[Air-L] Ethics of analyzing reader comments to newspaper articles

[Adam Burke]

Two key differences stand out:

1. Anyone who buys the newspaper can read the comments. This is unlike a Facebook group where readers need to be individually given permission.
2. There is a multi-century long convention that every element of a newspaper is public commentary which can be analysed and responded to, including for scholarship. 

So I would suggest the analogy is not facebook comments but letters to the editor, or public tweets.

I am not a lawyer or ethics board member, and would be interested to see others with more experience in this area weigh in.

Adam Burke 

> On 12 Jul 2023, at 12:40 pm, Regina Tuma via Air-L <air-l at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:
> 
>    Hello dear AOIR colleagues,
> 
>   What are the ethical guidelines for analyzing reader comments to
>   newspaper articles for newspapers behind a paywall? An example would be
>   The New York Times. Reader comments are not accessible unless one is a
>   paid subscriber or unless an article is gifted. Is this similar to
>   Facebook where groups are not public? For context, I have a couple of
>   articles where I want to analyze the reader comments.
> 
> 
>   Hoping to get some insight.
> 
>   Thanks,
> 
>   Regina
> 
> 
>   Sent from [1]Mail for Windows
> 
> References
> 
>   1. https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986
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