[Air-L] Dissertation

[Åsa Rosenberg]

Hi Brook,
I have been working a bit with internet research ethics and as far as I
can tell blogs are one of those things that almost has to be considered
publicly published information in general. "How" public though, I´d say
depends on what the intended audience seems to be. I would be more
careful with someone that seems to be blogging mainly for their family
for example, than someone that is blogging about politics. 

When working with these issues I was intially thinking a lot about how
diffrent applications might make for diffrent ethical judgements to be
suitable. This is true to some extent, but now I´m more thinking that
the "big" question is most times rather what you are going to do with
your data. I think your research might stir up some emotions, and so, it
might seem most safe to go about it the way you have described. I cant
help wondering though, how are you going to convince readers of your
research without using qoutations?

Perhaps an alternate route would be to not anonymize the participants,
actually use quotations and instead offer to consider the input of the
participants on your interpretations. This would not mean that you have
to alter your conclusions in case some participant objects to them, but
it would mean that you keep your interpretations open for scrutiny both
for participants and other researchers (a participant would then for
example be able to blog about your research once it is published). This
will take some guts, and it will be a little less safe also for
participants. But unless you think that such an approach might result in
serious harm it might be very useful. See, if we always keep taking the
"safest" route possible, we will never know where the line is to be
drawn and we might be producing research that is not as good as it could
be simply cause we are overcautious (See for example Bassett & O'Riordan
2002; White 2002).

The question from your participant who had conserns about consenting on
behalf of her readers is very interesting. Obviously, she can not
consent on behalf of people who comment (readers who do not comment cant
be part of your study from what I can tell, cause you dont know who they
are), unless she posts a notice on her blog about the blog being subject
for research. I think what I would reply here actually is that the
process of getting consent from bloggers but not from people who comment
is a negotiation between whats ethically desirable and practically
feasible.

I dont see why you would have to contact blogger (and the likes) to ask
for permission unless you are going to bring up the issue of blog
providers particularly and analyze them. They simply provide a medium,
just like book or magazine publishers.

For some parts of your research your local laws will be relevant, such
as laws on how to handle databases (if you make lists of participants
including "sensitive" information such as ethnicity, political
affiliations et.c.). In general though it should be the laws of the
countries where your participants reside which are important. I do not
know what the law says about this in Switzerland, but I find it hard to
think that you could get in to any legal problems here as long as you
keep to regular norms for citation. If you are ONLY using whats in the
blogs, and thus only what has already been published internationally
that is. If you are also doing interviews and publishing info on
individuals that has not already been published, then you will most
likely need to anonymize. 

Hope that helps, Åsa Rosenberg

REFS:

Bassett, E.H. & O'Riordan, Kathleen (2002). " Ethics of Internet
research: Contesting the human subjects research model." Ethics and
Information Technology 4 (3) pp. 233-247.

White, Michele (2002). "Representations or people?" Ethics and
Information Technology 4 (3) pp. 249-266.

-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
[mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] För brook bolander
Skickat: den 9 augusti 2007 09:13
Till: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Ämne: [Air-L] Dissertation


Dear AOIR,

I am writing my PhD on the subject of "power in blogs", and thereby
exploring how power is negotiated in the interaction between bloggers
and their readers, and between the readers themselves in the comments
sections of blog posts in which conflicts are salient. I have received
an initial e-mail confirmation from the bloggers that they consent to my
research and have given them the option of requiring me to use
psuedonyms. I now intend to write to the bloggers, asking for their
addresses, so I can outline the project in more detail and obtain
written consent.

I am aware, however, that research on the internet can be very
complicated in terms of ethical issues. What I am less sure about are
the legal issues. Am I correct in assuming that if I do not include
quotations, use pseudonyms for the readers (whose permission I have not
gained), use pseudonyms for those bloggers who ask me to (one blogger
has explicitly asked me not to), gain written consent from the bloggers
themselves and inform them in the letter what the study entails, that I
will run into no ethical or legal problems? All my bloggers state they
are adults.

Or do I need to write to the hosts as well, like blogger, for example,
to ask for their permission as well?

One of the bloggers asked me whether she would have any problems vis à
vis her readers if she consented to my study, for example, and I found I
didn't really know, with any certainty, what to reply.

I hope that my PhD will be published in a couple of years, and am not
sure whether that plays a role in terms of its label as something for
'commerical purposes'. I am writing my PhD in Switzerland.

I really want to go about this the right way and am having problems
gaining the information I need.

Thanks a lot in advance for your help,
Best wishes
Brook Bolander
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