[Air-L] IRB and blogs

[Brabham, Daren C]

I would even respectfully disagree about this line:

"Sometimes even when a blog is technically public, if it is about a very personal matter (like illness, or family) there is an expectation of privacy/anonymity even when the blog is publicly accessible. In those cases I could understand going with pseudonyms, but not with blogs about indie music."

The act of publication is to make public a set of ideas, and at that point it becomes an artifact--a text--game for analysis without the concern of human subject research ethics (in my opinion). Again, if the authors attempt to password-protect their work, that's an IRB-worthy issue, but otherwise, even if it's about a "personal matter," the act of publication is a public thing...thus no IRB needed.

db

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Daren C. Brabham, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
School of Journalism & Mass Communication
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Carroll Hall, CB 3365
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
(919) 962-0676 (office)
(801) 633-4796 (cell)
daren.brabham at unc.edu
www.darenbrabham.com