Issues of Ethics and Methods in Studying Social Media

Sormanen, Niina; Lauk, Epp

doi:10.17645/mac.v4i4.793

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Several initiatives have also been developed to aid SM researchers with their ethical decision-making. To name just a few, in the US, Larsen and colleagues have created a tool for SM researchers and research ethics committee members which draws on participatory approaches and shared experiences to grapple with SM ethical issues (Torous and Nebeker 2017); internationally, scholars have established a database of case studies at Sage Publications designed to help more clearly understand abstract methodological concepts in practice (SAGE); a range of UK workshops have been convened on the topic and special issues published in the literature (Sormanen and Lauk 2016); and finally, New Social Media, New Social Science (NSMNSS) - a collaborative UK network of researchers and stakeholders in the field - has been established to facilitate and engage discussion in this area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ethics Ecosystem: Personal Ethics, Network Governance and Regulating Actors Governing the Use of Social Media Research Data

Samuel

Derrick

Leeuwen

2019

Minerva

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This paper examines the consequences of a culture of “personal ethics” when using new methodologies, such as the use of social media (SM) sites as a source of data for research. Using SM research as an example, this paper explores the practices of a number of actors and researchers within the “Ethics Ecosystem” which as a network governs ethically responsible research behaviour. In the case of SM research, the ethical use of this data is currently in dispute, as even though it is seemingly publically available, concerns relating to privacy, vulnerability, potential harm and consent blur the lines of responsible ethical research behaviour. The findings point to the dominance of a personal, bottom-up, researcher-led, ‘ethical barometer’ for making decisions regarding the permissibility of using SM data. We show that the use of different barometers by different researchers can lead to wide disparities in ethical practice - disparities which are compounded by the lack of firm guidelines for responsible practice of SM research. This has widespread consequences on the development of shared norms and understandings at all levels, and by all actors within the Ethics Ecosystem, and risks inconsistencies in their approaches to ethical decision-making. This paper argues that this governance of ethical behaviour by individual researchers perpetuates a negative cycle of academic practice that is dependent on subjective judgements by researchers themselves, rather than governed by more formalised academic institutions such as the research ethics committee and funding council guidelines.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ethics Ecosystem: Personal Ethics, Network Governance and Regulating Actors Governing the Use of Social Media Research Data

Samuel

Derrick

Leeuwen

2019

Minerva

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“…New technologies provide new challenges, researchers disagree on ethical dilemmas, and many ethics committees struggle with internet-based research. Different actors produce different ethical guidelines: for example, local, state, and international laws; internet research associations; university policies and ethics committees; platforms terms and conditions; cultural context; and researchers’ common sense (Sormanen & Lauk, 2016). Institutional ethics committees continue to play a significant role as gatekeepers of ethical conduct (Whelan, 2018).…”

Section: Procedural Internet Research Ethicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Ethics of Publicly Available Data Research: A Situated Ethics Framework for Reddit

Gliniecka

2023

Social Media + Society

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Using user-generated content from open-access platforms such as Reddit for research raises ethical questions and challenges. Research projects involving publicly available data can qualify for an exemption from human research ethics review. However, when the exemption is granted, some scholars move to the data collection phase without attending further to ethical considerations. This does not always result from negligence but can be driven by the lack of coherent guidelines or limitations of procedural ethics. Despite receiving an exemption from ethics review, researchers can still engage with ethical concerns throughout the project. This article argues that a “situated ethics approach” to researching publicly available online data, which pays attention to flexibility, reflexivity, and complexity of research ethics, should be applied to projects working with data from user-led platforms—Reddit or others. Using a reflexive process and drawing iteratively on learnings, this article describes and analyses a situated ethics framework applied to a case study of doctoral research about youth health discussions on Reddit. Through a focus on three key areas: digital context, users’ views, and project specificity, the framework inspired a set of ethical questions that can assist with applying situated ethics to other studies. This paper advocates that a “situated ethics approach” to researching publicly available online data can usefully advance debates and practice in research on user-led platforms with public data, such as Reddit.

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“…Although certain knowledge bases may justifiably be assumed for certain platforms in specific cultural and social contexts, those contexts may vary depending on individual users' national and cultural backgrounds. Thus, as such, national or cultural contexts may provide some guidance for ethical research (Sormanen & Lauk, 2016), but that context is not necessarily identifiable online, an issue that became problematic in the observation of Facebook groups as part of the COP study. Although the COP23 summit was held in the Western hemisphere, a cultural setting that suggests a good working knowledge of popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, the user base of these groups was largely undetermined.…”

Section: Cultural Contexts In Digital Space: Platform Culture and Usementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Aside from by now common concerns around privacy, consent, confidentiality, and data storage, researchers are therefore facing additional difficulties in gaining consent when users may be reluctant to provide information that is not mandatory for using the platforms. While online ethics remain important, particularly in human research, there are still questions around what should guide ethical decision-making on social media: laws, platform terms, cultural conventions, traditional and Internet-specific ethical guidelines (Sormanen & Lauk, 2016), top-down or bottom-up decisions, and regulation-driven or context-specific approaches (Markham & Buchanan, 2012). Overall, the ethical treatment of social media data remains contentious, particularly since social media present a double challenge: ethics themselves are known to evolve constantly and in the case of social media research they do so in ever-changing environments and therefore contexts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Issue of “Context”: Data, Culture, and Commercial Context in Social Media Ethics

Özkula

2019

Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics

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One of the central concerns in research ethics in recent years has been the vast amount of data available from social media platforms and the related concerns around what establishes an ethical use of data. Toward addressing these challenges, researchers have therefore called for the consideration of “context” in Internet research. However, context remains a fuzzy concept and little guidance exists on its different dimensions. In response to this issue, this article uses worked examples from three data sets to discuss three different dimensions of “context”: data context, cultural context, and commercial context. The article problematizes these dimensions and offers suggestions toward creating ethical sensibility to these by drawing on two data sets from 2017: (a) climate change imagery scraped from five social platforms and (b) digital-ethnographic work at the climate summit COP23.

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Issues of Ethics and Methods in Studying Social Media

Abstract: The Editorial raises some challenging ethical and methodological aspects of Internet based research (such as protection of informational privacy, informed consent, general ethical guidelines vs case-based approach), which are further discussed in the five articles of this special issue.

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

The Ethics Ecosystem: Personal Ethics, Network Governance and Regulating Actors Governing the Use of Social Media Research Data

The Ethics Ecosystem: Personal Ethics, Network Governance and Regulating Actors Governing the Use of Social Media Research Data

The Ethics of Publicly Available Data Research: A Situated Ethics Framework for Reddit

The Issue of “Context”: Data, Culture, and Commercial Context in Social Media Ethics

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