Online interview

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An online interview is an online research method conducted using computer-mediated communication (CMC), [1] such as instant messaging, email, or video. Online interviews require different ethical considerations, sampling and rapport than practices found in traditional face-to-face (F2F) interviews. Online interviews are separated into synchronous online interviews, for example via online chat which happen in 'real time' online [2] and asynchronous online interviews, for example via email conducted in non-real time. [2] Some authors discuss online interviews in relation to online focus groups [2] [3] whereas others look at online interviews as separate research methods. [4] This article will only discuss online interviews.

Contents

Online interviews, like offline interviews, typically ask respondents to explain what they think or how they feel about an aspect of their social world. [5] Interviews are especially useful for understanding the meanings participants assign to their activities; their perspectives, motives, and experiences. [3] Interviews are also useful for eliciting the language used by group members, gathering information about processes that cannot be observed, or inquiring about the past. [5] Thus the objectives researchers have do not differ significantly, however the methods and research design can be effected by the online component of the research which this article will take issue with.

Methodologies

In online interviews, data is primarily generated through conversations between a researcher and "respondent". Researchers often seek out a deliberate (or "non-random") selection of respondents, recruiting individuals who can provide insight on a particular phenomenon, situation, or practice. [5] Online Interviews can utilize a selection of formats and employ varying means of computer-mediated communication (CMC).

Synchronous

The interview is synchronous if it is conducted in real time. Skype interviews allow participants and researchers to converse in real time. Video chat is the closest a researcher will get towards resembling a face-to-face interview. [6] This is because it allows for facial expressions and other visual cues that are absent in textually based forms such as chatrooms. [7] Another way of conducting synchronous interviews online is using WebRTC. When WebRTC is used web browser (Firefox, Chrome or IE) acts as a client and both the parties can connect over a real-time video-chat.

Asynchronous

An asynchronous online interview takes place when the researcher and the participant are not online at the same time. Typically these interviews will use email but other technologies might also be employed. This can be an advantage for research conducted across time zones or with busy participants, allowing them to answer questions at their convenience. [5] Kitvits (2005 cited in Dowling 2012) point out that asynchronous interviews are very useful for reflective process which helps to assure rigor. [8]

A concern related to the asynchronous method is the possibility of interviews gradually drying up over an extended period. While the possibility of long term "longitudinal" research is valuable, it is also risky. Completion requires high levels of participant motivation, since they have not dedicated a specific block of time. [3] Additionally, asynchronous online interviews may feel less conversational and make it more difficult to ask follow-up questions. Rezabek (2000) describes this as a "lack of timeliness". [9]

Structured

Structured interviews are guided by questions which are prepared prior to the interview. [1]

Semi-structured

Semi-structured interviews balance the pre-planned questions of a structured approach with the spontaneity and flexibility of the unstructured interview. [1]

Unstructured

Unstructured interviews are conversations where the researcher collects data on a broad topic, however, does not have any specific questions prepared, [1] allowing informants to guide the conversation by offering stories and additional insights. [5] Unstructured interviews may be especially useful when researchers are trying to understand an unfamiliar setting, a phenomenon or people's motives. [3] Dowling (2012) used unstructured interviews in an asynchronous format via email. [8]

Online versus offline

Advantages

There are many reasons online interviews can be an appropriate and valuable methodological tool. For example, the use of online interviews as opposed to onsite interviews provides the researcher with opportunities to:

In asynchronous interviews the extended time frame can also be a benefit allowing researchers more time to think of evocative or precise follow-up questions. Researchers can reread the chat history and use previous responses to inform the subsequent questions. [8]

Limitations

There are, however, possible drawbacks to online interviews. Scholars such as Mann and Stewart (2005) have questioned how effective they are in comparison to face-to-face interviews. [12] Online interviews may make it difficult to:

Though the question-and-answer format of the interview is similar to face-to-face interviews, during text-based interviews participants and researchers are not visible to one another. This can make it difficult to assess how questions and responses are being interpreted on either side due to a lack of visual cues. [13]

Internet researcher Annette Markham (1998) observes that text-based interviewing can take much longer than face-to-face, phone or Skype interviews because typing takes longer than talking. Textual methods require users to verbalize conventional aspects of polite conversation, such as nodding or smiling, which requires added effort and time. [13]

Others highlight the need for additional methodological planning for online interview respondents that includes the possibility that respondents may attempt to deliberately deceive [14]

Ethical considerations

There are many ethical considerations that arise solely because the interview is conducted online. As suggested by the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), these will vary depending on community norms, local and national codes and guidelines, and context specific considerations. [15]

Privacy

If the research was conducted the researcher should consider taking appropriate steps to protect human subjects and, where appropriate, their avatars or online representations. [1]

