Q: Erica asks, “You recently spoke to my Principles of Advertising class at KU and now we are doing our own basic ethnography study. My group wants to observe 18-24 year olds in the bar scene, but we don’t know if specifically watching what a certain gender does, drinks or wears in a bar is specific enough. Should we study two bars and compare? Should we look at behavior and interaction? Should we narrow our subjects even further by gender and age? Thanks so much for your help!”

A: Hi Erica,

The first thing you need to do is decide what your research question is—what is it that you hope to learn? You have to know that before you can decide who you are going to talk to/observe and where you are going to go. So, map out your research question first and then decide which methodology will help you to meet that goal. If you are doing a good ethnographic study you should always spend some time talking to people AND watching people. How many bars you go to, whether you divide your observations by gender and age, etc. will all depend on your research question. Good luck to you. Let me know if you have additional questions.

Melinda