This report and film is the result of our ethnographic observational study of the Volvo Subject60 tour in Berlin, London, Milan, Paris and Madrid. At each event experiments were weaved into the party environment to trigger the participant’s naughty behavior. An anthropologist was engaged at each event to execute observations with focus on behavior, facial expressions, party mood and reactions to the ‘hidden’ experiments.
Volvo Subject60 experiment
The world’s most modern country
This summer SVT is once again sending the TV programme Världens modernaste land, a series that discuss different issues about Swedish culture. A relief for all of us that get quite tired of football… In programme number 4 Katarina Graffman is guest together with Peter Englund. View here.
A different kind of media behavior
Media, especially for young users, is about a complete integration with everyday life, which constantly is ongoing. It is no longer about the “new” in media technologies that should be problematizied in order to understand the use and impact – it’s about to see media as a cultural expression that mediates social relations. Only then one can also understand how media works and how it affects everyday life. This is what “old” media logic has difficult to relate to. Today they still use rigid metrics that fail to measure a total integrated behavior.
Ethnography and trendspotting
By using ethnography one can identify key patterns in the users´ emotinal, functional and social needs. That is what real “trendspotting” is – detailed analysis of behaviour in order to predict change. One have to know that human behavior is likely to lead to some development, such as the human need for comfort is often a stronger driving force rather than attitude and lifestyle.
Hattrick and Why do ethnography
For widening the understanding of their own online service, especially how it is perceived by their users, the owners of the text-based football manager game Hattrick and their associates at Tribaling recently called for ethnographic research as one step in the process of making a marketing strategy plan. The research found answers to questions that were not previously thought of and showed new insights into both functional and social values of the game. Thus, the research revealed Hattrick to be more than a strategy game: the inherently versatile online service is shown to be not only a resource for entertainment, personal challenge and a social community but also a unique cultural environment in which users over time familiarize with, find meaningful to engage in and even extend outwardly into everyday life.
Ecology 2010
We can well state that there is an increasing interest for organic food and the central theme for it circles around environment and health. No one can escape the fact that organic alternatives are on the market. Our informants, disregarding ethnicity, socioeconomic background and education, have all a relative good knowledge of what organic food is and what it is considered to be good for.
Generation “Noll koll” 2
The term Generation “Noll koll” is spreading. Our expression refer to the notion that we have a younger generation that doesn’t know what’s going on. It’s used as an allusion to how younger people define media, namely “to know what’s going on”, or in Swedish “att ha koll”. This phenomenon is getting increasingly attention and the phrase is gradually being adapted by journalists and bloggers. Read a good article in Computer Sweden by Johan Hallsenius.
iPod Generation
Radiodays Europe, The annual pan-European radio conference for leaders from public service and commercial radio as well as related industries, is taking place in Copenhagen 17-18th March. The conference is an arena to discuss radio now and in the future. But, what role does radio play in the lives of younger generations? Inculture will reveal some of the results from their research in this field.
Ethnography
Ethnography reveals what people really do. It allows you to see patterns of behavior in a real world context. The method answers how and why by everyday life participant observation study. Saying and acting are separate phenomenon. Ethnography gain insights into how people define and create meaning. Designers, communicators and product developers need to understand the relationship between what they produce and the meaning their products and messages have for the consumers.
Old and new media
There are some fundamental differences between “old” and “new” media. Old media is objective and still synonymous with power from an “elite” which is not obvious to trust and also perceived as tedious. New media is free (Internet) and private (cellphone). You are the producer and you decide whether you want to be disturbed or not. Old media deals with coincidences, every now and then. New media is constantely ongoing regarding communication, information, practical chores and entertainment. It is embraced as more free and not enforced.