Has the researcher obtained proper informed consent? The importance of consent stays the same online. The researcher needs to obtain it so to not formally contravenes European data protection legislation. [2] However, it can be done in different ways online. For example, a consent form could be emailed and then faxed, posted or send back via email. Another way of creating consent could be to include a tick box "I accept" to simulate a signature. [2]

Withdrawal

In asynchronous formats of interviews, researchers have experienced a lack of knowing if the participant has withdrawn or if the answer just took some time. [8] In synchronous interviews a withdraw button could be added. [2]

Netiquette

Netiquette, the way people expect someone to behave online, becomes important for online interviews in three ways. Firstly, silence which can be used in face-to-face interviews as a tactic to encourage someone to talk more [16] – is more ambiguous online. It could mean that the interviewer has left, is slow to answer or even withdrew from the interview. [2] Secondly, by selecting participants for an online interview two things should be kept in mind. On the one side, the aspect of representation should be considered as not everyone has internet or has the technical abilities to use it. [2] Furthermore, if the interviewer aims to approach candidates online in forums, the researcher should think of ways how to do it in the least disruptive way, for example asking the forum facilitator first instead of directly posting the inquiry into the forum. [2] Another important aspect is the use of emoticons. A sensitive use of emoticons is advisable to adapt the style to suit that of the interviewee. [8]

Community interviews

The Internet allows many people at once to directly interview persons of public interest. Voting-systems may allow communities to collectively find the questions they'd like to get answered most.

Reddit AMAs

One popular subsite of the social media and aggregation site reddit, /r/IAmA, prompts its users to ask celebrities, politicians other persons of public interest questions about any topic. These interviews are called "AMAs" for "ask me anything". [17] These interviews, of which there are multiple everyday, often receive thousands of questions which are voted on by the community via reddit's comment-voting system with all of them being answerable by the person being interviewed. Interviewees are required to provide proof of their identity to the volunteer moderators of the site and have included people such as Barack Obama, [18] [19] Chris Hadfield [20] (who answered questions from the International Space Station), Bill Gates, [21] Stephen Colbert, [22] Arnold Schwarzenegger, Larry King and many more.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Focus group</span> Group interviewed to analyse opinions

A focus group is a group interview involving a small number of demographically similar people or participants who have other traits/experiences in common depending on the research objective of the study. Their reactions to specific researcher/evaluator-posed questions are studied. Focus groups are used in market research to understand better people's reactions to products or services or participants' perceptions of shared experiences. The discussions can be guided or open. In market research, focus groups can explore a group's response to a new product or service. As a program evaluation tool, they can elicit lessons learned and recommendations for performance improvement. The idea is for the researcher to understand participants' reactions. If group members are representative of a larger population, those reactions may be expected to reflect the views of that larger population. Thus, focus groups constitute a research or evaluation method that researchers organize to collect qualitative data through interactive and directed discussions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interview</span> Structured series of questions and answers

An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers. In common parlance, the word "interview" refers to a one-on-one conversation between an interviewer and an interviewee. The interviewer asks questions to which the interviewee responds, usually providing information. That information may be used or provided to other audiences immediately or later. This feature is common to many types of interviews – a job interview or interview with a witness to an event may have no other audience present at the time, but the answers will be later provided to others in the employment or investigative process. An interview may also transfer information in both directions.

Questionnaire construction refers to the design of a questionnaire to gather statistically useful information about a given topic. When properly constructed and responsibly administered, questionnaires can provide valuable data about any given subject.

Survey methodology is "the study of survey methods". As a field of applied statistics concentrating on human-research surveys, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and associated techniques of survey data collection, such as questionnaire construction and methods for improving the number and accuracy of responses to surveys. Survey methodology targets instruments or procedures that ask one or more questions that may or may not be answered.

Qualitative marketing research involves a natural or observational examination of the philosophies that govern consumer behavior. The direction and framework of the research is often revised as new information is gained, allowing the researcher to evaluate issues and subjects in an in-depth manner. The quality of the research produced is heavily dependent on the skills of the researcher and is influenced by researcher bias.

Asynchronous learning is a general term used to describe forms of education, instruction, and learning that do not occur in the same place or at the same time. It uses resources that facilitate information sharing outside the constraints of time and place among a network of people. In many instances, well-constructed asynchronous learning is based on constructivist theory, a student-centered approach that emphasizes the importance of peer-to-peer interactions. This approach combines self-study with asynchronous interactions to promote learning, and it can be used to facilitate learning in traditional on-campus education, distance education, and continuing education. This combined network of learners and the electronic network in which they communicate are referred to as an asynchronous learning network.

