Substituting internet for a traditional fieldwork

Collecting folklore data on Internet

Vesna, Trifunović

Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU

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http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?ID=0350-08611001157T

2010-2020/03/08/16:55:42

Internet as a substitute for traditional fieldwork is being used increasingly, hence there is a need to asses the notion of 'doing fieldwork'. One of the funda­mental questions related to the usage of Internet to collect data arises as a doubt whether this kind of data collection is an adequate means to its end: are the data collected this way sufficient or even appropriate for an academic analysis and scientific theories? In an attempt to at least partially answer this question, this paper discusses ways in which Internet could be used and seen as a fieldwork providing valid data. To illustrate this, the paper presents, as an example, an analysis of a certain folklore material gathered via Internet. The aim is to show which kind of data could be collected this way, and how the analysis performed demonstrate such data are nevertheless a valid source containing quality information on a given subject, in this case, folklore. The discussion is limited to anthropology of folklore in order to demonstrate the possibility of data collection which excludes more traditional fieldwork methods.

Internet, fieldwork, collection of data, folklore