[Air-l] Great Ethical disasters in Internet Research?

Mary L. Gray mlgray at ucsd.edu
Thu Jul 11 13:27:31 PDT 2002


a tangent to david and quentin's conversation below: does anyone else notice
the entanglement of methods flaws and ethical flaws in the body of internet
research literature they review for their research? i feel like i encounter
it often in work dealing with sexuality and identity in relation to CMC.

i can't be the first one to note that ethical flaws (and i'm thinking
critically about attributing any intentionality here) seem to be
operationalized methods flaws...any thoughts on where this discussion has
already taken place?

best,
mary
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Mary L. Gray <mlgray at ucsd.edu>
Department of Communication
University of California, San Diego
vox:   502/451.5003
mail:   PO Box 4004, Louisville, KY 40204
http://weber.ucsd.edu/~mgray
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> From: david silver <dsilver at u.washington.edu>
> Reply-To: air-l at aoir.org
> Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 12:44:17 -0700 (PDT)
> To: air-l at aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-l] Great Ethical disasters in Internet Research?
> 
> Quentin,
> 
> i mentioned the HomeNet study because it seems to me that it qualifies as
> one of the major controversies in internet research that chris and
> christian are seeking.  my point about the methodologically flawed aspect
> was less a critique of the methods (i'm hardly an expert on the
> quantitative analysis put forth by the authors) and more to the point that
> the controversy was methodologically-based rather than ethically-based.  i
> could easily be wrong though and would like to hear more from others.
> 
> david silver
> 
> On Wed, 10 Jul 2002, Quentin (Gad) Jones wrote:
> 
>> I have read on a number of occasions attacks on the HomeNet studies for
>> poor methodology.  I am yet to read in these same messages details as to
>> why considering the claims that were REALLY made by the researchers as
>> to why the research was so "Flawed".  The depression claim was not made
>> as the journalists wrote.  Nearly all research is flawed, the question
>> then is relative.  Perhaps David would like to explain why HomeNet is
>> particularly flawed research.
> 
> 
> 
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