YouTube, Google, Facebook: 21st Century Online Video Research and Research Ethics

Forum: Qualitative Social Research

Nicolas Legewie¹  Anne Nassauer² 

[1] Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW Berlin);Freie Universität Berlin;

关键词: research ethics;    online research;    video data, confidentiality;    informed consent;    privacy;    Web 2.0;    YouTube;   

DOI  :  10.17169/fqs-19.3.3130

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Since the early 2000s, the proliferation of cameras in devices such as mobile phones, closed-circuit television (CCTV), or body cameras has led to a sharp increase in video recordings of human interaction and behavior. Through websites that employ user-generated content (e.g., YouTube) and live streaming sites (e.g., GeoCam), access to such videos virtually is at the fingertips of social science researchers. Online video data offer great potential for social science research to study an array of human interaction and behavior, but they also raise ethical questions to which existing guidelines and publications only provide partial answers. In our article we address this gap, drawing on existing ethical discussions and applying them to the use of online video data. We examine five areas in which online video research raises specific questions or promises unique potentials: informed consent, analytic opportunities, privacy, transparency, and minimizing harm to participants. We discuss their interplay and how these areas can inform practitioners, reviewers, and interested readers of online video studies when evaluating the ethical standing of a study. With this study, we contribute to an informed and transparent discussion about ethics in online video research.

【 授权许可】

Unknown