MCOM 390 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Informed Consent

• School: Towson University
• Department: Mass Communication
• Course: MCOM 390
• Professor: Mun- Chung Yung

Document Summary

Distinguishing right from wrong, proper from improper. Few guidelines through practice: goal: sensitize researchers. Why do we study ethics: to prevent plagiarism, to protect the credibility of the research, to respect the people who participate in the research. Treatment of humans: resear(cid:272)h (cid:862)su(cid:271)je(cid:272)ts(cid:863, cases of bad research ethics, milgra(cid:373)"s authorit(cid:455) e(cid:454)peri(cid:373)e(cid:374)t (cid:894)1963(cid:895): o(cid:271)edie(cid:374)(cid:272)e. General rule: the rights of the participants are not violated! Ethical responsibility: the researchers are responsible for everyone involved in the study. Informed consent (example: no coercion, tell participants, what they will be doing, they can leave at any point, the participation is completely voluntary. Deception: can we use this, no deception, no findings, no alternative ways (if there are other ways than do that) Risk of participation: consider the potential risk for participants, weigh the benefits over the risks. Anonymity & confidentiality: no one knows who the participants are, separating the identifiable information and answers, o(cid:374)l(cid:455) resear(cid:272)hers get a(cid:272)(cid:272)ess to parti(cid:272)ipa(cid:374)t"s i(cid:374)for(cid:373)atio(cid:374)