What is Participant Field Notes

This chapter describes three research techniques used within the field of digital ethnography aimed at understanding the digital culture of adolescents from qualitative and participatory perspectives. The authors carry out a theoretical review of some of the underlying principles of digital ethnography and creative and participatory research techniques. The authors then describe three research techniques based on the following methodological approaches: the mirror method, participant field notes, and digital visual cartographies. The mirror method technique analyses how adolescents construct their subjectivity through the images they use in social networks. Participant field notes are designed to facilitate the involvement of the young people in the field notes taken by the researchers, thus breaking with their private nature and providing opportunities for enhanced reflexivity. Digital visual cartographies aim to help understand, among other issues, the spatial dimension associated with the use of digital devices by young people.