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Handbook of Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity pp 1–18Cite as

Big Data

A Focus on Social Media Research Dilemmas

Abstract

Big data research is an umbrella term that characterizes research in many fields. This chapter will focus specifically on big data research tied to the use of social media primarily with a focus on humanities and social science research. Social media as a data source provides opportunities to understand how people individually and collectively communicate, socialize, and critically scrutinize platform infrastructures, exposure, and interaction logic. However, the data and the subsequent processing are closely tied to important ethical issues especially concerning tensions between privacy on the one side and accountability/transparency on the other side. Through an illustrative big data case study of Facebook groups supplemented with existing literature, the chapter will explore ethical dilemmas that occur in connection with social media big data research. The chapter argues that we need to justify our research design balancing protection of the individuals and the aim of creating knowledge for the good of society.

Keywords

  • Ethics
  • Social media
  • Big data
  • Privacy
  • Facebook

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DATALAB, Center for Digital Social Research, Aarhus University, Aarhus N, Denmark

    Anja Bechmann & Jiyoung Ydun Kim

Authors
  1. Anja Bechmann
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  2. Jiyoung Ydun Kim
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Correspondence to Anja Bechmann .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chatelaillon Plage, France

    Dr. Ron Iphofen

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Bechmann, A., Kim, J.Y. (2019). Big Data. In: Iphofen, R. (eds) Handbook of Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76040-7_18-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76040-7_18-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76040-7

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