Collecting migrants' Facebook posts: Accounting for ethical measures in a text-as-data approach
Based on the heuristics proposed by Helen Nissenbaum to assess ethical issues surrounding research using new technologies, this paper discusses the ethics of the collection and analysis of migrants' digital traces for academic research purposes. Concretely, this paper is grounded on an empirica...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-01-01
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Series: | Frontiers in Sociology |
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Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2022.932908/full |
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author | Helena Dedecek Gertz |
author_facet | Helena Dedecek Gertz |
author_sort | Helena Dedecek Gertz |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Based on the heuristics proposed by Helen Nissenbaum to assess ethical issues surrounding research using new technologies, this paper discusses the ethics of the collection and analysis of migrants' digital traces for academic research purposes. Concretely, this paper is grounded on an empirical research that applies a topic modeling approach to a large dataset of migrants' posts written on Facebook groups. After discussing the nine aspects proposed by Nissenbaum, the paper contends that while researchers strive to comply with ethical measures by, for instance, asking adequate questions and protecting the collected data, the lack of transparency of social networking sites is harmful to critical social sciences and can hamper findings that contribute to understanding migratory patterns and decisions. |
first_indexed | 2024-04-11T00:05:21Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-5d4cc4e8b76c4f3b8fe0b1825c5d39a0 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2297-7775 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-04-11T00:05:21Z |
publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | Article |
series | Frontiers in Sociology |
spelling | doaj.art-5d4cc4e8b76c4f3b8fe0b1825c5d39a02023-01-09T11:35:13ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Sociology2297-77752023-01-01710.3389/fsoc.2022.932908932908Collecting migrants' Facebook posts: Accounting for ethical measures in a text-as-data approachHelena Dedecek GertzBased on the heuristics proposed by Helen Nissenbaum to assess ethical issues surrounding research using new technologies, this paper discusses the ethics of the collection and analysis of migrants' digital traces for academic research purposes. Concretely, this paper is grounded on an empirical research that applies a topic modeling approach to a large dataset of migrants' posts written on Facebook groups. After discussing the nine aspects proposed by Nissenbaum, the paper contends that while researchers strive to comply with ethical measures by, for instance, asking adequate questions and protecting the collected data, the lack of transparency of social networking sites is harmful to critical social sciences and can hamper findings that contribute to understanding migratory patterns and decisions.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2022.932908/fullinternet research ethicsmigrants' online groupsmigrants' Facebook groupstext as datatopic modelingcontextual integrity |
spellingShingle | Helena Dedecek Gertz Collecting migrants' Facebook posts: Accounting for ethical measures in a text-as-data approach Frontiers in Sociology internet research ethics migrants' online groups migrants' Facebook groups text as data topic modeling contextual integrity |
title | Collecting migrants' Facebook posts: Accounting for ethical measures in a text-as-data approach |
title_full | Collecting migrants' Facebook posts: Accounting for ethical measures in a text-as-data approach |
title_fullStr | Collecting migrants' Facebook posts: Accounting for ethical measures in a text-as-data approach |
title_full_unstemmed | Collecting migrants' Facebook posts: Accounting for ethical measures in a text-as-data approach |
title_short | Collecting migrants' Facebook posts: Accounting for ethical measures in a text-as-data approach |
title_sort | collecting migrants facebook posts accounting for ethical measures in a text as data approach |
topic | internet research ethics migrants' online groups migrants' Facebook groups text as data topic modeling contextual integrity |
url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2022.932908/full |
work_keys_str_mv | AT helenadedecekgertz collectingmigrantsfacebookpostsaccountingforethicalmeasuresinatextasdataapproach |