Whose story is it, anyway? An ethnographic answer

The time has come to look beyond the usual systems approach of multimedia productions and ask an ethnographic question: where is the real story? Is the story in the mind of the reporting "authors" as they create these productions? Is it located in the production (often referred to as the text or document) itself? Or, is it in the minds of "readers" as they sew together fragments of the story using sound, video and text? The author believes multimedia ethnography is a platform for multiloguing that acts as an electronic forum for discussion and social intercourse among multiple users. This platform encourages a shared vision that enables multimedia stories to become more valid accounts. Thus, multiloguing plays two roles: dialogue is replaced by many people engaging in multiple levels of conversation; and the process of reaching conclusions includes logging (selecting, coding, and analyzing) parts of stories from multiple perspectives.<>