Ethics in Nethnographic studies of social media and closed group communication: Towards a differential approach

• In Event: QRME Panel 2. Methodologies in online settings

Abstract

The advent of social media and the continued rise of closed group communication on a plethora of social networking platforms has signalled the arrival of what Artieri (2021) calls the “new geography of unsearchable small conversations”. While unsearchable, these groups also provides a very rich source of information or observation of crimes. Facing increased technological barriers (registering accounts, requesting access, the inability to enter a group or chat without being invited, and so on), academic inquiry into these closed messaging threads and fora requires a review of some of the long-standing cornerstones of ethical research, including informed consent, data protection, and research subjects’ right to privacy. The mere availability of data and interactions between social media users does not equate to these necessarily being public, nor should they be considered as openly available for collection or analysis.
We proposes an ethics protocol that bridges the criminological tradition of ethnographic research with a new reality dictated by technological affordances which, in some cases, are not too dissimilar. Based on a specific project exploring youth interactions in the context of creating and sharing memes expressing Extreme Online Content, the protocol advocates for a “differential approach” where ethical considerations are applied to the relevant issues depending on specific contexts. An example could be whether it is necessary to obtain informed consent based on the perceived public or private nature of a group chat or its membership size. Crucially, these considerations should be continuously reviewed while the research is being undertaken, rather than set in stone prior to it commencing. This will account for the fact that online criminological research can often be as unpredictable as its offline counterpart. The protocol aims to be applicable beyond the present study to wider research exploring online interactions within small and closed groups.

Authors

• Jakob Demant, University of Copenhagen

• Alessandro Moretti, University of Copenhagen