To blur or not to blur? Twitter profile pics and handles
Hello, AoIR community. 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. 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. I searched the archives of this list and found a small number of previous posts, including one from August 2014 (thank you, Charles Ess!) regarding the use of images, but these were for politicians, who are generally expected to have higher public visibility than general citizens participating in a (still public) hashtag-bound community. I've also gone back to the AoIR ethical guidelines doc, which is helpful to consider angles of the question; the debate still lingers in my head, however. Any thoughts or resources you might have on this topic would be most appreciated. Thank you, Jodi. -- Jodi Sperber, MSW, MPH Stalk: Twitter: jsperber <https://twitter.com/jsperber> Skype: jodisperber Read: www.healthissocial.net
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.
participants (2)
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Jodi Sperber -
Joseph Reagle