Digital practices tracing: studying consumer lurking in digital environments

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to offer a methodological framework for a systematic capture and analysis of consumer lurking practices in digital environments. Despite the prevalence of lurking, it is still an understudied topic in marketing and consumer research due to methodological constraints. To remedy this, we introduce Digital Practices Tracing (DPT), a novel methodological framework integrating digital methods and post-phenomenological inquiry. This combination allows capturing naturally occuring digital lurking practices and uncovering their underlying motivations. The article’s contribution is threefold. First, it provides a detailed research protocol that can be easily applied and further scaled. Second, it applies the methodology to make invisible lurking practices on social media visible. Third, it introduces an ad hoc taxonomy of digital lurking practices useful to trace and measure them.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital practices
• screencast videography
• tracking devices
• digital methods
• postphenomenological inquiry
• lurking
• social media

Disclosure statement

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Notes

1. The guest talks were given at the Charles University and Metropolitan University Prague.

2. For example, one of our interviewees (Charlotte) explained to us: “I’m gonna stop scrolling, look at the picture and if this is a photo with details, I’m gonna zoom in. I’m gonna read the caption, and sometimes when there’s a link, I click on it to see what this is about”.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Charles University Grant Agency (GA UK) under Grant number 190218. Some aspects of this work were supported by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust under Grant SG180117; Grantová Agentura, Univerzita Karlova [190218].

Notes on contributors

Petra Audy Martínek

Petra Audy Martínek (PhD, Charles University) is a researcher at the Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism at the Charles University Prague. Her research interests include social media, digital consumer practices, digital methods and data invisibilities.

Alessandro Caliandro

Alessandro Caliandro (PhD, University of Milano) is an associate professor in Sociology of Culture and Communication at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Pavia. His current research focuses on digital methods, digital consumer culture, platformization of culture, surveillance capitalism and smartphone use.

Janice Denegri-Knott

Janice Denegri-Knott is Professor in Consumer Culture and Behaviour at Bournemouth University’s Faculty of Media and Communication, specializing in digital consumption and consumer insights. Her research deals with the intersections between digital media and consumption and their transformative potential. She is editor of the Journal of Promotional Communications and associate editor of Marketing Theory.