“Nothing is stranger than this business of humans observing other humans in order to write about them,” claimed anthropologist Behar (1996, p. 5) in her discussion of ethnography. Anyone who has conducted ethnography (especially participant observation) can attest to how strange it feels, particularly at first, to set oneself apart as an observer and turn a discerning eye to the taken-for-granted processes of a particular social setting. Strange though the endeavor may seem at times, ethnography has proven enormously useful to applied communication researchers for exploring, participating in, and documenting the rich details of daily life as they unfold (Gans, 1999). Ethnography, broadly defined,“refers to a social scientific description of a people and the cultural basis of their peoplehood”(Vidich & Lyman, 2000, p. 40). Berg (2001) added that “ethnography is primarily a process that attempts to describe and interpret social expressions between people and groups”(p. 134). The validity of ethnography is grounded in the claim that a researcher has been there—wherever “there” might be (Lindlof & Taylor, 2002). Being there and writing about what one sees, hears, feels, smells, and tastes there constitute the essence of conducting ethnography. Applied communication ethnographers seek to be there in various sites for the purpose of learning about and assisting in the development, change, or improvement of that site or other related sites. Thus, this chapter explores how and for what purposes applied communication researchers do ethnography—as participant observers in the field, as data producers and analysts, and as writers.

To provide an overview of the use of ethnography in applied communication research, I collected articles and chapters published over the 15-year period from 1990 to 2005. Using online search engines, articles in communication journals that used the terms ethnography and applied communication first were found. I then conducted a more general search using the term ethnography, selecting only those articles that focused on applied communication. Finally, I searched through the Journal of Applied Communication Research (JACR) and several edited collections of applied communication research, selecting articles or chapters that used ethnography as their method. In total, 41 articles and book chapters were gathered, forming a rich and varied collection that reflects the breadth of ethnographic inquiry in contemporary applied communication scholarship and forms the foundation for my commentary. In this chapter, I first explore definitions of ethnography, the goals of this research, and the history of the method, including an overview of applied communication topics addressed using ethnography. I then examine common practices for data gathering, data analysis, and writing subsumed under the umbrella of ethnography. The final section discusses what we have learned about ethnography through its use in applied communication research and offers some suggestions for applied communication ethnographers.