ABSTRACT
This chapter advances the concept of political netnography, basing the argument in the current research about political ethnography, the contemporary relevance of social media in politics and the effectiveness of netnography research methods. The chapter first explores the boundaries of political ethnography and defines the political ethnography concept from a netnography perspective. Then, it proceeds to explore extant research into politically related issues dividing them into three distinct categories: (1) netnographies of formal politics, (2) netnographies of political encounters, and (3) netnographies of lived political experiences. The chapter then proposes the use of other qualitative methods in conjunction with netnography to study two political related issues, power relations and ideology. The chapter concludes with ideas concerning how to strategically and pragmatically apply the notion of political netnography.
