Browsing by Subject "netnografia"

Object. The purpose of the study is to find out, what kind of possibilities there are for ethical sensitivity to appear in the context of game development. This operating environment is considered in this study both concrete surroundings related to the work and colleagues and virtual environment, the game itself which is created by the game developers themselves. The study aims to clarify what kind of meanings ethical sensitivity gets in the speech of game developers taking account to that behavior in practice might differ from the ideal of an individual. Ethical sensitivity as a concept is defined by earlier studies of the subject considering for example the moral thinking of teachers and nurses and it is linked in this study to its context by research of game industry and methodology specialized to virtual environments. Methods. The material of the study was collected with half-structured theme interview from six different game developers whom where either working or studying the subject. Background knowledge for the study was also collected from the games themselves as environments with nethnographic methods. In addition, more material was collected from the culture build around the games, things such as game videos and social media platforms handling the games. The main sources in this study were nevertheless the interviews, which made it possible to search for the answers with grounded theory -based methodology. That supported the making of theory of ethical sensitivity in this distinctive context. Conclusions. The ethical sensitivity of game developers and awareness of societal issues were clear, and they also mainly experienced their values to be similar with others in the work or study environment. The issue that came up repeatedly was constant discussion and counseling with others, which was relevant part of the work itself. It also helped interviewees to reflect their own actions. Also, every participant had something to do with gaming during their free-time and some of them had somewhat passion towards gaming and games which can be seen as a reflection of hacker ethics that promotes passion as an ultimate motivation to work. However, the notions in this study were not strong enough to prove or dismantle this kind of thinking. The flexibility of identity and thinking as well as effects of separate groups were shown as an important part of conclusions and worked as a promising path for further studies.

The purpose of this study is to understand the phenomenon of consumption of groceries as entertainment among adolescents on YouTube. The first data-collection phase was led by answering the question, what kind of phenomenon is grocery consumption as reflected on the adolescents' YouTube videos. In the second data-collection phase, the aim was to find out what kind of symbolic meanings of consumption adolescents emphasize on the YouTube videos. The theoretical background was built on a group of concepts based on Maula's (1995) pattern on formation of the environment of grocery consumption. Data analysis is based on the contrasting symbolic meanings of consumption: utilitarianism vs. hedonism and egoism vs. altruism. The study is a multi-method study in which the data were collected and analyzed in two phases so that the first set of data formed the basis for the second acquisition and analysis of the data. The first phase was netnografic. Web environment was used as field of observation instead of a physical environment. The data consisted of vlog-type YouTube Finnish-spoken videos uploaded by adolescents aged 14–26 years. The data consisted of 50 videos from 32 different YouTubers. Videos were uploaded to YouTube during years 2013–2016. Four videos analyzed were selected to the second phase of the study. In this phase the data were produced as a learning assignment where the researcher was in the teacher's role. The learning assignment was carried out in the lesson of pupils on the 8th grade (24 pupils). After watching each example video, the students produced a mind map about their thoughts and ideas as a group. Seven mind maps were produced for each video. The results of the first phase show that grocery consumption on YouTube videos of adolescents were predominantly hedonistic and egoistic. This suggests that grocery consumption on the YouTube videos follows the real world: people seem basically to be egoistic and consumption in the society is to a large extent hedonistic. In the second phase, the students mainly emphasized the same symbolic meanings in their mind maps as were recorded in the first phase of the study. However, in the first phase, one of the example videos was seen as altruistic, and in the second phase, judged by pupils, as egoistic. This result implies that adolescent see YouTubers' behavior on the videos more egoistic than altruistic. Previous studies show that adolescents define their self-image by media, so it seems natural that in the eyes of adolescents, the behavior of YouTubers is emphasized. The results of this study can be applied in consumer and media education of adolescents.