DATA 311 - Data Ethics Assignment 2: Social Media Social Science

In this assignment, we’ll dig into a story about everybody’s favorite data ethics punching bag: Meta (aka Facebook)¹. Your task will be to inform yourself about the details of one of the many scandals the company has faced by reading the available “source material” (rather than just the media coverage). You’ll write a 1-page response on your findings and thoughts on the issues.

The “Data”

2014 - Emotional Contagion Study

News article: Facebook Tinkers With Users’ Emotions in News Feed Experiment, Stirring Outcry

Academic Paper: Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks

Instructions

Read at least one popular press article as well as the academic paper actually produced by the researchers. Write an approximately 1-page (single-spaced) response discussing your findings, and some of your own thoughts on the issue. Use the questions below as a guide, but feel free to go wherever your thoughts take you. As usual, 1 page is a guideline, and I prefer that you aim for substance at the expense of length.

Questions:

1. As you read, try to get a clear picture of the facts of the situation. What did the researchers actually do?
   • What was their research question?
   • What sort of experiments did they do?
   • What sort of analysis did they perform?
2. Are there any aspects of the research where you see a potential for ethical problems? What concerns could apply? These may or may not be concerns that you share - try to think broadly about things that lots of people might reasonably be concerned about.
3. Think about how to evaluate the legitimacy of these concerns. What types of criteria apply? Do you think that ethical lines were crossed? If there is a general problem here, what could society do to solve it?

Rubric

This assignment is out of 10 points, and will be graded relatively coarsely on effort, thoughtfulness, and clarity. If you produced thoughtful and clearly-written answers to some of the above questions, you will receive full credit.