Exploiting Loss

The Internet is an amazing thing. One can view and put out almost any type of information or material they wish. Because of that, the Internet has become a place for people to share and deal with their experiences with grief and death. This gives researchers alternate means of researching how death and grief is dealt with. However, with these new means of interaction, come new concerns. In the article Exploiting Loss?: Ethical Considerations, Boundaries, and Opportunities for the Study of Death and Grief Online by Heather J. Carmack and Jocelyn M. DeGroot Ph.D, Carmack and DeGroot draw attention on numerous ethical issues that researchers face in the study of grief and death and dying on the internet. The issues Carmack and DeGroot address
Does a researcher have to seek permission from the author of a blog to use what they posted, or is that post public or free information? In Carmack and DeGroot’s opinion, blogs and other Internet posts should be compared to newspaper letter forums, and considered somewhat as public information. So, while the researcher does not need to seek the blog’s permission, they should cite where they got the information from.
The main issue with “research lurking” is where or not it is appropriate for researchers to interact with the bloggers and forum posters. On the other hand, is it appropriate to “lurk” on these blogs and forums, reading and gathering information, yet not interacting at all? Because arguments can be made for and against both sides, Carmack and DeGroot focus on the motivation behind the researcher’s actions, to determine whether the researcher has made an ethical
More often than not, researchers can react emotionally to the studies they take and the data they collect. It would make sense why some would try to separate themselves emotionally from their research. Carmack and DeGroot disagree with this practice. They suggest researchers embrace their emotions in their research, to gain a better understanding from their studies and data. However, they also mention that researchers have an obligation to their own mental and emotional health, and that the researcher’s heath should be deemed more important than the