[Air-L] Accessing data from closed groups on FB?

[Paul Henman]

Thanks Jeremy for your clarification.  I doubt you would be able to do that research in Australia under the NHMRC guidelines that all university research undergoes, without informed consent unless you can make a very strong case for it.  If it involves human subjects, then it requires ethical clearance.  In your case a closed group is unlikely to be regarded as public data, such as open FB sites or twitter.

Paul

Paul Henman
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-----Original Message-----
From: Air-L [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Jeremy Hunsinger
Sent: Wednesday, 8 November 2017 11:09 AM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Accessing data from closed groups on FB?

There are innumerable possible models of research design that would not require informed consent in this situation.  Informed consent is usually only required when there is some harm that must be agreed to, but it is easy to conceive of any number of situations where this data collection leads to nothing that requires informed consent.  It isn't ethically anything, until you understand the whole design.  Also remember the ethical standards are generated from different principles than harm in many Scandinavian countries as noted in the first set of AoIR guidelines, so your instincts of informed consent might not be quite fitting.  So let's not 'throw the baby out with the bathwater' and instead try to answer the specific question if we can.



--
jeremy hunsinger
Associate Professor
Communication Studies
Wilfrid Laurier University

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