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

[Emma Dallamora]

Hi Regina,

In most cases where human participants are used in research, the
participants are de-identified. If you were to name the person making the
comment, that would be far more contentious than if referring to the data
anonymously, or just using the topic of the comment quantitatively.

Agree that Facebook groups are different to newspapers - news is paywalled
under an economic rationale rather than to protect privacy. Commenters
would be under the assumption their remarks aren't private. Their meta-data
is always at the mercy of any platform they're commenting on also. This
becomes pertinent depending on whether you wanted to mount a legal argument
for fair use, or an ethical one.

The main thing you would be looking for is whether there was an obvious
claim to confidentiality that commenters would be claiming. In any case, I
would be talking to the ethics committee at your institution for how you
need to acquit yourself here.

All the best,
Emma.

On Sat, Jul 15, 2023 at 8:39 AM Adam Burke via Air-L <
air-l at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:

> 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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