On 06/12/2015 02:35 PM, Jodi Sperber wrote:
I'm in search other's experience or advice regarding the use of Twitter handles and profile images within research. Not a new topic, I know. But one that is far from settled.
Hi Jodi, I thought I'd comment on this only because I recently blurred some images in a presentation about my new book "Reading the Comments." It was a screen shot of Zuckerberg's Facemash (a hot-or-not-like predecessor to Facebook using purloined photos from Harvard's student directories). I found the image online, so the cat was already out of the bag (for a decade) but I didn't want to condone his actions. That said, and as you noted, the AoIR ethics guidelines asks lots of questions [1]. [1]: http://aoir.org/reports/ethics2.pdf
My dissertation research is focused on a specific health community formed on Twitter, bound by a specific hashtag. They host a popular weekly chat, but frequently post otherwise as well (overall, they average around 1400 tweets/week). There is nothing I can see that would be embarrassing or private about the pics and handles; to the contrary I think they add context and depth to the content as they often provide insight as to how a user chooses to present themselves.
In the spirit of [1]: - what does Twitter's ToS say about using their avatars? - would the sources themselves be surprised or upset? - are you treating these sources as public and identifiable; is that how they are represented in your IRB? - even if you understand people on Twitter to be public sources (as I often do) the fact that they are discussing health concerns raises possible concerns about vulnerability.