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Challenging conventions: Towards ‘discipline-grounded’ ethical reflexivity in new media research

Challenging conventions: Towards ‘discipline-grounded’ ethical reflexivity in new media research. Dr Filippo Trevisan MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit University of Glasgow 25 th April 2014 @ filippotrevisan  www.filippotrevisan.net. To research or not to research?.

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Challenging conventions: Towards ‘discipline-grounded’ ethical reflexivity in new media research

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  1. Challenging conventions:Towards ‘discipline-grounded’ ethical reflexivity in new media research Dr Filippo Trevisan MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit University of Glasgow 25th April 2014 @filippotrevisan www.filippotrevisan.net

  2. To research or not to research? • Social networking sites: public or private? Is it OK to lurk, scrape, archive and, possibly, reproduce their content simply because it is publicly available? • Back to basics: what is the research trying to achieve? Benefit-cost analysis. • Two ethical ‘bottlenecks:’ • Research design & data collection • Results presentation @filippotrevisan - www.filippotrevisan.net

  3. Collecting social media data • Are established ethical conventions still fit for purpose? • In disability research: ‘vulnerable groups’ concept: • Patronising and exclusionary • Ineffective in the context of online research • Generates an illusion of ethical compliance • Focus on what people are saying rather than trying to establish who said it: sensitive issues (e.g. individual daily routines; medical records; emotional accounts; financial details; discrimination and abuse episodes; suicidal thoughts; etc.) to be granted additional attention. @filippotrevisan - www.filippotrevisan.net

  4. Presenting social media data • Key aim: project participants’ voices while protecting them from harm • Traditionally, anonymised quotes to contextualise content analysis: is this a safe system in new media research? • Problem: virtually impossible to guarantee anonymity, especially in the long term (technological changes may over-ride current privacy settings) • Innovative ways around verbatim quotes: fabrication (Markham, 2012) – controversial and potentially distortive @filippotrevisan - www.filippotrevisan.net

  5. Read more: Trevisan, F. and Reilly P. (2014) Information, Communication and Society’s article on ethics and sensitive issues research online (FREE ACCESS): http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/zxVn8JahxJ2whDSbwvxd/full#.U293VsfY9QI Filippo Trevisan MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit University of Glasgow Email: filippo.trevisan@glasgow.ac.uk Web: www.filippotrevisan.net Twitter: @filippotrevisan

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