Gearing Up - Ethnography - page 80

and manipulate visual images. Taken out of context, pictures, like words, can
be misleading. The fieldworker must be as careful in photographing human
behavior as in recording an interviewee's comments and concerns. Time in the
field is necessary before photographs become meaningful and before the
ethnographer can make an accurate and systematic record of the norm.
Photographs are useful in gaining an understanding of a cultural norm, but
they do not stand alone. The fieldworker needs to learn the rules and values of
a culture to complete the picture. (Intentional distortions, such as inappropri-
ate cropping or alterations in digital photographs, evidence gross disregard for the
truth. See Becker, 1979, for an excellent discussion of photography and threats to
validity. See also the visual anthropology journals StudiesinVisualCommunication
and Visual Anthropology Review. )
DIGITAL CAMCORDER
Digital camcorder recordings are extremely useful in ethnographic (and partic-
ularly microethnographic) studies. Ethnographers usually have a fraction of a
second to reflect on a person's gesture, posture, or gait. Camcorders provide the
observer with the ability to stop time. The ethnographer can record a class and
watch it over and over, each time finding new layers of meaning, including non-
verbal signals among participants. Over time, visual and verbal patterns of
communication may become clear when seen repeatedly and in stop action.
Several years ago, a colleague and I conducted a study of two high
school history classes using a camcorder. One class was predominantly lower-
socioeconomic-class minority students; the other class, with the same teacher,
was primarily white, upper-middle-class students. We observed a clear differ-
ence in teaching styles and classroom atmosphere. Documenting these differ-
ences was the problem. The recording helped us make sense of what was
happening in the two classes. Using the camcorder, we were able to identify
specific behaviors the teacher used to solicit information or to silence the
students. The camcorder also helped identify subtle teacher cues to the students.
Digital camcorder equipment is essential to any microethnographic
research. Gatekeeping procedures (Erickson, 1976) and the politics of the
classroom (McDermott, 1974) are some elements of complex social situations
that the fieldworker can capture. However, the fieldworker must weigh the
expense of the equipment and the time required to use it against the value of
the information it will capture. Many ethnographic studies simply do not need
fine-grained pictures of social reality. This equipment can be notably obtru-
sive; however, many fit in the palm of your hand. Even after participants have