We are delighted to announce that the next meeting of the New Methods for New Media Network will be a workshop on the Ethics of Digital Media Research.

When: Thursday 3rd September 2020.

Where: The workshop will be a virtual event held through the Teams website. A participation link will be emailed to all who register 30 minutes prior to the start time.

Who can attend: Everyone welcome, whether already a member of the NMNM network or not.

The use of data from digital media in academic research throws up a large number of ethical questions, including:

– How do we define ‘participant’ in the context of online research?

– To what extent can ‘offline’ research ethics principles be applied to online research and how can divergences be addressed?

– What is public / private in these contexts?

– What is the relationship between legal and ethical considerations?

– How do differences in platforms affect ethical considerations?

In this workshop, we will explore these questions and more with a keynote from Dr Natasha Whiteman (University of Leicester), a leading researcher in digital media ethics who has published widely in this area. Following the keynote will be breakout sessions on case studies of particular ethical issues in internet research, with in-depth discussion of possible approaches and the application of appropriate guidelines (drawing on, for example, the AoIR ethics guidelines and others), plus opportunities for networking and interdisciplinary discussions.

Attendance at this event is free, but we ask you to register for administration purposes.

Anna Tristram, Jane Lugea and Angela Rogan

Queen’s University Belfast