[Air-L] IRB and blogs + invitation

[Alex Halavais]

Thanks to Charles for complicating things :).

I think part of the issue here is a disconnect between ethical
protections of the source of the material studied and whether
submitting to an IRB is sensible or practical. Part of the idea behind
an IRB is that human subjects are human subjects and an oncologist, a
psychologist, and a pharmacologist sitting on the committee should be
able to tell whether there is significant risk of harm to the
subjects--or, as in this case, whether there are human subjects at
all. Frankly, as someone who has studied blog content without passing
my protocols through the IRB, I strongly suspect that they are not
prepared to make that call.

There is certainly evidence that bloggers expect scholarly attention
about as much as they expect the Spanish Inquisition. Fernanda Viégas
might be worth looking at on this:

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue3/viegas.html

though I'm sure there is other work on the topic out there as well.

That said, journalists also don't expect scholarly attention, nor do
tourists walking through Times Square. That lack of expectation does
not mean that they should remain unstudied. And at some point I think
we have to say that there are competing values in research, and it is
harmful to scholarship--and by extension to humanity--to require
*everything* to be exposed to prior review by peers. So the question
is where to draw the line. I generally draw it such that utterances in
public should reasonably be open to interpretation by members of the
public, including scholars. Certainly, there are risks, but there are
always risks where communication is involved. Whether these risks rise
to the level that we should institutionalize protections is the
question.

I am less sanguine about this line in particular cases: say, studies
of blogging about self-harm, or by prison inmates, or similar groups.
In other words, I don't think there is a clear line. But the lack of
clarity also--I think--does not automatically necessitate submission
to a human subjects board.

Best,

Alex


-- 
--
//
// This email is
// [x] assumed public and may be blogged / forwarded, but I certainly
don't expect it to be used as primary material in any sort of research
;)
// [ ] assumed to be private, please ask before redistributing.
//
// Alexander C. Halavais, ciberflâneur
// http://alex.halavais.net
//