Читать книгу An Introduction to Text Mining - Gabe Ignatow - Страница 43

So far, we have assumed that the researcher is collecting unprompted user conversations (rather than prompted data, such as from interviews or questionnaires), but social scientists are beginning to collect users’ textual data after actively manipulating the online environment as a stimulus intended to assess reactions or responses. The Cornell–Facebook emotion study is an example of such research. Researchers could also prime users by, for example, introducing sexist, racist, or homophobic language into the online environment and then recording the responses of members of different communities. From an ethical standpoint, for this kind of experimental online research it is not sufficient for the researcher to anonymize participants’ names after the experiment has been conducted.

As always, in the case of manipulation, the best practice is for university researchers who plan to manipulate the social media environment in any way to consult with their IRB and for researchers in the industry to follow the regulations and guidelines of their respective professional associations.