From: Anita Colyer

Date: 30 Mar 1993 12:09:41

Subject: ethnography of Cinema-L

To: cinema-l@auvm.bitnet

I'm currently enrolled in a mass communications graduate research methods course on ethnography at Penn State. As part of my final project, I need to conduct an actual ethnography of the group of my choice. And guess what--I've chosen the cinema-l list as my group!

My general theme is "use of electronic media as a social practice." I'm still working out the exact logistics of the research process, which is evolving on a daily basis. I will probably post questions to the list, and anyone who wants to participate can respond to the list as part of the general discussion that takes place, or--if you don't want your messages to be shared with the group--you can send your responses directly to me. I will ALWAYS post both my bitnet and internet addresses any time I send questions related to this project to the list so that you always have the option of e-mailing me directly if you want to.

PARTICIPATION IN THIS PROJECT IS PURELY VOLUNTARY! This means that if you do not wish to be quoted, or do not wish to participate, please feel free to let me know and I'll respect your wishes. In the final paper that I write, pseudonyms will be used in place of the names of all participants, and I will do my best to modify any identifying characteristics so that individual participants will not be recognizable.

I've chosen cinema-l because since joining the group I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of my participation in the group. The levels of commentary and the subject matter vary a great deal, and it's that variety--along with the unpredictability, general good-naturedness, and humorous attitude of most subscribers--that makes the list fun for me. E-mail is a relatively new form of communication, and there's something about the nature of e-mail that seems somewhat addictive (I'm inserting my personal, non-scientific opinion here). I'm interested in exploring some of the aspects of "what makes e-mail appealing" as well as "the nature of e-mail etiquette."

From time to time I may also correspond directly with certain people, in order to solicit more information about issues that come up in our discussions. I'll try to be as unobtrusive as possible as I pursue this project; certainly, if I contact you directly and you do not want to participate, please feel free to say so. I think that there's a great potential for this project to be both fun AND informative, so I encourage anyone and everyone to participate.

If you are interested in being part of this study, and would like to volunteer to be an interviewee at some future point in my research process (which will take place throughout the month of April), please contact me directly at:

afc1@psuadmin (bitnet)

afc1@oas.psu.edu (internet)

I welcome all comments and suggestions.

Thanks a lot!

Anita