Interactivity in Ethnography (Informal)

See the Interactivity section on the website before responding.

How might the loss of control over one’s material be beneficial to the researcher, or to the discussion of the subject overall?

• Could the viral spread and hugely varied contextualization of a piece not, for instance, be used as a sort of “second tier” to supplement one’s initial study? How so?
  
• What sorts of studies could be done based on the examination of these contextualizations alone?

RLCouturier wrote:

How might the loss of control over one’s material be beneficial to the researcher, or to the discussion of the subject overall?

Research in itself is a building of hypothesis on top of already formed ideas and the evidence available. When one's work becomes more widely available, not only does the author's publicity increase but the potential for other inquisitive minds to digest and build upon the information also increases. And, when more minds are focused on one problem, a convergence usually starts to occur: mistakes and inconsistencies are weeded out and the amount of repeatable, functional data increases.

When information is readily and easily available to the public there is always a chance of the propagation of misinformation. Statements will sometimes be pulled out of context, perhaps in a way the original author of a work finds counterproductive to their original point. However, this sort of situation is not entirely avoidable when a work is less readily available (i.e. through a limited media source.)

I'd like to think that the more eyes upon a collection of data and opinions, the more scrutiny of a work exists. And, scrutiny, though sometimes unpleasant when directed at one's self, oftentimes leads to the refining of data and opinions into something that can be consensually considered a sound theory a community.

In short: It's good to keep a scientific mind when analyzing data, but not to the exclusion of creative thought. It is the Creative Mind that discovers, it is the Logical Mind that tests the discovery, and the more Creative and Logical minds looking at a data set or theory, the more tested and 'proofread' it becomes.