[Air-L] Ethics in studying reddit postings

Thu Feb 23 10:33:06 PST 2017

I have done research with public forums in the past (HBO, Television with out Pity). If I am not conducting empirical research with human subjects, i.e. contacting  anyone directly  to survey or interview them,) then I consider the research to be  discourse analysis and treat the posts like text. I fully anonymized it, using none of the header information and refering  to the poster by number (e.g. R1, R2 etc).  

      From: "Glass, Grace" <GGlass at APUS.EDU>
 To: 'Emily Van Der Nagel' <evandernagel at swin.edu.au>; Alex Leavitt <alexleavitt at gmail.com>; Tarleton L. Gillespie <tlg28 at cornell.edu> 
Cc: "air-l at listserv.aoir.org" <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
 Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2017 9:10 AM
 Subject: Re: [Air-L] Ethics in studying reddit postings

Thank you, Emily, this is incredibly helpful. Your research sounds extremely interesting!

Dr. Grace Glass
Dean, School of Arts and Humanities

American Public University System 
American Military University  |  American Public University
111 West Congress Street, Charles Town, WV 25414 
T 304-885-5223 | Cell 703-965-7743
gglass at apus.edu| www.apus.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Air-L [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Emily Van Der Nagel
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 11:50 PM
To: Alex Leavitt; Tarleton L. Gillespie
Cc: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Ethics in studying reddit postings

Hi Grace and list contributors,

I'm finishing my PhD thesis on social media pseudonymity, and one of my case studies focuses on Reddit Gonewild. I've conducted surveys with people who post to Gonewild after having an ethics application approved and getting their informed consent, but I've also drawn on AskReddit threads, image titles, and comments to give further evidence for my research.

Reddit’s own privacy policy states that “the posts and comments you make on reddit are not private, even if made to a subreddit not readily accessible to the public” (https://www.reddit.com/help/privacypolicy/?v=4bae10c4-bd76-11e2-92e4-12313b018434), so there's some justification for being able to use Reddit posts there.

When I quote people from Reddit, I include their Reddit username if they are posting to a wide audience by starting a thread, or the moderators and programmers writing public documents, such as guidelines or frequently asked questions, because I want to give them credit for their work. I anonymise Redditors who reply to one question or topic thread, attributing the quote to the generic author name ‘Redditor’.

My work on Reddit Gonewild has been published at:
http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/5615/4346
http://scan.net.au/scn/journal/vol10number2/Emily-van-der-Nagel.html

Best,
Emily

Emily van der Nagel
PhD candidate
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia
@emvdn

________________________________
From: Air-L <air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org> on behalf of Alex Leavitt <alexleavitt at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, 23 February 2017 3:08:42 PM
To: Tarleton L. Gillespie
Cc: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Ethics in studying reddit postings

My dissertation work focused on reddit, using historical log data and
interviews:
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll40/id/297862

---

Alex Leavitt, Ph.D.
Quantitative UX Researcher, Facebook Research http://alexleavitt.com
Twitter: @alexleavitt <http://twitter.com/alexleavitt>

On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 7:58 PM, Tarleton L. Gillespie <tlg28 at cornell.edu>
wrote:

> I would also look at the work of Nathan Matias. He has made a 
> particular effort, in his work with reddit, to talk to moderators, get consent, etc.
>
> https://socialmediacollective.org/2015/06/16/reddit-research/
> https://socialmediacollective.org/2015/07/09/what-just-happened-on-red
> dit-
> understanding-the-moderator-blackout/
> https://socialmediacollective.org/2015/08/25/moderator-
> solidarity-on-reddit-predicting-participation-in-
> the-blackout-of-july-2015/
> https://socialmediacollective.org/2015/09/14/followup-what-
> factors-predicted-participation-in-the-reddit-
> blackout-building-statistical-models-of-online-behavior-
> through-qualitative-research/
> https://civic.mit.edu/blog/natematias/reddit-moderators-
> lets-test-theories-of-moderation-together
>
> Tarleton
>
> On Feb 22, 2017, 6:37 PM -0500, Kelly Quinn <kquinn8 at uic.edu>, wrote:
> Hi Grace,
>
> You might also take a look at Adrienne Massanri's recent book, 
> Participatory Culture, Community, and Play: Learning from Reddit. 
> Excellent dive in many aspects of Reddit, including gender.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Kelly
>
> ------
> Kelly Quinn, PhD
> Clinical Assistant Professor and Graduate Instructor Coordinator 
> Department of Communication University of Illinois at Chicago
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Air-L [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of 
> Glass, Grace
> Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 8:21 AM
> To: 'benallenmorton at gmail.com'
> Cc: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Ethics in studying reddit postings
>
> Thank you, Ben!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: benallenmorton at gmail.com [mailto:benallenmorton at gmail.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2017 10:46 PM
> To: Glass, Grace
> Cc: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Ethics in studying reddit postings
>
> Dr. Glass,
>
> This seems like a very interesting study. You should take a look at 
> Ansari and Kleinenberg's "Modern Romance." They use Reddit threads as 
> part of their research on digital media and romantic relationships.
>
> Good Weather,
> Ben Morton
>
> On Feb 21, 2017, at 7:29 AM, Glass, Grace <GGlass at APUS.EDU> wrote:
>
> Hello all-
>
> I'm designing a study of the self-improvement discourse on reddit, and 
> how it's mediated by gender. User Posts will be central to the study, 
> but I wanted to get your thoughts on how to handle the ethical piece.
> Conventional informed consent would not be possible due to the 
> anonymity of the usernames/platform. Thoughts?
>
> Dr. Grace Glass
> Dean, School of Arts and Humanities
>
> American Public University System
> American Military University | American Public University
> 111 West Congress Street, Charles Town, WV 25414 T 304-885-5223 | Cell
> 703-965-7743 gglass at apus.edu| www.apus.edu<http://www.apus.edu/
>
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