[Air-L] Ethical challenges in qualitative research using Facebook

Thu Aug 4 03:52:06 PDT 2016

Hi to all

Emily, thank you so much for starting this important discussion, which I
already learned a lot from.

I hope it is o.k for me to add a question to this debate. You have mention
the term special attention you need to give in researching minors and this
is my biggest dilemma as a youth research that do digital ethnography.

My question is more about the consent in the case of teenagers. Let me just
say that, I also do a discourse analysis and my research involve teenagers
(ages 15-19) that I divide in to tow groups: the first one are those I
interview face to face, and than ask them if I can follow them on FB and
Instagram. If they agree I give them a paper for their parents, that
explain about the research and says that if they do not agree that their
son/daughter will participate in this research, please inform me.
The teens in the second group are friends of the interviewees, to whom I
send a follow request with a personal message that explain about the
research and link with the same latter to their parents.
I know there is a big chance that they will not pass it on to there
parents, so I would love to here other suggestion regarding research with
youth on line. I should also mention that my main question is about gender
and class identity and that maybe it will help if I commit not to publish
in our language, but only in english, which will make it very hard to
identify the participants.
Best regards
Inbar Michelzon Drori

On Thu, 4 Aug 2016 at 05:53 Dan L. Burk <dburk at uci.edu> wrote:

>
>
> Hi Charles --
>
> I guess I missed that message? (The one about Australia, having a fair
> use policy.) I know they have been debating whether to adopt a fair use
> provision (instead of fair dealing), and I thought it got tabled after
> opposition from their recording industry. But it sounds like I had
> better go check the status, maybe it succeeded after all. Thanks for the
> tip.
>
> See you in Berlin for sure. DLB
>
> On 2016-08-03 14:05, Charles Ess wrote:
>
> > Dear Dan, copy to Emily,
> > with great regret at taking far longer to get to this than I would have
> liked - our daughter is now moved to Canada from Heidelberg, a project that
> took up a good deal of our collective time and energy these past few weeks
> as I'm sure you can imagine.
> > In any event, just wanted to say thanks very much - between this and the
> Australian colleague's posting that Australia has a fair use policy, this
> got cleared up fairly nicely, I think.
> >
> > Again, many thanks and hope to see you in Berlin?
> > best in the meantime,
> > - c.
> >
> > On 27/07/16 09:00, Dan L. Burk wrote:
> > Hi Charles -- In any Berne or TRIPs signatory country, copyright will
> arise automatically when the text is written. So, yes in most countries,
> certainly Australia. Whether that matters, (for example, whether Australian
> fair dealing might allow the posts to be used or quoted for research
> purposes regardless) is a whole other question that I can't answer off the
> cuff. Cheers, DLB On 2016-07-25 23:14, Charles Ess wrote: Hi Emily and
> colleagues, First of all, kudos for your taking such good care at looking
> into these ethical dimensions of your research. Secondly, a couple of
> questions: are the posts drawn exclusively from Australian FB users - and
> if so, what is the Australian law regarding what appears in a public
> context online? In the U.S., last I knew, such postings are considered
> automatically copyrighted, and so one ethical-legal issue is, should this
> be the law in Australia as well, to recognize the posters as copyright
> holders. Thirdly, the methodological approach and !
>  its
> affiliated ethical challenges as you describe them are, in my somewhat
> limited experience, rather standard. This means that I've seen similar
> projects - including ones involving far more sensitive expression - receive
> IRB and REB approval, so I would not stop with your worst-case scenarios
> (though these are clearly and carefully thought out - again, kudos). Some
> possibilities. In terms of dissemination / publication - would it be
> possible to (a) disguise many, if not the majority of posts by way of a
> paraphrase and/or aggregate identity (if appropriate), thereby avoiding
> direct citations, while (b) using some direct citations when absolutely
> necessary - and then requesting permission to do so? While there are
> difficulties with requesting such permission, as you point out, in my
> experience (i.e., reading about and/or discussing similar cases in a
> variety of contexts - the U.S., the E.U., and Scandinavia), these are not
> insurmountable. To be sure, one needs to exercise caution
> regarding identity - though these days, it seems that the vast majority of
> FB identities are more or less authentic. Ditto in the case of a vulnerable
> group, beginning with legal minors. But with care, permission can be
> requested when necessary in ethically sensitive and responsible ways. Of
> course, there will likely be a few instances of "no, thank you" (or less
> politely) - but with any luck, having to omit perhaps a handful of choice
> citations (and relegating them back into more anonymized form if possible /
> necessary), will not prevent you from having sufficient evidence and
> analyses to effectively respond to your research questions. That's at least
> my first take - and I only offer these as first thoughts, knowing that
> there are real experts on this list, including several colleagues in
> Australia who will have better information about the Aussie context, as
> well as our colleagues Elizabeth Buchanan, Michael Zimmer, Annette Markham,
> and many others in the northern hemisphe!
>  re with
> extensive experience in these domains as well who will have much more to
> add. Hope this helps, then, as at least a helpful start in the discussion.
> Again, kudos and all best wishes, - charles -- Professor in Media Studies
> Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo <
> http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html [1]>
> Editor, The Journal of Media Innovations <
> https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/TJMI/ [2]> Postboks 1093 Blindern
> 0317 Oslo, Norway c.m.ess at media.uio.no <mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no> On
> Tue, Jul 26, 2016 at 7:06 AM, Emily Wolfinger <emilywolfinger at hotmail.com
> <mailto:emilywolfinger at hotmail.com> wrote: Hi AoIR Community, I am a PhD
> Candidate and I have run into some ethical issues in my research, which I
> am looking for some guidance on. I am exploring Facebook user perceptions
> of sole mother poverty and welfare in Australia, focusing on a period of
> welfare debate in which sole parent pension amendments were introduced (May
> 2012-Janua!
>  ry 2013).
> I'm undertaking a discourse analysis of a subset of comments across four
> categories of public pages and groups- media, political parties and
> ministers, welfare/charity organisations and sole mother networks- that
> were published in response to the amendments. Although Facebook Data Policy
> considers this information public, Internet research ethics guidelines and
> other academic papers point to a number of ethical issues around publishing
> the comments of users without obtaining their consent. As I am doing a
> post-structural discourse analysis this is unavoidable unless I consider
> paraphrasing or similar techniques that aim to protect the identity of
> users, however this strategy raises questions of scientific rigor and does
> not seem to be one that is widely used or indeed fool proof. There are also
> issues around contacting users for consent, for example users could be
> underage or belong to other vulnerable groups. I am left with two options
> if I take a worst case scenario approa!
>  ch to
> these dilemmas - either tweak my research question (for example to look at
> the posts of public figures and organisations such as media outlets) or
> consider alternative research methods which do not present the ethical
> challenges of discourse analysis or other methods of close analysis, but
> allow me to answer my research question (What were the Facebook user
> perceptions of sole mother poverty and welfare in Australia between May
> 2012 and January 2013?). Any suggestions for readings, tips or advice
> regarding ways forward including methods would be most appreciated. Many
> thanks in advance, Emily _______________________________________________
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> Irvine, CA 92697-8000 Voice: (949) 824-9325 Fax: (949)824-7336 bits:
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>
> --
> School of Law
> University of California, Irvine
> 4500 Berkeley Place
> Irvine, CA 92697-8000
> Voice: (949) 824-9325
> Fax: (949)824-7336
> bits: dburk at uci.edu
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