have a valid stance when writing.