#IfTheyGunnedMeDown: How Ethics, Gender, and Race Intersect When Researching Race and Racism on Tumblr

Abstract

Challenges related to digital social research have centered upon protection of the participants whose activity online create the data sets used for study. Ethical issues related to digital participant protection include how researchers interact with research participants. Some researchers argue that particular sites online should be considered “public,” and as a public site of study, that type of digital research does not require participant permission to study. More recently, there has been a push from some editors to researchers to contact individuals to obtain their permission to be studied, even for areas online that might have been regarded as public. In this essay, I share how ethics, gender, and race intersect when researching race and racism on Tumblr through #IfTheyGunnedMeDown.