A structured interview is a quantitative research method commonly employed in survey research. The aim of this approach is to ensure that each interview is presented with exactly the same questions in the same order. This ensures that answers can be reliably aggregated and that comparisons can be made with confidence between sample sub groups or between different survey periods.

Online ethnography is an online research method that adapts ethnographic methods to the study of the communities and cultures created through computer-mediated social interaction. As modifications of the term ethnography, cyber-ethnography, online ethnography and virtual ethnography designate particular variations regarding the conduct of online fieldwork that adapts ethnographic methodology. There is no canonical approach to cyber-ethnography that prescribes how ethnography is adapted to the online setting. Instead individual researchers are left to specify their own adaptations. Netnography is another form of online ethnography or cyber-ethnography with more specific sets of guidelines and rules, and a common multidisciplinary base of literature and scholars. This article is not about a particular neologism, but the general application of ethnographic methods to online fieldwork as practiced by anthropologists, sociologists, and other scholars.

A self-report study is a type of survey, questionnaire, or poll in which respondents read the question and select a response by themselves without any outside interference. A self-report is any method which involves asking a participant about their feelings, attitudes, beliefs and so on. Examples of self-reports are questionnaires and interviews; self-reports are often used as a way of gaining participants' responses in observational studies and experiments.

Synchronous conferencing is the formal term used in computing, in particular in computer-mediated communication, collaboration and learning, to describe technologies informally known as online chat. It is sometimes extended to include audio/video conferencing or instant messaging systems that provide a text-based multi-user chat function. The word synchronous is used to qualify the conferencing as real-time, as distinct from a system such as e-mail, where messages are left and answered later.

Computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) is an Internet surveying technique in which the interviewee follows a script provided in a website. The questionnaires are made in a program for creating web interviews. The program allows for the questionnaire to contain pictures, audio and video clips, links to different web pages, etc. The website is able to customize the flow of the questionnaire based on the answers provided, as well as information already known about the participant. It is considered to be a cheaper way of surveying since one doesn't need to use people to hold surveys unlike computer-assisted telephone interviewing. With the increasing use of the Internet, online questionnaires have become a popular way of collecting information. The design of an online questionnaire has a dramatic effect on the quality of data gathered. There are many factors in designing an online questionnaire; guidelines, available question formats, administration, quality and ethic issues should be reviewed. Online questionnaires should be seen as a sub-set of a wider-range of online research methods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unstructured interview</span> Interview in which questions are not prearranged.

An unstructured interview or non-directive interview is an interview in which questions are not prearranged. These non-directive interviews are considered to be the opposite of a structured interview which offers a set amount of standardized questions. The form of the unstructured interview varies widely, with some questions being prepared in advance in relation to a topic that the researcher or interviewer wishes to cover. They tend to be more informal and free flowing than a structured interview, much like an everyday conversation. Probing is seen to be the part of the research process that differentiates the in-depth, unstructured interview from an everyday conversation. This nature of conversation allows for spontaneity and for questions to develop during the course of the interview, which are based on the interviewees' responses. The chief feature of the unstructured interview is the idea of probe questions that are designed to be as open as possible. It is a qualitative research method and accordingly prioritizes validity and the depth of the interviewees' answers. One of the potential drawbacks is the loss of reliability, thereby making it more difficult to draw patterns among interviewees' responses in comparison to structured interviews. Unstructured interviews are used in a variety of fields and circumstances, ranging from research in social sciences, such as sociology, to college and job interviews. Fontana and Frey have identified three types of in depth, ethnographic, unstructured interviews - oral history, creative interviews, and post-modern interviews.

An online focus group is one type of focus group, and is a sub-set of online research methods. They are typically an appropriate research method for consumer research, business-to-business research and political research.

In qualitative research, a member check, also known as informant feedback or respondent validation, is a technique used by researchers to help improve the accuracy, credibility, validity, and transferability of a study. There are many subcategories of members checks, including; narrative accuracy checks, interpretive validity, descriptive validity, theoretical validity, and evaluative validity. In many member checks, the interpretation and report is given to members of the sample (informants) in order to check the authenticity of the work. Their comments serve as a check on the viability of the interpretation.

Netnography is a specific type of qualitative social media research. It adapts the methods of ethnography to understand social interaction in contemporary digital communications contexts. Netnography is a specific set of research practices related to data collection, analysis, research ethics, and representation, rooted in participant observation. In netnography, a significant amount of the data originates in and manifests through the digital traces of naturally occurring public conversations recorded by contemporary communications networks. Netnography uses these conversations as data. It is an interpretive research method that adapts the traditional, in-person participant observation techniques of anthropology to the study of interactions and experiences manifesting through digital communications.

Real-time Delphi (RTD) is an advanced form of the Delphi method. The advanced method "is a consultative process that uses computer technology" to increase efficiency of the Delphi process.

