Here we present some characteristics and examples of the different types of documents.
Popular Culture
Documents
Are designed to entertain, inform, and
perhaps persuade the public.
Examples
Television, film, radio, newspapers, literary works,
photography, cartoons, and the Internet are
sources of “public” data that help to track the
change and trends.
Personal Documents
Provide subjective
conclusions
Examples
Diaries, letters, home videos, children’s growth
records, scrapbooks and photo albums,
calendars, autobiographies, travel logs, and
personal blogs.
Refer to any first-person narrative
that describes an individual’s actions,
experiences, and beliefs
Give us a snapshot (personal
perspective) into what the author
thinks is important.
Public Records
Reveal
These might be otherwise unknown through
direct observation
Aspirations
Arrangements
Tensions
Relationships
Decisions
The official, ongoing
records of a society’s
activities.
Examples
Ethnographer field notes, diary entries,
reports to various agencies, books,
newspaper articles, works of fiction about
the culture, and photographs.
Visual Documents
Available online or in the
physical setting that one is
studying.
Capture activities and events
as they happen, including
communication patterns
Facial expressions,
gestures, and emotions
Examples
Film, video, photography, and web-based
media. Public records, personal documents,
and popular cultural materials can all be in
visual formats.