Media activist research ethics : global approaches to negotiating power in social justice research

Abstract

This book maps complex ethical dilemmas in social justice research practices in media and communication. Contributors critically analyse power dynamics that arise when building equitable research relations with media activists, social movements, and cultural producers, considering issues of access, control, affective labour, reciprocal critiques, and movement pedagogies. Authors probe the ethical challenges faced when horizontal relations inadvertently create conflicts leading to oppressive communication; when affective demands generate non-reciprocal relations of care; and when participant anonymity has to be balanced with self-expression and voice. Chapters explore engagements with digital technologies in developing research relations, covering new research practices from horizontal collectives to dialogical auto-ethnography; from community scholarship and pedagogies to decolonising research. The book asks researchers to consider the complexities of ethical practices today in socially engaged global research within the neoliberal university.