Data scandals like the ‘Facebook-Cambridge Analytica files’ made us-ers drastically aware of social media companies’ dealings with person-ally identifiable information. While a call for ethics standards for these companies was widely debated, little attention has been paid to the ethical dimensions of anthropological research in, with and about digital media. Against this background there is a need for discussion if there are ‘non-negotiable’ standards of the discipline regarding digital media and their impact on anthropological research.

Fieldwork understood as processes of negotiation between anthropologists and the ethnographic interlocutors may include ‘non-negotiable’ interactions posing limitations to social negotiation in the research process, especially in highly contested research fields like political extremism or militant Islamism. Recently there has been increasing attention to moral and ethical questions in fieldwork with people anthropologists ‘don’t necessarily like’ (Bangstad 2017) where access to the field, building trust, and dealing with security of data play a vital role (Hemmingsen 2011; de Koning 2018).

This panel focuses on ethical implications and challenges of working ethnographically about and with media, especially digital me-dia. We invite papers that deal with (but are not limited to) the follow-ing questions: Are there ‘non-negotiable’ standards regarding anthro-pological research with digital media? What challenges follow from using digital media as an area of research or research tool in highly contested research fields like political extremism or militant move-ments? How do anthropologists protect their informants’ privacy and anonymity, particularly when doing research about visual practices? How do anthropologists deal with misinformation, hate speech, vio-lent or propagandistic material?

Keynote:
Sindre Bangstad (KIFO - Institute For Church, Religion and World-view Research, Oslo, NOR): Doing fieldwork among people we don’t necessarily like – and what that means for digital media ethnography

K. Zeynep Sarıaslan (ZMO - Leibniz-Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin):
Information negotiated: reflections on researching transnational politics and making online news
Max Kramer (LMU München): Online ethics and the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind
Discussant: Dr. Cathrine Bublatzky (Heidelberg University)