With the application of probability sampling in the 1930s, surveys became a standard tool for empirical research in social sciences, marketing, and official statistics. The methods involved in survey data collection are any of a number of ways in which data can be collected for a statistical survey. These are methods that are used to collect information from a sample of individuals in a systematic way. First there was the change from traditional paper-and-pencil interviewing (PAPI) to computer-assisted interviewing (CAI). Now, face-to-face surveys (CAPI), telephone surveys (CATI), and mail surveys are increasingly replaced by web surveys.

Online qualitative research refers to focus groups, individual depth interviews (IDIs) and other forms of qualitative research conducted online rather than face to face or via telephone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interview (research)</span> Research technique

An interview in qualitative research is a conversation where questions are asked to elicit information. The interviewer is usually a professional or paid researcher, sometimes trained, who poses questions to the interviewee, in an alternating series of usually brief questions and answers. They can be contrasted with focus groups in which an interviewer questions a group of people and observes the resulting conversation between interviewees, or surveys which are more anonymous and limit respondents to a range of predetermined answer choices. In addition, there are special considerations when interviewing children. In phenomenological or ethnographic research, interviews are used to uncover the meanings of central themes in the life world of the subjects from their own point of view.

r/IAmA Reddit forum for question-and-answer interactive interviews

r/IAmA is a subreddit for question-and-answer interactive interviews termed "AMA". AMA interviewees have ranged from various celebrities to everyday people in several lines of work. Founded in May 2009, the subreddit has gone on to become one of Reddit's most popular communities.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Salmons, J. (2014). Qualitative Online Interviews: Strategies, Design, and Skills. SAGE Publications.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Internet-based Interviewing : SAGE Research Methods". srmo.sagepub.com. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Stromer-Galley, Jennifer (2003). "Depth Interviews for the Study of Motives and Perceptions of Internet Use". Presented at the International Communication Association Conference. San Diego, CA.
  4. ↑ Stewart, Kate; Williams, Matthew (2005-11-01). "Researching online populations: the use of online focus groups for social research". Qualitative Research. 5 (4): 395–416. doi:10.1177/1468794105056916. ISSN   1468-7941.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Lindlof, Thomas; Taylor, Bryan (2002). Qualitative communication research methods . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  6. ↑ Hanna, Paul (2012-04-01). "Using internet technologies (such as Skype) as a research medium: a research note". Qualitative Research. 12 (2): 239–242. doi:10.1177/1468794111426607. ISSN   1468-7941.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Hanna, P. (5 April 2012). "Using internet technologies (such as Skype) as a research medium: a research note". Qualitative Research. 12 (2): 239–242. doi:10.1177/1468794111426607.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 "Online Asynchronous and Face-to-Face Interviewing: Comparing Methods for Exploring Women's Experiences of Breastfeeding Long Term : SAGE Research Methods". srmo.sagepub.com. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  9. ↑ Rezabek, Roger (2000, January). Online focus groups: Electronic discussions for research [67 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research [online journal], 1(1). http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-00/1-00rezabek-e.htm
  10. 1 2 Illingworth, Nicola (31 August 2001). "The Internet Matters: Exploring the Use of the Internet as a Research Tool". Sociological Research Online. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
  11. ↑ Lo Iacono, Valeria (2016-05-01). "Skype as a Tool for Qualitative Research Interviews". Sociological Research Online. 21 (2).
  12. ↑ Mann and Stewart (2005)Internet Communication and Qualitative Research: A Handbook for Researching Online London: Sage
  13. 1 2 Markham, Annette (1998). Life online: researching real experience in virtual space . Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press. pp.  61–83.
  14. ↑ Owens, Lisa Lucile (2022). "An Implausible Virtual Interview: Conversations with a Professional Research Subject". doi:10.1177/00811750221106777.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ↑ Markham, A., & Buchanan, E. (2012). Ethical decision making and internet research: Recommendations from the AoIR Ethics Working Committee. Available from: http://aoir.org/reports/ethics2.pdf
  16. ↑ Boyd, Danah (2015). Making sense of teen life: Strategies for capturing ethnographic data in a networked era. In E. Hargittai & C. Sandvig (Eds.), Digital Research Confidential: The Secrets of Studying Behavior Online. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
  17. ↑ Madrigal, Alexis C. (January 7, 2014). "'Ask Me Anything': How a Weird Internet Thing Became a New Form of Media". The Atlantic . Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Barack Obama AMA". Reddit.
  19. ↑ "President Obama makes online appearance on Reddit". The Telegraph. London. August 29, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2012.
  20. ↑ "Chris Hadfield AMA". Reddit.
  21. ↑ "Bill Gates AMA". Reddit.
  22. ↑ "Stephen Colbert AMA". Reddit. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
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