“This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public Data
While research has been conducted with and in marginalized or vulnerable groups, explicit guidelines and best practices centering on specific communities are nascent. An excellent case study to engage within this aspect of research is Black Twitter. This research project considers the history of res...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Social Media + Society |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221144317 |
| _version_ | 1797980546617311232 |
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| author | Shamika Klassen Casey Fiesler |
| author_facet | Shamika Klassen Casey Fiesler |
| author_sort | Shamika Klassen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | While research has been conducted with and in marginalized or vulnerable groups, explicit guidelines and best practices centering on specific communities are nascent. An excellent case study to engage within this aspect of research is Black Twitter. This research project considers the history of research with Black communities, combined with empirical work that explores how people who engage with Black Twitter think about research and researchers in order to suggest potential good practices and what researchers should know when studying Black Twitter or other digital traces from marginalized or vulnerable online communities. From our interviews, we gleaned that Black Twitter users feel differently about their content contributing to a research study depending on, for example, the type of content and the positionality of the researcher. Much of the advice participants shared for researchers involved an encouragement to cultivate cultural competency, get to know the community before researching it, and conduct research transparently. Aiming to improve the experience of research for both Black Twitter and researchers, this project is a stepping stone toward future work that further establishes and expands user perceptions of research ethics for online communities composed of vulnerable populations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T05:57:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f78503ed271c49418f1c7ccc151766bd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-3051 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T05:57:04Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Media + Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-f78503ed271c49418f1c7ccc151766bd2022-12-22T04:41:53ZengSAGE PublishingSocial Media + Society2056-30512022-12-01810.1177/20563051221144317“This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public DataShamika KlassenCasey FieslerWhile research has been conducted with and in marginalized or vulnerable groups, explicit guidelines and best practices centering on specific communities are nascent. An excellent case study to engage within this aspect of research is Black Twitter. This research project considers the history of research with Black communities, combined with empirical work that explores how people who engage with Black Twitter think about research and researchers in order to suggest potential good practices and what researchers should know when studying Black Twitter or other digital traces from marginalized or vulnerable online communities. From our interviews, we gleaned that Black Twitter users feel differently about their content contributing to a research study depending on, for example, the type of content and the positionality of the researcher. Much of the advice participants shared for researchers involved an encouragement to cultivate cultural competency, get to know the community before researching it, and conduct research transparently. Aiming to improve the experience of research for both Black Twitter and researchers, this project is a stepping stone toward future work that further establishes and expands user perceptions of research ethics for online communities composed of vulnerable populations.https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221144317 |
| spellingShingle | Shamika Klassen Casey Fiesler “This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public Data Social Media + Society |
| title | “This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public Data |
| title_full | “This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public Data |
| title_fullStr | “This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public Data |
| title_full_unstemmed | “This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public Data |
| title_short | “This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public Data |
| title_sort | this isn t your data friend black twitter as a case study on research ethics for public data |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221144317 |
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