1.45- 2.14 Online interviews a case study - Clare

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1.45- 2.14 Online interviews a case study -
Clare

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Programme

• 1000 - 1040 Introduction
• 1045 - 1.00 Online questionnaires
• 1.00 - 1.45 Lunch
• 1.45 - 3.00 Online Interviews
• 300 - 3.10 Tea break
• 3.10 - 3.45 Ethics and online research
• 3.45 - 4.00 Any questions, evaluation,
  online futures, future directions etc

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Structure

• 1. The research example
• 2. The research process
• -web-based questionnaires
• -synchronous online interviews
• 3. Engagement, Interaction and Communication in
  Synchronous Online Interviews
• Rapport building (e.g. lack of visual/physical
  pointers)
• Interview conversation
• 4. Online Interviews Key decisions
• 5. Conclusions
• Then you have a go at an online interview!

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1. Research example

• Cyberparents research project. Clare Madge and
  Henrietta OConnor
• Role of the Internet in the lives of new parents.

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The Cyberparents Project

• Pioneering online research (1998-9)
• Increasing number of parenting sites in the UK
  http//www.babyworld.co.uk/
• Recognition of the role of the Internet in the
  lives of new parents and the immense inner sense
  of security that comes with discovering that real
  people most of them parents, some of them
  nurses, doctors and midwives are available,
  around the clock if you need them (Rheingold,
  199416).
• Aimed to examine how, why and in what ways new
  parents use the Internet as an information source
  about parenting and as a form of social support
• Used combination of online methods web-based
  survey and synchronous online interviews

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2. The Research Process

• Established contact with Babyworld
• Interviewed key staff members
• Access agreed
• Established webpages for the project within the
  University website (www.geog.le.ac.uk/baby)
• Meet the researchers (included photos of us)
• Project information
• Survey
• Used University crest and linked only to
  University and babyworld

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a. web-based questionnaires

• http//caspian.geog.le.ac.uk/baby/

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Web-based Questionnaire

• Hypertext link from babyworld homepage to our
  web-based questionnaire
• Used hook question are you a cyberparent and
  logo
• Clicking on link automatically redirected user to
  our site
• Chose not to use incentive
• Web-based questionnaire
• Simple and quick to complete
• Drop down menus
• Ranking and open questions
• Final question about further participation
• Pop up thank you once submitted successfully
• http//www.geog.le.ac.uk/baby/babyworldform.asp

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b. On-line synchronous interviews

• Rapid results from questionnaire - dwindled after
  a few days
• Sixteen respondents expressed interest in further
  interview
• Respondents geographically widely dispersed
• Many had new babies and/or were pregnant
• All internet/technology users
• Logical progression to interview online

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Software

• Debated asynchronous/synchronous interviews
• Hotline Connect conferencing software familiar to
  researchers was available
• Used as tool for distance learning students
• Facilitates real-time chat through specific
  server address
• Advantages
• Easy to install on PC and Apple Mac
• No need for sophisticated hardware or high
  technical ability
• Facilitators have control confidentiality
• Low cost

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The Interview Process

• Involved time investment in setting up
  times/dates and sending/installing software
• Synchronous focus group interviews using
  semi-structured interview schedule
• Prepared questions in advance along with script
  and then cut and paste
• Had to use typed words to replace usual visual
  pointers e.g. building rapport

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Synchronous virtual interviews
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3. Engagement, Interaction and Communication in
Synchronous Online Interviews

• Virtual interviews challenge conventional
  interviewing practices, in particular
• Establishing rapport (e.g. lack of
  visual/physical pointers)
• Interview conversation written
• However, the vast majority of social spaces on
  the internet bear a remarkable resemblance to
  real world locales (Kitchin, 1998,395).

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a. Visual Clues and Rapport

• Textbook guides highlight importance of physical
  and visual clues in gaining trust, building
  rapport and assessing each other
• Smile and dress in a similar way to those you
• will be interviewing (Robson, 1993236)
• Your appearance, speech, and behaviour must be
  acceptable to your research participants
  (Glesne and Peshkin, 199295).
• Shared characteristics, age, gender, ethnicity,
  status can have impact.

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Virtual Rapport

• Set up web pages with photographs
• Established relationships via email/phone
• Tried to stress similarities
• Carefully designed interview schedule/script
• Particular focus on sharing profile data
• Overall this seemed to work well

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Example of sharing profile data

• First of all we thought it would be a good idea
  to introduce ourselves
• Hen and Clare
• Hello everyone. I'm Clare and I have a daughter
  called Isabelle who is nearly 2 . I work in the
  geography department of Leicester University on a
  3-day contract and Isabelle is in a local
  community nursery on those days. I am 35 years
  old, white and my partner is a psychiatric nurse.
  I don't use the Internet very often because I am
  so busy at work and I don't have computer access
  at home.
• Hen and Clare Hi Julia, Jane and Jo, welcome to
  the chat could you tell us a bit more about
  yourselves?

