Interviewing Situations Consider This Scenario: A Researcher

Interviewing Situations Consider this scenario: A researcher has scheduled an interview with a person the researcher believes will provide rich research data for the study. The day before the interview, the interviewee contacts the researcher and says, "I have had a family emergency and had to travel to another city.

I won't be able to meet you in person for the interview, but I would still be able to answer questions in e-mail." What should the researcher do? Is it better to gather some data rather than not interview the person at all? To prepare for this Discussion: • Review the readings for this week on interviewing. • Think about a face-to-face interview.

How important it is for the researcher to be able to see the body language, hear an interviewee's voice during the interview, and know the physical environment in which the interview is taking place? What data does this provide to the researcher? • Consider possible means of conducting an interview that are not in person or face-to-face, such as interviewing over the phone, by video conference, by e-mail, or by synchronous chat.

What are the potential strengths and weaknesses of each? What does the literature say about these interviewing situations? With these thoughts in mind: Post by Day 3 a response of 3 paragraphs assessing the strengths and weaknesses of different interviewing situations. When appropriate, be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the reading(s) and/or video program(s), using APA format. My Response: The strengths and weaknesses of different interviewing situations In most instances, being able to evaluate the body language of an interview subject is critical.

This is why, when recording an interview, videoed (or video conferenced) rather than taped or transcribed data is usually preferred and face-to-face rather than phone or email interviews are likewise favored. With email in particular, much may be lost in translation, including the use of irony and the interviewee's ambiguous feelings about the subject. When interviewing someone from a different culture in particular, assessing what something means in context is essential.

The times when email interviews might be needed are usually when the interview is a follow-up merely to validate some purely factual data and email allows the researcher to easily get something in writing. Email interview questions have to be clearer on the interviewer's part as well, given that he or she cannot use body language and linguistic nuances to clear up questions about what is needed in the response (Meho 2006: 1290).

However, in some instances, the need to conduct some form of interview requires such imperfect communication media because an interview in 'the real world' is not feasible and the virtual world is the only alternative. The limits of the media must be.