This special issue, guest edited by Crystal Abidin and Gabriele de Seta collects the confessions of five digital ethnographers laying bare their methodological failures, disciplinary posturing, and ethical dilemmas. The articles are meant to serve as a counseling stations for fellow researchers who are approaching digital media ethnographically. On the one hand, this issue’s contributors acknowledge the rich variety of methodological articulations reflected in the lexicon of “buzzword ethnography”. On the other, they evidence how doing ethnographic research about, on, and through digital media is most often a messy, personal, highly contextual enterprise fraught with anxieties and discomforts. Through the four “private messages from the field” collected in this issue, we acknowledge the messiness, open-endedness and coarseness of ethnographic research in-the-making.

In this inaugural issue some of the leading researchers in digital social research reflect upon the characteristics, directions, opportunities and challenges of their field. It tells of both past experiences, current issues and future paths. For the journal, this issue represents both a mission statement and an attempt at conceptualisation – delineating the field in which the journal will exist and expressing its role within this field. The impressive range of contributions and contributors reflects the wide scope of the journal and we hope it will inspire others to engage in a creative dialogue about the field and its implications.