"Jenny Stromer-Galley" <jstromer@asc.upenn.edu> wrote:
"Glaser considers this technique [of posing as curious and naive visitors to a white supremacist chat room] ethical because participants were contacted in a public forum, weren't coerced, addressed common topics of conversation in their chat rooms, and were not personally identified by the researchers. Surreptitious interviewing might also yield new insights into such denizens of the Internet as child pornographers and illegal weapons traders, Glaser says."
<snip>
I know AoIR has worked on ethics guidelines. What do you think about Glaser's practices?
i don't think the final version of AIR's guidelines are out? there is something that strikes me as interesting about Glaser's stand and my own yearnings to feel Glaser's is an ethical practice: embedded in it is the warrant that i *need* to employ this method to get at information that's otherwise inaccessible to me if i reveal my researcher status. if i choose groups such as rape survivors or parents grieving the loss of their children, it changes the valence of things--it no longer seems as ethical to lurk and chat covertly with these folks as it did with white supremacists. so, that tells me i think it's less ethical to deceive some groups of people over others? the logic breaks down for me as a researcher and i realize that my urges to go "undercover" have more to do with not wanting (or feeling i have the resources) to build rapport with some people as much as other people. ...but, that's the rub of ethics isn't it? ethics challenge us to think about our systems of 'right and wrong' and do the 'right thing' when the 'wrong thing' would actually (seem to) be more productive. in Glaser's case, i think expediency is a driving force of the methods used and the ethical concerns followed rather than led the process...but, i also think this is how ethics tend to develop and unwind in most research. ...there are so many good examples of past ethnographers who have finessed their way into circles of street gangs, Japanese internment camp members, drug dealers, etc. without having to circumvent ethical practices/traditions of disclosure. the questions for me have become how and when do we feel we need (or should be allowed) to walk the edge of ethics? what is it about our connections with communities via online media that sends us searching for exceptions to or rewritings of ethical rules we would not question if researching offline?
And why doesn't John Bargh know about AoIR's ethics guidelines :-) . . . .
that is a great question! i hope our guidelines get out there and start making it to discussions at the AAA, ASA,4S, and other places we all do doubletime. thanks for throwing out this question, Jenny! ._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._. Mary L. Gray <mlgray@ucsd.edu> Department of Communication University of California, San Diego vox: 502/451.5003 mail: PO Box 4004, Louisville, KY 40204 http://weber.ucsd.edu/~mgray .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.