Field Methods Proposal

I will most likely not be doing any anthropological fieldwork for my portion of the project on anonymity, but that does not mean I don't plan to get insights from others who have delved into the world of Anonymous.

Since I will be perusing the Internet for all media mentions of Anonymous or /b/ for my part of the process, the most observing I will be able to make will be the comments left after articles or videos from the media. I will not delve much into the heart of Anonymous; instead I will determine how it is viewed in the media and why it is viewed that way.

Pure voyeurism of the media is not enough though. To get a full understanding of the media's perceptions of Anonymous I would like to talk to reporters who have actually covered Anonymous and other hackers involved in similar "raids." I could contact Mattathias Schwartz, who wrote this trolling piece for the New York Times, or Chris Landers, who wrote this great article on Project Chanology. These two reporters actually delved into the world of trollers and met prominent anonymous posters in person. They came out of the process with much different perceptions of the culture than other media reports like the ones from Fox 11 and CNN.

These interviews could serve as the talking heads for my research and would hopefully complement my findings on the trends of media perceptions of Anonymous.