According to Emerson,
one way of beginning ethnographic notes is jotting down observations of
everything you see at a site. This was my approach; I did not have a focus when
I visited the Second City. As I observed my surroundings and jotted things
down, I began to learn what aspects of the site I was most interested in. I
found that I wanted to focus my ethnography on the culture of the main-stage
theater. This will incorporate audience-performer relationships, workers’
thoughts on the theater, and audience members’ reasons for seeing Second City
shows.
I really like the concept of
“coding” ethnographic notes. This seems like it will be very helpful in
discovering patterns and themes. A challenge for me right now is definitely a
lack of focus. The Second City is a massive organization. Even the main-stage
theater, which I have chosen to focus on, has many aspects to write about, such
as performers, staff and audience; these all have distinct cultures that are
part of a larger overarching culture. Coding my notes will help me organize
them and discover some of the core themes that exist in the culture of Second
City. These are probably things I am aware of right now, but will become explicitly
clear with coding.
Emerson says that with open coding,
categories will differ depending on the ethnographer analyzing the data. I
wonder how my status as a comedy major will affect my coding compared to
someone else.
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