Ethical Use of Social Media to Facilitate Qualitative Research

Title
Ethical Use of Social Media to Facilitate Qualitative Research
Publication Date
2015-02
Author(s)
Lunnay, Belinda
Borlagdan, Joseph
McNaughton, Darlene
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0131-5966
Email: dmcnaug3@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:dmcnaug3
Ward, Paul
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Sage Publications, Inc
Place of publication
United States of America
DOI
10.1177/1049732314549031
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/57936
Abstract

Increasingly, qualitative health researchers might consider using social media to facilitate communication with participants. Ambiguity surrounding the potential risks intrinsic to social media could hinder ethical conduct and discourage use of this innovative method. We used some core principles of traditional human research ethics, that is, respect, integrity, and beneficence, to design our photo elicitation research that explored the social influences of drinking alcohol among 34 underage women in metropolitan South Australia. Facebook aided our communication with participants, including correspondence ranging from recruitment to feeding back results and sharing research data. This article outlines the ethical issues we encountered when using Facebook to interact with participants and provides guidance to researchers planning to incorporate social media as a tool in their qualitative studies. In particular, we raise the issues of privacy and confidentiality as contemporary risks associated with research using social media.

Link
Citation
Qualitative Health Research, 25(1), p. 99-109
ISSN
1552-7557
1049-7323
Start page
99
End page
109

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