[Air-L] Online research ethics

[Marj Kibby]

I looked at musician's myspace sites, and my ethics committee decided that if my research outcomes were like "82% of sites have sound files while only 46% have gig guides" then ethics clearance was not necessary - there was no intervention in the lives of the musicians.

But if I wanted to say "Thirsty Merc says '....' on their MySpace site" then there was a potential for impact and I needed permissions and ethics clearance.

I guess if Thirsty Merc got all wound up about what I said about them, I'd like the institution's backing when we got to court.

Marj




Dr Marjorie Kibby, 
Senior Lecturer in Communication & Culture
Faculty of Education and Arts
The University of Newcastle,  Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia
Marj.Kibby at newcastle.edu.au
+61 2 49216604