自八○年代之後，用民族誌法來進行閱聽人研究的風潮愈來愈盛。從方法論的角度而言，這是閱聽人研究在方法上的一種新發展，也使得閱聽人研究呈現出更豐富多元的風貌。 由於民族誌法在臺灣的閱聽人研究中尚未形成風氣，故本文旨在介紹歐美各國採用民族誌法進行閱聽人研究的源流，及其演變的情形，將主要的研究及其結果做概念上的整理。為集中焦點，本文所蒐集的資料以電視閱聽人的相關研究為主。另一方面，閱聽人研究採用民族誌法除了優點之外，相對地也出現一些問題，以致學者間亦有不同之見解，本文亦將這些爭議做一些整理歸納。

　　　　　Since 80's, more and more audience research tried to use ethnographic method. From the perspective of methodology, it is a new development of audience research; it also present an appearance of diversity which in audience research. Because there is still no such atmosphere of using ethnographic in audience research, this study aims to introduce the origin of ethnographic method in audience search where in western countriesn and the aspect of changing, this study focus on television audience research. On the other hand, creat different opinion of such application, this study re-arrange those debate.