Three years in the making, our Open Access Special Issue on digital ethnographic methodological failures, disciplinary posturing, and ethical dilemmas is finally out! Thank you to Journal of Digital Social Research for publishing us in Volume 2, Issue 1 now available here.

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The introduction ‘Private Messages from the Field’ from best human Gabriele de Seta and I is my most favourite work yet. Read here.

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Our first piece is from Alexia Maddox who reflects on equipping herself with “crypto-literacy” prior to entering the virtual community of Silk Road, noting the “tension between visibility and vulnerability” for herself and her informants. Read here.

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Our second piece is from Johanna Sumiala & Minttu Tikka who discuss the unsettling dilemmas of tracking a tragedy in its earliest hours. Read here.

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Our third piece from Crystal Abidin (me) is an intimate negotiation of transitions between the attention economies of academia and the Influencer industry through vocabularies of visibility practices (my most precious piece since researching Influencers in 2008). Read here.

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Our final piece from Gabriele de Seta is an honest unpacking of some of the “professional illusions through which digital ethnographers justify their work” within the domains of anthropology. Read here.

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A big thank you to Journal of Digital Social Research especially Simon Lindgren and Mathilda Åkerlund for believing in our Special Issue. JDSR is a cross-disciplinary Open Access online journal that welcomes international research. Do consider submitting to them here.

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