Virtual research certainly offers an abundant amount of potential research subjects and potential for easy collection of data. For many audiences, it's a convenient way for the to participate in studies because they already know the medium and tend to be "online" anyway according to Thurlow and McKay, especially younger audiences.
However, there are many ethical considerations that the spaces prompt researchers to think about. Especially, who are we researching and should we get consent from them, even if their identities are concealed? I'm thinking about your research in particular, Jen, with the adolescent females. Did they know they were being studied? I don't believe they did, but on the other hand, would they have acted differently than they did if they didn't know? I'm not taking any particular side on this yet, as I need to still figure this out in my own head, but there are certainly important considerations regarding our research subjects we need to think about.
Thurlow and McKay also bring up an important topic of access to technology. If technology, particularly computers and Internet connection, are available to select groups of people, then accessing disadvantaged populations through this medium, would fail and their voices would remain unheard. This is an extremely important consideration that has occupied many of my thoughts since I started my Masters 4 years ago and really became interested in "the power of technology."
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Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI guess my question in regard to the MySpace subjects is that when they signed up for an account, they had the choice to make it either private or public. By choosing a public profile they are opening themselves up to the world, so I don't know how much ethical considerations can apply in a situation where their accounts are open to anyone who wants to view them.
I think this is an area where we as teachers and even more so as parents must help our children and students to understand how the choices they make online can have very real and lasting consequences.
My whole quandary with research is how much the presence of the researcher affects the people being researched. Can researcher and researched ever be completely separate from each other? I wonder how legit any research is if we consider how, as human beings, we are so prone if not conditioned to answer people in the manner we believe they want to be answered. Not that we throw in our towels and forget research, but I have serious doubts about the legitimacy of any findings where the researched are cognizant of the researcher. Perhaps I am just feeling overwhelmed by the amount of questions we face in methodology decisions that I'm now question vomiting, kinda like Lindsay Lohan on "Means Girls" with her word vomiting. LOL :)
ReplyDeleteRachel,
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about the technology only reaching those who have it and that this is a small segment of the worlds population. Referring to technology and online spaces you raise valid concerns when you notice (technology is) "available to select groups of people, then accessing disadvantaged populations through this medium, would fail and their voices would remain unheard."
I am beginning to think that all literacy is colonial, and while we need to deal with it--I am not sure I see kids that are withou online access as disadvantaged. I am wondering about the question of benefits.
Who does it benefit when kids go online? Who benefits with this kind of literacy?
I often see articles about people who do not have access as though these countries are behind--I wonder???? What are they behind in? How is this measured and who gets to say what is behind and what is ahead?
Do we have a way of measuring quality of life?
Anyway...these are the things I thought about when I read your post.
Rachel-
ReplyDeleteYour question about consent for my MySpace project is something I did and do struggle with. Because I approached it as a textual analysis I did not obtain informed consent, but wonder if I should have or at least should have sent a follow-up email. There seems to be so much emphasis about being safe and protecting yourself online that it seems most folks should understand what it means to go public or private (as Robin mentioned) but I don't know if that applies to minors online. Shoot, I don't know if it applies to adults online. Another question then comes up - how do we obtain consent when sometimes a screen name is all we have to lead us back to a user?