For tracking the marketing related behaviors of online communities, “netnography” is a stand-alone method. It is a way in which to understand the discourse and interactions of people engaging in computer-mediated communication about market-oriented topics. During the course of netnographic data collection and analysis, the market researcher must follow conventional procedures that the research is reasonable or “trustworthy” (note: in most qualitative consumer research, the concept of “trustworthiness” is used rather than “validity,” see Wallendorf and Belk 1989, Lincoln and Guba 1985). “Netnography” is based primarily upon the observation of textual discourse, an important difference from the balancing of discourse and observed behavior that occurs during in-person ethnography (cf. Arnould and Wallendorf 1994). Informants therefore may be presumed to be.
