[Air-L] Suggestions on ethics of using online data for academic research

[Leurs, Koen]

Dear Pawan,
 
>From an digital ethnograpy perspective you might want to go beyond ´lurking´ the online data
and try to establish credibility as well as insider perspectives on identity construction by contacting
the respondents and set up interviews in an offline context? For some interesting perspectives on ethnicity & id construction in cyberspace see Nakamura (2007) Digitizing Race. Also you might want to look in the archive of this mailinglist on a recent rich discussion (July-August I think) on qualitative methods for studying the Internet.

Kind regards, 
Koen Leurs | Aio / PhD student OGC | Utrecht University, the Netherlands | 
Janskerkhof 13, 3512 BL Utrecht | # 2.02 | (+31) 30 253 78 59 | (+31) 6 13108803 | www.uu.nl/wiredup
 
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

________________________________

Van: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org namens Pawan Singh
Verzonden: vr 19-9-2008 2:14
Aan: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Onderwerp: [Air-L] Suggestions on ethics of using online data for academic research



Hi, 
I am Pawan Singh, a PhD. student in Communication at UC, San Diego. I am 
currently working on a paper that looks at questions of identity 
construction and performance online by gay men in the Indian context. I am 
basically looking at some of the user profiles on a popular dating/hook-up 
site used by gay men to understand how they self-construct identity and form 
relationships in this space. I understand that the data on these profiles is 
private even though it's in a public space. 

When I chose some profiles using purposive sampling, I contacted the users 
for their consent. Very few responded while others dismissed the research as 
hoax. I am investigating how I can go ahead and produce an virtual 
ethnographic analysis based on this profiles in an ethical fashion. I could 
change the names of the user profiles but does that suffice? 

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. It'll be a great help. 

Thanks, 
Pawan Singh 
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