The interview with Humans of New York creator Brandon Stanton and the IIT Institute of Design’s “Getting People to Talk: An Ethnography & Interviewing Primer” video detail the techniques involved in ethnography and the qualities needed to become a good ethnographer. I feel that Brandon Stanton really got the message behind ethnography through when saying that he didn’t want to be the best at “telling the story of humanity”, but instead wanted to be the best at telling the story of the person in front of him. As an ethnographer, it is important to construct the truth of the story accordingly but not to twist it like the media often does. You will want to leave the politics out of it, because if you start asking questions molded by your own views in order to construct some political message, you won’t get to know your subject very well.
For instance, if you were part of a political group conducting a study and you asked a simple question to your subject about what their thoughts were about the group, the subject will likely be intimidated into giving a positive constructed response instead of a real response. You could conduct a whole study but not have meaningful information in the end. Therefore, as an ethnographer it’s important to be able to get your subjects to speak truthfully to you. If they give you a constructed response and you do not call them out on it, your study won’t be telling you much about who they really are, how their experiences have shaped them, or how they truly feel about something.
Just like the IIT video showed, there are many tips for novice ethnographers regarding what to do and what not to do. The first thing you might want to do is to make sure your subject is relaxed. If they are in a noisy or busy location, then they are not going to feel comfortable and will likely not be able to give you a good response. Another thing to do is re-examine the question you are asking – is it likely to illicit a positive response or will it simply be ignored. In a place like New York, getting your message to the subject quickly and as accurately as possible is important, and is something that novice ethnographers can work on by learning from their mistakes and by practicing.
Great point about subjects telling you want they think you want to hear. You want to be open and encouraging but also somewhat blank as an interviewer.