The Ethics of Conducting Virtual Ethnography on Visual Platforms
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.35666Keywords:
anonymity online, digital research ethics, Islam online, virtual ethnography, vulnerable populations researchAbstract
For scholars, the internet provides a space to study diverse groups of people across the world and can be a useful way to bypass physical gender segregation and travel constraints. Despite the potential for new insights into people’s everyday life and increased attention from scholars, there is no standard set of ethics for conducting virtual ethnography on visually based platforms, like YouTube and Instagram. While publicly accessible social media posts are often understood to be a part of the public domain and thus do not require a researcher to obtain a user’s consent before publishing data, caution must be taken when studying members of a vulnerable community, especially those who have a history of surveillance, like African-American Muslims. Using a womanist approach, the author provides recommendations for studying vulnerable religious groups online, based on a case study of a YouTube channel, Muslimah2Muslimah, operated by two African-American Muslim women. The article provides an important contribution to the field of media studies because the author discusses a “dead” online community, where users no longer comment on the videos and do not maintain their own profiles, making obtaining consent difficult and the potential risks of revealing information to an unknown community hard to gauge.
Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Bailey, Moya 2015 #transform(ing)DH Writing and Research: An Autoethnography of Digital Humanities and Feminist Ethics. Digital Humanities Quarterly 9(2): Online: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/9/2/000209/000209.html (accessed May 30, 2017).
Bassett, Elizabeth H., and Kate O’Riordan 2002 Ethics of Internet Research: Contesting the Human Subjects Research Model. Ethics and Information Technology 4: 233–47. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021319125207
Boellstorff, Tom 2008 Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University.
Cavazos, Edward, and Gavino Morin 1994 Cyberspace and the Law: Your Rights and Duties in the On-Line World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Curtis, Edward E. 2013 The Black Muslim Scare of the Twentieth Century: The History of State Islamophobia and Its Post-9/11 Variations. In Islamophobia in America: The Anatomy of Intolerance, edited by Carl W. Ernst, 75–106. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137290076_4
Garcia, Angela Cora, Alecea I. Standlee, Jennifer Bechkoff, and Yan Cui 2009 Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 38(1): 52–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241607310839
Hine, Christine 2000 Virtual Ethnography. London: SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857020277
----- 2015 Ethnography for the Internet: Embedded, Embodied and Everyday. London and New York: Bloomsbury.
Hudson, James M., and Amy Bruckman 2004 “Go Away”: Participant Objections to Being Studies and the Ethics of Chatroom Research. The Information Society 20: 127–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972240490423030
Johns, Mark D. 2013 Ethical Issues in the Study of Religion and New Media. In Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds, edited by Heidi A. Campbell, 238–50. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Maira, Sunaina 2016 The 9/11 Generation: Life in the Surveillance State. Sustainable Security. Online: https://sustainablesecurity.org/2016/12/02/the-911-generation-life-in-the-surveillance-state/ (accessed May 10, 2017). https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479817696.001.0001
Mantilla, Karla 2015 Gendertrolling: How Misogyny Went Viral. Santa Barbara: Praeger.
Markham, Annette 2012 Fabrication as Ethical Practice: Qualitative Inquiry in Ambiguous Internet Contexts. Information, Communication & Society 15(3): 334–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2011.641993
Markham, Annette, and Elizabeth Buchanan 2012 Ethical Decision-Making and Internet Research: Recommendations from the AoIR Ethics Working Committee (Version 2.0). AoIR: 1–19. Online: https://aoir.org/reports/ethics2.pdf (accessed June 10, 2017).
Marwick, Alice E., and danah boyd 2014 Networked Privacy: How Teenagers Negotiate Context in Social Media. New Media & Theory 16(7): 1051–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814543995
Mitra, Ananda 2004 Voices of the Marginalized on the Internet: Examples from a Website for Women of South Asia. Journal of Communication 54(3): 492–510. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2004.tb02641.x
Model View Culture 2014 This Tweet Called My Back. Online: https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/thistweetcalledmyback (accessed April 1, 2017).
Moreno, Megan A., Natalie Goniu, Peter S. Moreno, and Douglas Diekema 2013 Ethics of Social Media Research: Common Concerns and Practical Considerations. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking 16(9): 708–713. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2012.0334
Morrow, Oona, Roberta Hawkins, and Leslie Kern 2015 Feminist Research in Online Spaces. Gender, Place and Culture 22(4): 526–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.879108
Murthy, Dhiraj 2008 Digital Ethnography: An Examination of the Use of New Technologies for Social Research. Sociology 42(5): 837–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038508094565
----- 2011 Emergent Digital Ethnographic Methods for Social Research. In Handbook of Emergent Technologies in Social Research, edited by Sharlene Hesse-Biber, 158–79. New York: Oxford University Press.
Senft, Theresa M. 2008 Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks. New York City: Peter Lang Publishing Inc.
Sidhu, Dawinder S. 2007 The Chilling Effect of Government Surveillance Programs on the Use of the Internet by Muslim-Americans. University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class 7(2): 375–93.
Tiidenberg, Katrin 2015 Odes to Heteronormativity: Presentations of Femininity in Russian-Speaking Pregnant Women’s Instagram Accounts. International Journal of Communication 9: 1746–58.
