The difference between ethnographic method and field investigation method in communication science

The difference between ethnography and field investigation;

First, ethnography comes from field investigation, which is an important channel leading to anthropology and ethnology, but it is not the only channel. As mentioned above, field is the lifeline of anthropological research, and the generation of ethnography is a process from field practice to text writing. It can be said that the writing of ethnography can't rely entirely on field investigation, but it is closely related to a great extent. As we know, before the field investigation appeared, anthropologists and ethnologists were called "armchair scholars", and these scholars generated ethnography based on reading and sorting out documents. This also shows that ethnography can be written without field investigation, but it also involves the authenticity and objectivity of an ethnography.

Second, the writing of ethnography is the external embodiment of fieldwork methods, and whether its content scientifically reflects whether fieldwork or fieldwork methods are scientific. The Navigator of the Western Pacific mainly focuses on the special trade mode of Kula, an Islander of Trobriende, but it is not only a book devoted to describing the economic life of local people, but also involves various aspects such as system, ceremony, marriage, technology and language, trying to restore all aspects of local residents' lives in a panoramic way. From Malinowski's book The Navigator of the Western Pacific, we can fully see the subtle interaction between ethnography and fieldwork. Ethnographers and anthropologists have to rely on various scientific means to clearly investigate their research objects. Literature is indeed a good choice, but if there is a more real or scientific method, it is field investigation.

Field is an important main line of anthropology and ethnology research, and even the lifeline of its research. The generation of an ethnography is a process from field practice and investigation to text creation and writing, and its generation process can best reflect the relationship between field investigation and ethnography.