[Air-L] Inquiry on screen shots

[Charles M. Ess]

I'll be eager to hear what others think ...
the problem with such images is that they are easily identifiable simply 
as images, no matter how careful you may have been to hide the 
identifying texts.  And while some here will argue that since the images 
are (quasi-) publicly available - or are they?  That is, are these drawn 
from open sites or sites that require a login?  If the latter, is there 
any guidance from the Terms of Service as to the use of images?

(Probably forbids them - in which case you then get to enter the 
exciting world of considering violating a ToS for the sake of research 
...  This is its own domain of discussion, especially vis-a-vis Facebook 
and its recent change in the ToS.  Our national ethics board will not 
give firm guidance either way - i.e., yes, it's o.k / no, it's not o.k.: 
one of our researchers is waiting to hear from the data security agency 
what they think of the matter ...  Any updates on how this is faring in 
the U.S. or elsewhere - i.e., whether or not violating the ToS = 
violating the law?)

So a first question would be - why do you need to provide the images in 
your publication?
If they are necessary in some form to illustrate your method - o.k., but 
then consider some additional options.
One would be to ask for consent from the person(s) depicted in the 
image.  Perhaps difficult to do and perhaps not likely to acquire, but 
it is an option some researchers would pursue.
Alternatively, a common technique is to use software to modify the 
images so that they no longer provide enough data for recognition and 
identification, but still provide enough of an outline to suggest / 
illustrate the point(s).
I can't give you specific recommendations, but I've seen examples of 
this any number of times at AoIR and other conferences, so perhaps some 
members of the list will have specific suggestions.  Depending on what 
exactly you want to illustrate / demonstrate with the image will 
determine how far and in what ways you can blur out / modify it.

My 2 cents.  Hope others will have additional wisdom, guidance, and 
experience to offer.

and good luck!
- charles ess




On 27/02/2019 17:35, evelyne wanjiku via Air-L wrote:
> Greetings members,
> I am conducting a research on dialogues around revenge pornography on social media platforms, fb, Twitter and telegram I am using a discourse analysis approach.
> As part of the analysis, i have picked out several dialogues and screen shot them. My question is would it be ok for me to publish screen shots from the various platforms? I have taken precaution to disguise/hide the names/identities of those commenting.
> Has anyone engaged in such? And what would be your advice with publishing screen shots?
> 
> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
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-- 
Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication
University of Oslo
<http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>

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Blindern 0317
Oslo, Norway
c.m.ess at media.uio.no