Ethics and Social Media Research (Conference) - Announcement of Keynote Speakers

We are pleased to announce that we have confirmed the keynote speakers for our Social Media & Social Science Research Ethics conference taking place in London on March 21st this year.

You can register for the conference here. For more details please visit the Academy of Social Sciences website.

Keynote 1: The Ethical Disruptions of Social Media Research: tales from the field.

Professor Susan Halford - Director Web Science Institute, University of Southampton

Academic researchers currently find themselves at the centre of a perfect ethical storm: at a time when university ethical governance is becoming increasingly bureaucratised and risk adverse some extraordinary opportunities for research are emerging in new forms of digital data generated ‘in the wild’ and available ‘in public’ without any of the usual hallmarks of ethical credibility. New forms of data require a ‘deep dive’ into their ethical provenance and consequences but not fit easily into the principles currently promoted by institutional ethics processes. Drawing on the practical challenges of running a Centre for Doctoral Training in Web Science, this talk will explore these tensions and consider new practices that might bridge the gap.

Keynote 2: Where next for #SocialEthics?

Steven Ginnis - Head of Digital Research, Social Research Institute, Ipsos MORI
Harry Evans - Research Analyst, Social Research Institute, Ipsos MORI

Navigating the contradictory world of social media ethics continues to be a difficult road for researchers. As part of the Wisdom of the Crowd project, Ipsos MORI made 19 recommendations to researchers, regulators and social media platforms on how best to embed ethics into every day social media research best practice. This presentation explores the primary and secondary research that underpinned the recommendations, and provides an initial assessment of progress in attempts to implement these practical, positive and sensible steps forward.

Ethics and Social Media Research conference - Call for papers extended to 18th January

The deadline for the call for papers for our Ethics and Social Media Research conference has been extended to Monday 18th January 2016.

Location: 33 Finsbury Square, London. EC2A 1AG

Date: Monday 21st of March, 2016

The Academy of Social Sciences and NSMNSS network are inviting abstracts for full papers or posters/videos from those whose research makes use of social media, around the following four themes: 

• Ethics & Practicalities: Consent in social media research.
• Privacy, ownership and legal dimensions: The use of social media data for research.
• Blurred lines: Relationships between researchers and participants in social media research.
• Critical ethical reflections: Improving ethical practice.

250 word abstracts should be submitted on this form and sent to acss.ethics@gmail.com. There will be a £100 prize for the best poster/ video as well as a number of discounted places and travel bursaries for postgraduate students. Following the conference we aim to produce an e-book of the presented papers.  

More information can be found on the AcSS website. Any inquiries should be directed to: nsmnss@natcen.ac.uk

Decisions will be made by the end of January 2016.