Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
publicly accessed communication. In the case of intentional interaction (private
and semi-private communication), informed consent precedes the use of data,
governing the ways in which the data can and should be used (2000: 46).
While concern for copyright and ownership of a participant's words may
appear fairly straightforward to some, as Lawson (2004: 90) notes,
crediting CMC (computer-mediated communication) texts used in academic publi-
cations to the participant who authored the texts raises another ethical dilemma for
researchers, who must now decide which is more important, giving participants
credit for their intellectual property in the form of CMC written communication or
protecting their identities and anonymity as participants of the research in question.
Statements attributed to a participant in a business study about an employ-
ment environment could cost an employee his or her job. Statements about
sexuality or alternative lifestyles could damage an individual's reputation or, at
the very least, prove to be embarrassing.
There is no hard and fast rule as to whether it is ethical to access and use data
from a site, outside of attributing authorship where it is due. Some researchers
refrain from using any data not provided specifically for their research, while
others use whatever they find. As a general rule, it is a good idea - particularly
when entering an online community - to interact with a site moderator/creator/
manager about the research effort, how participants will be approached, how
the research will be presented to participants, and how data will be collected
and used. In addition, Lawson (2004: 91) offers the following thoughts for
protecting a participant's identity:
•
Use disguises for names and communities.
•
Delete or mask compromising details as much as possible.
•
Create composite characters.
•
Break identifiable characters into multiple characters to make them less
identifiable.
While these rules are not foolproof, they allow for the use of data when the
issue is less about copyright and more about protecting the privacy and iden-
tity of a participant. It should be noted that disguises and changed identity can
also have an impact on the presentation of findings. If a name is changed, for
example, it could impact meaning (Maczewski, Storey & Hoskins 2004). Maybe
a participant has the username of Bilbo21. By changing that name, the mean-
ing of a hobbit-related joke in the discourse would be lost. We often don't real-
ize that type of significance until we conduct our analysis. So it is necessary to
consider the potential significance of this type of lost meaning as you design a
study and negotiate the informed consent process with participants.
One of the things a researcher is doing when engaging in an informed con-
sent process is establishing trust between the researcher and the participant.
One of the ways of improving the odds of accessing quality information, or,