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• And the response..
• Julia
• Hi, I am 34 on Sunday (!!) with a daughter,
  Anabelle aged 10 months. I am a full time mother
  and am loving avery minute of it.
• Jane
• Hi, I'm Jane, I'm 29 years old, 30 in September.
  I'm a new mum, with a daughter , Joy who was born
  on March 15th, so coming up for 3 months now. I'm
  a stay at home mum, and about to go crazy at
  times, as she's had colic, and screams like mad..
  I love being a mum!!
• Jo
• Hello everyone! I am 33 years old, married and
  have a 21 month old daughter who I'm sure is
  starting the terrible twos early! I work part
  time (reluctantly) but love being a mum.

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Engagement and Rapport

• a stranger wanting to do academic research into
  online communities is often viewed as an
  unwelcome arbitrary intrusion (Paccagnella,
  19973)
• Our insider status helped entry/ success of
  method
• Did not encounter the aura of suspicion
  surrounding stranger to stranger communication in
  cyberspace (Smith, 199740)
• Also, can be a tendency to be more open, even to
  strangers, than in offline encounters
• Without visual clues about gender, age,
  ethnicity and social status conversations open up
  in directions which might otherwise be avoided.
  Participants in these communities often express
  themselves with little inhibition and dialogues
  flourish and develop quickly Poster (199590)
  

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b. Interview Conversation

• Changed interview conversation
• Interrupting a virtual conversation somehow felt
  more acceptable in the written word than in the
  spoken F2F context
• Supportive interactions?
• Empathy, smiling, nodding etc?
• Silences and probes - how do you deal with this?
• Spellings, paralinguistic expressions e.g. lol,
  emoticons
• Less structured and more interactive as questions
  posted with time lags so final interview
  transcript littered with interruptions, typos and
  non-sequential chat
• Real advantage - transcripts ready made

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4. Online Interviews Key decisions

• Why use online interviews?
• Type of interview (synchronous or asynchronous)
• What technology do you need?
• Software (choice, installation)
• Technical ability and access to computer
  (researcher and subjects)
• One-to-one or group?
• Carefully designed interview (prepared text,
  intros)
• Virtual rapport (how can you establish this?)
• How will you deal with non-verbal clues?
• Venue (convenient, safe space)
• Technical hitches
• Ethical issues

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5. Conclusions- the potentials

• Carry out interviews with a very geographically
  dispersed population
• Interview individuals or groups who are often
  difficult to reach, such as the less physically
  mobile (disabled/in prison/in hospital) or the
  socially isolated (drug dealers/terminally ill/
  etc) or those living in dangerous places (war
  zones)
• Provide savings in costs to the researcher (for
  example, costs associated with travel and venue
  hire)
• Supply ready transcribed interview data, quickly,
  providing fast and cheap alternatives to
  face-to-face interviews
• Reduce issues of interviewer effect as
  participants cannot 'see' each other

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and the limitations

• Important to ensure that online interview is the
  most appropriate research tool to address aims of
  research
• There are different types of online interview and
  it is important to select the relevant interview
  type to address aims of research
• It can be difficult to access a relevant sample.
  So sampling strategies/access issues must have
  full consideration
• Issues surrounding interview design must be
  considered, e.g.How to build rapport in the
  absence of visual and non-verbal cues
• Guaranteeing the ethical rights of respondents
  including informed consent, confidentiality and
  privacy

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so to conclude

• Novel techniques so while some of their
  limitations may therefore be solved in time,
  others may never be remedied
• Indeed although the data collected by virtual
  interviews can be rich and valuable to the
  researcher, the potential of on-line research
  should not be exaggerated many of the issues and
  problems of conventional research methods still
  apply in the virtual venue
• Moreover, it is unlikely that online interviewing
  is going to replace face-to-face interviewing but
  rather it is another option in the methodological
  toolkit

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So.

• As Dodd (199860) argues, we must ensure that
• cheap entry costs and glowing attractiveness
  of Internet fieldwork do not result in shoddy
  cowboy research.
• It is unlikely that online research is going to
  replace onsite research but rather it is another
  option in the methodological toolkit.
• Therefore the use of online research methods must
  themselves be carefully considered.

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Quotes
New technologies not only offer fresh
opportunities for research but also impose new
limitations.(Christians and Chen, 2004 18)
At present for most internet researchers it is
likely that gaining access is the least difficult
aspect of the research process... What has become
more difficult is determining how to ensure
ethical use is made of texts, sounds and pictures
that are accessed for study.(Jones, 2004 179)
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Some references

• Parenting gone wired empowerment of new mothers
  on the internet? Social and Cultural Geography 7,
  2, 199-220.
• Mothers in the making? Exploring notations of
  liminality in hybrid cyber/space. Transactions of
  the Institute of British Geographers, 30, 1,
  83-97.
• On-line with e-mums exploring the Internet as a
  medium for research. Area, 34, 1, 92-102.