#NSMNSS Twitter Chat - Informed Consent and Ethical Issues in Social Media Research

On the 1st of June 2015, I engaged in my very first twitter chat! Following on from an interesting conference I attended about ethics and social media a few weeks back, I was keen to hear the views of others and get involved in a bit of debate. The conversation moved quickly and (on the whole), I managed to keep up! To see the full conversation, click here.

Here are a few highlights of the conversation:

@SianDoesScience: How people define 'public' is rather subjective I think! #NSMNSS

@was3210 Are celebrities public figures? Is it OK to quote public figures? #nsmnss

@CurtisJessop I agree some profiles are more 'public' than others, but how do you tell?

@SianDoesScience I never read the t's and c's, so does that make me to 'blame' if my data get's used? #nsmnss

@huwcdavies #nsmnss With all the high profile prosecutions no one can be any doubt Twitter is a public platform - like shouting in pub?

@JonMendel there are some things it wouldn't be ethical to do with someone's shouts in pub without consent; same with Twitter #NSMNSS

@was3210 Interesting pub analogy. But what if those in the pub were in a segregated part & they were talking normally #NSMNSS

@SianDoesScience Transparency and respect for the participants is crucial when entering someone's online 'space' #nsmnss

@SianDoesScience IMO social sciences in particular, have a moral obligation to protect their participants from psychological harm in ANY research #nsmnss

@SianDoesScience I think ethics in general needs to be viewed as an integral part of research planning, not merely a boundary to overcome #nsmnss

@Sam_MJ_Waldron Q4. Is it ok to make assumptions about ppl based on what they write online? Which is often not a reflection of real life #NSMNSS

@SianDoesScience IMO ethics is brushed over in universities and not explored. Not a way to set up a new generation of researchers #nsmnss

Thank you to @NSMNSS for coordinating this event and to @was3210 for hosting