This blog explores some of the challenges, issues and grey areas that can arise when researching user-generated content (eg, social media and web forums).
It is important to distinguish
between situations that relate to the researcher’s role as an individual, and
to those that relate to her role as an associate of her employing institution.
As an individual, the researcher
may take a utilitarian view and argue that there is value in capturing and
analysing user-generated content at an aggregate level, in order to monitor trends
associated with events of public interest, such as infectious disease outbreaks. Such an analysis could clearly
be of value and, as the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham might have
observed, would produce more utility than bad. If, by contrast, the researcher took an
ethical stance such as that of Immanuel
Kant, which was based on duty rather than utility (deontological), she may object
to the use of such content without informed consent. Not to do so, she might argue, could lead to
all kinds of personal data being accessed on the grounds that doing so could be for the
greater good.
As an associate of an employing
institution, there are additional ethical considerations. The researcher will,
for example, be expected to help her employer fulfil legal duties in regards to
the data protection act and the safeguarding of participants. She will also be, to some extent, morally
obliged to protect the image of her employer.
The ethical policies that arise
from such considerations can sometimes delay research or halt potential
collaborations. One of the values of
social media research is that it allows the capture and rapid analysis of data
relating to emerging news stories.
Research institutions often have
different ethical polices, with some being stricter than others possibly
because, like the individual researcher, the ethics of different institutions are
differently affected by utilitarian and deontological considerations. The loss of opportunity to analyse and react
to change caused by some of the stricter policies may, ironically, be a cause
of harm as well as a means of preventing it.
There are instances where a
researcher in a crisis situation may, through appropriate use of social media
data (such as Twitter), be able to map locations of particular concern and
offer refuge points in a crisis situation: the work of digital humanitarians,
such as Patrick Meier provides a
good example. The Standby Task-Force
is a global network of volunteers who assist crisis-affected communities.
However, initiatives such as this may be stifled by some of the ethical policies
associated with research involving human participants.
This leads to another distinct,
but related concern: should such ethics policies apply to research conducted in
a researcher’s own time, using her own equipment, rather than research carried
out in accord with her role as employee of a research establishment? For
example certain voluntary activities (such as the Standby Task-Force) may be classed
as research. If they are classed in this
way and are, according to the employing institution, deemed unethical, who
should carry out such potentially life-saving activities?
Resources for
further reading:
