The Ethics of Digital Ethnography of Sensitive Online Communities: Does the “Publicness” of the Online space matter?
Introduction:
In his article titled “Ethics in Internet Ethnography,” Malin Sveningson points out that with the advent of some of the new environments that one can find on the Internet, a large number of questions and challenges with regards to looking at communication and community have to now be considered (Sveningson 45). Conducting research in online spaces gives rise to many issues with regard to research ethics, especially if the research involves human subjects. Sveningson points out that the Internet communities that have evolved as cultures encourage the use of ethnographic methods for conducting research. Within the field of ethnography, issues of culture are central, and as a way to grasp the culture of a group, ethnographic methods involve studying members’ thoughts and conceptions of the world, norms, and values, and the practices attached to them (Sveningson 46). This study of communities in the online space is thus known as online or virtual ethnography, a concept fundamental to this paper.
Such ethical concerns regarding the privacy and integrity of the people being studied manifest, especially in the conflict between public and private spaces online. Sveningson states that according to the Swedish Research…
