Just as ethnographers working offline produce sketches or photographs of the people, places, and artifacts that they study, so too do ethnographers of online communities. When I was collecting data for my most recent online ethnography, I decided to try capturing images of the online places & spaces I was studying, as well as the activities that I observed and engaged in there. These visual records proved to be valuable data for analyzing and making sense of the online community I studied.\u00a0 They have also been incredibly useful in writing up the results, since they help readers see and understand the places and phenomena being described.<\/p>\n
Since I did my online ethnography on a MacBook Pro, I used the free native Mac functionalities (certain keyboard combinations) and apps (Grab) that I had available, which worked out very well.<\/p>\n
Mac OSX keyboard combinations for screen captures<\/strong><\/p>\n Using simple keyboard combinations you can quickly and easily take screenshots of your full screen, a selected area, or an open window.\u00a0 The images will be saved either to your desktop or the clipboard, depending on which combinations you use.\u00a0 I learned about these keyboard combinations through this MacRumors:Guides webpage<\/a>.\u00a0The basic ones listed on the page are:<\/p>\n Command-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it as a file on the desktop<\/p>\n Command-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop<\/p>\n Command-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop<\/p>\n Command-Control-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it to the clipboard<\/p>\n Command-Control-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it to the clipboard<\/p>\n Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it to the clipboard<\/p><\/blockquote>\n With my version of Mac OSX the images were saved as .png files.\u00a0 (The file type that they get saved as depends on which version you have, as the article notes<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Once I had these images I renamed them and archived them with the rest of the data (fieldnotes, interviews, transcripts, etc.) that I collected.\u00a0 Later, when I was writing up the results, I imported them into my Word documents using Insert > Picture > From File\u2026.\u00a0 It couldn\u2019t have been easier.<\/p>\n