Observations online: Finding the ethical boundaries of Facebook research

Willis, Roxana

doi:10.1177/1747016117740176

Cited by 71 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(60 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…On the other hand, there are conditions in which informed consent may not be necessary for documents, text or observations taking place in public online space (Hudson and Bruckman 2004;Wilkinson and Thelwall 2011). As Convery and Cox (2012) propose, a form of 'negotiated ethics' may be necessary which means that particular types of data collection, such as author's geographical affiliation, may not require informed consent because such information is intentionally public (Willis 2017). Categories of gender and ethnicity, however, are not explicitly presented as public data and so may arguably require consent from the participants for research use and analysis.…”

Section: Ethical Issues and Data Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How diverse is your reading list? Exploring issues of representation and decolonisation in the UK

Bird¹,

Pitman²

2019

High Educ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is a growing impetus, from university students and administrations, to decolonise the curriculum and develop diverse reading lists. Yet, there is limited theoretical or empirical analysis of the authorship of current reading lists to justify this imperative. The present study developed and applied a method for auditing the authorship on reading lists of two modules, one from science and one from social science, in a research-intensive British university. The paper explores whether these reading lists can be considered descriptively representative of the student body or scholarly community. The analysis of reading lists found empirical basis for concerns that university curricula are dominated by white, male and Eurocentric authors, with some exceptions. The reading lists did not represent the diverse local student body but came closer to representing the demographic profile of academic staff. To interpret these findings, the paper argues that reading lists have a role to play in decolonising our universities, and offer opportunities to critique and deconstruct disciplinary boundaries. Further research is required to explore student and staff views of reading lists and the meaning of diversity, to evaluate existing tools, and address barriers to decolonising our curricula on a global scale.

show abstract

Section: Ethical Issues and Data Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How diverse is your reading list? Exploring issues of representation and decolonisation in the UK

Bird¹,

Pitman²

2019

High Educ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Social networking services offer an exciting sphere in which researchers can generate new and interesting insights into various phenomena in the social sciences. They are also associated with ethical risks and pose challenges for the traditional pillars of ethically sound research; informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity (Wilkinson & Thelwall, 2011;Willis, 2017;Zimmer, 2010). The present study is framed within the documentary analysis tradition of social media research (Wilkinson & Thelwall, 2011).…”

Section: Ethical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This involves the researcher adopting an archival approach to recording online data that is in a public locale, rather than the real-time observation of human subjects in the private sphere of their personal pages. In such research, informed consent for the extraction of the data is not usually required (Willis, 2017). In terms of confidentiality, only data that had been shared on the public page of the group was collected, while no identifying background information on the users was gathered.…”

Section: Ethical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Remark or retake’? A study of candidate performance in IELTS and perceptions towards test failure

Pearson

2019

Lang Test Asia

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is becoming increasingly important for individuals for whom English is a second language to demonstrate their linguistic credentials for academic, work and employment purposes. One option is to undertake International English Language Testing System (IELTS), which involves attempting to meet the linguistic entrance criteria set by a gatekeeping institution in the skills of listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Yet limited information is available in the public domain concerning the success of test-takers in meeting cutoff criteria set by the 10,000 or so organisations that utilise IELTS. The present study analyses the relationship between the test results and stated band score objectives of a cohort of 600 IELTS candidates, who shared their results on a social networking platform. It was uncovered that more test-takers failed to meet their band score goals (n = 281) than achieved them (n = 245), with many requiring high level linguistic goals to maximise their prospects in immigration systems. Thematic analysis was employed to explore the seldom-heard perspectives of the test-takers who missed their targets, and thereby 'failed' the IELTS test. Far more candidates held perspectives that constituted a rejection of their overall or sub-test score in comparison with those who were accepting of their results. Candidates' incredulity was notably acute concerning the accuracy of Speaking and Writing assessment, likely fuelled by a mistrust in single examiner marking and a lack of detailed test performance feedback to explain what went wrong.

show abstract

“…Willis's comprehensive analysis of the ethical boundaries of online data analysis focused partially on whether Facebook user generated content may be considered as human research or as documentary research, specifically on the necessity of secondary consent for UGC generated by consented users' connections' (friends) [28]. Within the scope of this paper, all data were subjectively considered documentary without the necessity of informed consent.…”

Section: Materials Data Extraction Cleaning and Preprocessingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Location-Based Social Media and Online Reservation Services Tell More about Local Accommodation Industries than Open Governmental Data?

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The paper follows-up ongoing research focusing on the potential of machine-readable data as additional knowledge in the governance of local tourism and destination management organizations (DMOs) in Slovakia. The current focus is on one classic social media (Facebook), one location-based social media (Foursquare), two hybrid travel-related platforms with partial attributes of reservation services (Google Places, TripAdvisor), and two online reservation services (Booking, Airbnb). The global aim is the usage of extracted data for the identification of additional entities with the obligation of local occupancy taxation, which is the financial backbone of Slovak (DMOs). A set of simple and globally reusable scripts constructed in Python and PostgreSQL were used to extract data on lodging providers from the Google Places application programming interface (API), the Facebook Place Search API and the Foursquare Venue API over grid overlays of districts' spatial representation. For pure scientific purposes in the case of Tripadvisor, Booking, and Airbnb, with no suitable access to open APIs, web scraping methods were used for data extraction. The pilot case was applied in the boundaries of Kosice city (Slovakia), and the aggregations of processed data were compared with official open statistics. Results indicate that the automated continuous monitoring of online platforms could help local public administrations in decreasing occupancy tax evasions and even widen knowledge about online audiences and visitors' satisfaction.

show abstract

Observations online: Finding the ethical boundaries of Facebook research

Cited by 71 publications

References 46 publications

How diverse is your reading list? Exploring issues of representation and decolonisation in the UK

How diverse is your reading list? Exploring issues of representation and decolonisation in the UK

‘Remark or retake’? A study of candidate performance in IELTS and perceptions towards test failure

Can Location-Based Social Media and Online Reservation Services Tell More about Local Accommodation Industries than Open Governmental Data?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About