University ethics. Interview with Dr. Margaret Faedo, Research Integrity and Ethics, University of Sydney.

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Do curso por The University of Sydney

Ethical Social Media

26 ratings

The University of Sydney

Ethical Social Media

26 ratings

Social media connects us across space and time, allowing us to find like-minded communities and participate creatively in public life as never before. We may often use social media without thinking much about the possible consequences. But there is a shadow side associated with social media use, which takes the form of hate speech, increased surveillance, lack of anonymity and questionable use of our data. What do we need to know to use social media spaces effectively, in a way that is safe and productive for all? This course will guide you into a deeper exploration of online identity, social media communities and their users. You will examine the ways that social media is being used by public institutions such as government to build participation and conversation with audiences. You will encounter the most common ethical debates in social media. You will also have the opportunity to build your practical skills by developing your professional social media profile, defining your audience, building your social media influence and understanding how to interpret data analytics to "listen" and communicate well.

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Ethics in Social Media

Just because we can access social media doesn't mean that we should. In this module, you are asked to critically examine the use of social media and think about how you can manipulate the data in meaningful and beneficial ways compared with typical neo-liberal approaches. You are also encouraged to think about some of the not so obvious areas of social media data analytics, for example reconstructing potentially sensitive material, uncovering a dangerous conversation in social media, or exposjng users that may wish to remain incognito. Using social media data is tremendously rewarding, yet presents ethical challenges that many scholars are still grappling with.

University ethics. Interview with Dr. Margaret Faedo, Research Integrity and Ethics, University of Sydney.7:40

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Dr Jonathon Hutchinson
Lecturer in Online Communication and Media
Department of Media and Communications

[MUSIC]

Beyond the broader ethical documents such as

the British Psychology Social Media Guidelines or

the Ethical Guidelines provided by the Association of Internet Researchers,

there's limited amount of information on social media ethics.

Much of this work is in the format of guidelines,

not really ethical considerations.

In order to look more broadly at social media ethics,

it's useful to understand how universities are beginning to understand

how ethics should align with social media research projects.

I spoke with Margaret Faedo from the University of Sydney's ethics board.

>> Research ethics at the university deals with any research

project that involves people, their data, or tissue.

We're governed by the Australian national statement.

And the Australian national statement has four key principles, justice,

respect, beneficence, and research merit.

We see a wide variety of projects involving social media.

Some of them are social media researchers who have vast expertise

working in this area and have their own code of practice that they follow.

But others are from other disciplines and will be using social media as a tool.

What you have to remember is that ethics committees aren't made up of

experts in your field.

So often they won't understand all of the types of

social media that you're presenting.

So often the problems that are encountered is that the unsaid things that

are in an ethics project, that when you're speaking to your colleagues, you would

probably not need to mention, you need to be very clear with ethics committees.

And they will often come back to you with further questions simply because they

don't understand what's being done.

One of the dilemmas when you're looking at a project with social media is that

public versus private, and how do you negotiate that.

When person is posting, yes, it is very public, but it is there an expectation

there that some researcher's going to mine their data and take it away with them?

[LAUGH] So the committee will obviously be weighing out the benefits of that research

against the risks that this person is not aware of their data being taken.

Sometimes, the committee will be asking you to post reminders to those people

to say hey, we're doing this project.

Just be aware, so that people can then have a choice to either take part or

not take part.

But it really depends on the design of your study.

The types of things that the committee would see as unethical or

perhaps risks associated with the research would be around privacy as a first point.

And often they don't understand exactly how the privacy is going to be protected

of the individual or even that whole notion of how it works in social media.

The second thing that I've noticed is committees picking up on

the creation of communities and managing that creation of the community.

You've built an expectation of these people who've now join this community.

And all of a sudden, your project's going to end.

What's going to happen to all these people?

They're concerned about the welfare of those participants.

So when it comes to private communities, it really depends on

the nature of that community as to what the ethics committee would look at.

So for example, if it was a particular disease, have these

people communicated to their families that they have this disease?

Would you be divulging some of their privacy by having them join

a Facebook site that others could see?

What protections would you need to put into that community so

that people can feel calm and relaxed in joining that community?

And know that nobody's going to, that shouldn't know won't know.

When you're looking at recruiting through social media, so getting your participants

through social media, there's a couple of things you need to be aware of.

One is how coercive that is, so are people joining

your project out of some sort of sense of duty or obligation?

And this is especially true if you're recruiting your friends or family,

or if you're a lecturer, your students, how coercive is that?

And do they really have the freedom to say, no,

I don't want to be a part of your study?

Are they aware that they're being recruited?

So, especially on something like Facebook, for

example, the posts don't stay present all the time.

Do you need to be reminding them over and

over again that they're actually part of that study?

And are you joining a group

as a member and then using that as a way to get to participants?

Need to be quite honest as to why you're joining that group and be quite up front

about the fact that you're a researcher, and you're joining it as a researcher.

And give them the opportunity to say, yes, we're happy for

you to come into this group or not.

So when you're talking about participant information statements,

you need to make sure that it's fit for purpose.

So there's some examples where it would be

totally inappropriate to get written consent from somebody.

Maybe they're not literate, or maybe they're meant to be anonymous.

[LAUGH] So then in those circumstances you wouldn't be using a participant

information statement.

Likewise with social media, you need to make sure that your statement is fit for

purpose.

What the committee will be most interested in is that people are giving fully

informed consent, and that's what you need to address.

It doesn't need to be in the same shape and form as your traditional, say,

clinical trial participant information statement.

But it needs to relay enough information so that people understand

what's expected of them and what are the repercussions of joining that study.

I would say most committee members wouldn't be aware of that theory

of the distributed responsiblity when it comes to social media research.

And although they would see that most people should know that when they're

posting they have a responsibility for what they are posting and

understanding where that may be used,

their primary responsibility is to that participant.

So I suspect they would favor the participant over the more general

responsibility.

That said, the onus is really on the researcher to present that argument.

So, I would be raising that argument when you're writing to the ethics committee.

Ethics in social media and in any research project is very contextual.

It will really depend on the situation, and I think one of the things we're trying

to get researchers to stop doing is believing that there's any rules.

There's no rules.

You really just need to reflect on the values of the national statement in

the context of your study and

present a reason why the approach that you're taking is the best approach.

What's interesting from Margaret's responses here

is that ethical concerns remain the same in both online and

offline environments, respect and a duty of care for those being researched.

If, as social media producers, we apply similar principles of a duty of

care towards the participants in our social media projects,

I'd argue we're producing ethically responsible projects.

The sorts of issues that Margaret highlights as ethical concerns from

a university perspective can be easily applied to social media.

Our role in these environments is to ensure that we understand how

the platforms operate and how users may be exploited within those environments.

[MUSIC]

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