Blurring the Boundaries? Ethical challenges in using social media for social science research

Kandy WoodfieldDirector of Learning

Blurring the boundaries? Social media have blurred the boundaries, leading to a set of linked challenges for researchers: Methodological (volume, scale, nature of data) Collaborative (trans/cross disciplinary teams) Ethical & legal (privacy, ownership, control, power

relations) Capability (requires new skills, tools, frameworks,

infrastructure) Contextual (understanding ‘the social world’) Synthesis (how do new methods supplant, enhance,

augment?)

New Social Media, New Social Science?

InnovationCollaboration

InspirationFresh

thinking Network of methodological innovation Funded by ESRC (via NCRM) initially Now in its third year, self-funded, peer

led, network leads @

Affiliate organisations from academia, govt and voluntary sector

Aims of the networkInnovation

CollaborationInspiration

Fresh thinking On & off line community of practice

Forge links across sectors & disciplines Catalyse debate Address challenges social media present for social

science research Share approaches, tools & experiences of using social

media Identify good practice Co-created content & guidance to be shared with the

wider community

How it works?

Range of platforms Twitter: @NSMNSS, #NSMNSS Blog:

http://nsmnss.blogspot.co.uk/ You Tube:

www.youtube.com/user/NSMNSS

Conferences Knowledge exchange

events Methodological

projects Publishing

InnovationCollaboration

InspirationFresh thinking

70% HE sector

30% other

60% in UK40% worldwide

3,000+ Twitter community

20 disciplinary

fields

Over 18,000minutes of

video watched

3 0nline seminars

2 conferences

7 knowledge exchange seminars

17 twitter chats

140 blog posts

So far…

3,900+ video

views on You Tube

160, 207 blog page views

Ethical guidelines reviewed Social media users &

researcher’s views explored Crowd-sourced, book of blogs

What have we learnt about social media for research? Social media used in most soc sci

disciplines Lots of innovation but disciplinary

silos & divides do still exist and are counter-productive to moving social media methodology(ies) forward

No single methodology for social media research – many approaches, many tools, different epistemological stances

Social media is a fast moving world, platforms, data and users change = computational, ethical and capability challenges

New social media, new social science and new ethical issues! Salmon, J. 2013 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1-gmLw9jo6fLTQ5X0oyeE1aRjQ/edi

What have we learnt? II

Persisting uncertainty about whether we are ‘getting it right’

Ethical dilemmas - lack of consistent, relevant guidance, widely varying practices: ‘analogue ethics in a digital age’

What are the big issues? Avoiding the emperor’s new clothes Understanding differences between

aggregated ‘big data’ and qualitative socme data

Lack of research with users of social media Lack of engagement with commercial

platforms

Elizabeth A. Buchanan, Endowed Chair in Ethics, University of Wisconsin

Ethically unique?

Social media data is: Malleable & ‘mashable’ – created by

many, invented and reinvented Track-able Mineable Greasy - travels across platforms &

borders

New social media, new social science and new ethical issues! Salmon, J. 2013 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1-gmLw9jo6fLTQ5X0oyeE1aRjQ/edi

Key ethical issues?

Privacy & anonymity of participants

Sampling & recruitment

Informed consent

Researcher identity, rapport & relationships

User-generated content (text & images) as data

Date ownership

& data security

What is public & private?What is your responsibility as a researcher?Do ethics differ between ‘public’ platforms/spaces & ‘walled gardens’?What does informed consent look like?Is it wrong if I lurk and observe?

Twitter chats

Qualitative research exploring: How people curate their

digital lives What they understand about

how their online information is used

What they think about their information and posts being used by researchers and in online social media research project?

Exploring social media users views

Beninger, K. et al (2014)

http://www.natcen.ac.uk/media/282288/p0639-research-using-social-media-report-final-190214.pdf

Using social media

Used for leisure, social and professional reasons

Familiarity with the platform

Peer activity

Device mobility

Accessibility

Frequency of use

Views about researchCan/do users distinguish between

academics using their data &

government or commercial orgs?

Privacy in SM research

Problematic for researchers &

participants Is the space seen as private by its users?

Are they aware they are being observed? What is the researcher’s role?