Walther, John B. 2002 Research Ethics in Internet-enabled Research: Human Subjects Issue and Methodological Myopia. Ethics and Information Technology 4: 205–216. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021368426115
Zavadski, Katie 2015 Muslim Arrested by FBI for Sharing an ISIS GIF. The Daily Beast. Online: http://
www.thedailybeast.com/muslim-arrested-by-fbi-for-sharing-an-isis-gif (accessed May 15, 2017).
Zimmer, Michael 2010 “But the Date is Already Public”: On the Ethics of Research in Facebook. Journal Ethics and Information Technology 12(4): 313–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-010-9227-5
Bassett, Elizabeth H., and Kate O’Riordan 2002 Ethics of Internet Research: Contesting the Human Subjects Research Model. Ethics and Information Technology 4: 233–47. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021319125207
Boellstorff, Tom 2008 Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University.
Cavazos, Edward, and Gavino Morin 1994 Cyberspace and the Law: Your Rights and Duties in the On-Line World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Curtis, Edward E. 2013 The Black Muslim Scare of the Twentieth Century: The History of State Islamophobia and Its Post-9/11 Variations. In Islamophobia in America: The Anatomy of Intolerance, edited by Carl W. Ernst, 75–106. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137290076_4
Garcia, Angela Cora, Alecea I. Standlee, Jennifer Bechkoff, and Yan Cui 2009 Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 38(1): 52–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241607310839
Hine, Christine 2000 Virtual Ethnography. London: SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857020277
----- 2015 Ethnography for the Internet: Embedded, Embodied and Everyday. London and New York: Bloomsbury.
Hudson, James M., and Amy Bruckman 2004 “Go Away”: Participant Objections to Being Studies and the Ethics of Chatroom Research. The Information Society 20: 127–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972240490423030
Johns, Mark D. 2013 Ethical Issues in the Study of Religion and New Media. In Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds, edited by Heidi A. Campbell, 238–50. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Maira, Sunaina 2016 The 9/11 Generation: Life in the Surveillance State. Sustainable Security. Online: https://sustainablesecurity.org/2016/12/02/the-911-generation-life-in-the-surveillance-state/ (accessed May 10, 2017). https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479817696.001.0001
Mantilla, Karla 2015 Gendertrolling: How Misogyny Went Viral. Santa Barbara: Praeger.
Markham, Annette 2012 Fabrication as Ethical Practice: Qualitative Inquiry in Ambiguous Internet Contexts. Information, Communication & Society 15(3): 334–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2011.641993
Markham, Annette, and Elizabeth Buchanan 2012 Ethical Decision-Making and Internet Research: Recommendations from the AoIR Ethics Working Committee (Version 2.0). AoIR: 1–19. Online: https://aoir.org/reports/ethics2.pdf (accessed June 10, 2017).
Marwick, Alice E., and danah boyd 2014 Networked Privacy: How Teenagers Negotiate Context in Social Media. New Media & Theory 16(7): 1051–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814543995
Mitra, Ananda 2004 Voices of the Marginalized on the Internet: Examples from a Website for Women of South Asia. Journal of Communication 54(3): 492–510. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2004.tb02641.x
Model View Culture 2014 This Tweet Called My Back. Online: https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/thistweetcalledmyback (accessed April 1, 2017).
Moreno, Megan A., Natalie Goniu, Peter S. Moreno, and Douglas Diekema 2013 Ethics of Social Media Research: Common Concerns and Practical Considerations. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking 16(9): 708–713. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2012.0334
Morrow, Oona, Roberta Hawkins, and Leslie Kern 2015 Feminist Research in Online Spaces. Gender, Place and Culture 22(4): 526–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2013.879108
Murthy, Dhiraj 2008 Digital Ethnography: An Examination of the Use of New Technologies for Social Research. Sociology 42(5): 837–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038508094565
----- 2011 Emergent Digital Ethnographic Methods for Social Research. In Handbook of Emergent Technologies in Social Research, edited by Sharlene Hesse-Biber, 158–79. New York: Oxford University Press.
Senft, Theresa M. 2008 Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks. New York City: Peter Lang Publishing Inc.
Sidhu, Dawinder S. 2007 The Chilling Effect of Government Surveillance Programs on the Use of the Internet by Muslim-Americans. University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class 7(2): 375–93.
Tiidenberg, Katrin 2015 Odes to Heteronormativity: Presentations of Femininity in Russian-Speaking Pregnant Women’s Instagram Accounts. International Journal of Communication 9: 1746–58.
Walther, John B. 2002 Research Ethics in Internet-enabled Research: Human Subjects Issue and Methodological Myopia. Ethics and Information Technology 4: 205–216. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021368426115
Zavadski, Katie 2015 Muslim Arrested by FBI for Sharing an ISIS GIF. The Daily Beast. Online: http://
www.thedailybeast.com/muslim-arrested-by-fbi-for-sharing-an-isis-gif (accessed May 15, 2017).
Zimmer, Michael 2010 “But the Date is Already Public”: On the Ethics of Research in Facebook. Journal Ethics and Information Technology 12(4): 313–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-010-9227-5
Published
2018-03-13
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Wheeler, K. (2018). The Ethics of Conducting Virtual Ethnography on Visual Platforms. Fieldwork in Religion, 12(2), 163-178. https://doi.org/10.1558/firn.35666
