Fellow anthropologist Michael Wesch (of The Machine Is Us/ing Us fame) posted about a video that the The Chronicle of Higher Education has released about his own digital ethnography projects.

For those who don’t know, The Chronicle is a well-known U.S. publication aimed primarily at university and college professors. It contains news and job announcements irrespective of disciplinary boundaries. A bit like the CAUT/ACPPU Bulletin here in Canada.

The video itself is journalistic in tone and does pay lipservice to the challenges of online research. I like the fact that we get to hear one of Wesch’s students, known as ThePoasm on YouTube. But, overall, the video does little to give voice to the people involved, apart from Wesch himself. The lack of student focus is unsurprising as The Chronicle is mostly concerned with faculty members. But there could have been more talk about the academic, disciplinary, institutional, and pedagogical implications of Wesch’s projects.

Maybe I’m just jealous of Wesch for being able to undertake those projects in the first place. Anyone wants to podcast/vidcast with me? 😉