Is everything what it seems? Are users who they claim to be? Does it

matter? How do researchers ensure participants are anonymous? IP addresses are (usually) traceable Tweets may contain identifiers … Twitter metadata contains geotags etc.

Informed consent

Terms & conditions of data use may require certain steps

Morally required even if T&Cs state it’s public/reusable?

What about bots/age/capacity? Difficult to verify w/out informed consent

Promotes trust Verify user views haven’t changed, been deleted,

the ‘right to be forgotten’ To publish photos or imagery

Terms of service

Who owns the data created in a social networking site? Facebook claims the rights to any data collected

from applications (including surveys) created within it:

Jaquith (2009): “Facebook’s definition of data ownership does not include the right to export that

data. It’s “mine,” so long as I leave it under Facebook’s control”

Twitter upholds the tweeters IP, insisting you use their Twitter handle and verbatim when quoting in publications

What does this mean in practice?

Twitter Best Practices for Media publication

Show name, @username, unmodified Tweet text and the Twitter bird nearby, as well as a timestamp

If displaying Tweets, make sure they are real, from legitimate accounts and that you have permission from the author when necessary

Real tension with research ethics & anonymity21

Recruitment & Data Collection

Using data posted online

Digital identities & risks for users Who has a right to privacy online? Exclusion of particular groups – whose voice,

whose stories? Even data pools are made up of human

individuals – with geo tags and strong views, distinctive characteristics revivification of identity can be possible

Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s ethical

What does this mean in practice?Collecting qualitative data from users on

socialmedia: Pull rather than push recruitment – attract to

you, caveat -calls for participation can get modified, amended

Approach gatekeepers of communities Be transparent and open about your researcher

role (if doing ethnography, observation) Think about informed consent process –

conversations online draw in other users inadvertently what about their consent

Informed consent needs to be a process, not a one off

24

Researcher identity & wellbeing

Not mentioned by users but researchers were concerned about…

Their own digital identity & footprint

Impact on research outcomes Managing communication w.

participants – safety and disclosure

Credibility and transparency

Analysis & presentation of data

Analysis Third Party Software – who controls the sample,

the feed, owns the data How much is too much? Perils of network

analysis… Validity and representativenessPresentation Traceability of participant data - anonymity

short & long term implications for participants Terms of usage – Twitter and Facebook controls on how

to display data and posts Journals differ in their approach to use of verbatim

posts

Researchers

Is SM the right methodology for your research Q? Don’t make assumptions Review case studies and existing researchRecruitment:

• Transparency in materials

• Learn about privacy terms of the platform used

Collecting/generating data:

• Considering implications of legally permitted vs. intellectual property

• Acknowledge limits of accessing different user types, population groups

Reporting results:

• Test traceability of data, and paraphrase or remove handle

• Reasonably seek consent for use of verbatim/sensitive content

What have we learnt? III‘Getting it right’ is also about methodological quality: What is a robust sample from Twitter or

Facebook? Need to develop methodological courage

and confidence to defend the method Need new quality frameworks?

Scepticism and cynicism persist Digital literacy & methodological skills

gaps Lack of experience and understanding in

institutions, ethics boards and funders

Resolving ethical dilemmas requires “holistic” approach engaging views of many disciplines

Research ethics is one

tile in mosaic of

technological, political,

cultural & individual

complexity

Cultural competencies & flexibility needed when dealing with

multicultural participants

Need for ‘standardization’ of REC approaches?

Social media are plural, no single methods

– ethics decisions must be

context and method specific

Encouragement for researchers

to publish methods/

ethical case studies, failures

& successes

Some final observations…

Multi-disciplinary, multi-method approaches to research ethics are needed, while respecting the influence of disciplinary codes

Ongoing development & dialogue is needed approaches will evolve with changes in tech & usage – static codes won’t work

Must engage those who teach, review & supervise

Continue to support discussion of ethical issues / case studies

Need to start a dialogue about ethics with the software houses

We’re not there yet

.

Thank you!If you want further information or would like to contact the network:

nsmnss@natcen.ac.uk

http://nsmnss.blogspot.co.uk/

@nsmnss on Twitter

Kandy can be contacted via LinkedIn or @jess1ecat