Interviewing When You’re Not Face-To-Face: The Use of Email Interviews in a Phenomenological Study

Abstract

As Internet usage becomes more commonplace, researchers are beginning to explore the use of email interviews. Email interviews have a unique set of tools, advantages, and limitations, and are not meant to be blind reproductions of traditional face-to-face interview techniques. Email interviews should be implemented when: 1) researchers can justify email interviews are useful to a research project; 2) there is evidence that the target population will be open to email interviewing as a form of data collection; and 3) the justification of the email interview supports the researchers' theoretical perspective. The objective of this study was to develop an email interviewing methodology. As with other forms of qualitative interviewing, it is important that the researcher: 1) identifies constraints; 2) adequately prepares for the interview; 3) establishes rapport; 4) asks appropriate questions; 5) actively listens; and 6) ends the email interview appropriately.

Comparing appropriateness and equivalence of email interviews to phone interviews in qualitative research on reproductive decisions

“…Because we purposely designed our studies to maintain neutrality about treatment decisions, this insight, obtained through an email interview, prompted us to reexamine our communication strategies with participants across studies. It also exemplifies a reported benefit of email interviews whereby participants may feel more comfortable or safer about self-disclosure and are more likely to express true feelings and experiences (Bowden & Galindo-Gonzalez, 2015; Cook, 2012; Meho, 2006). …”

“…As nurses and other investigators increasingly turn toward qualitative email interviews to examine a variety of phenomena and processes, the advantages (e.g., low cost, automatic transcription, increased access to geographically dispersed or hidden populations) and disadvantages (e.g., effort and willingness to write on behalf of participants, loss of sensory and emotional cues, increased possibility of dropout or discontinuous responses by participants) have begun to emerge (Bowden & Galindo-Gonzalez, 2015; Burns, 2010; Hamilton & Bowers, 2006; Hunt & McHale, 2007; James & Busher, 2006; Meho, 2006; Nehls, 2013). What remains an important consideration for nurses and is yet to be fully understood, especially in sensitive research, is understanding the quality of the data obtained and the procedures and contexts for using email interviews.…”

Μεθοδολογία Ποιοτικής Έρευνας: Συνεντεύξεις Και Συνεντεύξεις Μέσω Διαδικτύου

“…και Austin & Sutton, 2014;Schwalbe & Wolkomir, 2001), που, όμως, μπορεί να αμβλυνθεί όταν υιοθετηθεί ηλεκτρονική επικοινωνία (ηλεκτρονικές συνεντεύξεις) (βλ. και Bowden & Galindo-Gonzalez, 2015;Cook, 2012). Μέσω των προαναφερθέντων παραμέτρων, λοιπόν, οι ερωτώμενες/οι παρουσιάζουν τον κόσμο τους και η/ο ερευνήτρια/ητής τον ερμηνεύει όσο ευκρινέστερα και βαθύτερα μπορεί.…”

Analysing affects and emotions in tourist e-mail interviews: a case in post-disaster Tohoku, Japan

“…E-mail interviews, have become an increasingly widespread method of qualitative data collection (Bampton & Cowton, 2002;Bowden & Galindo-Gonzalez, 2015;Houston, 2008;Meho, 2006;Northcote, Lee, Chok, & Wegner, 2008), albeit in most cases subsumed under the broader umbrella of online methods (Fielding, Lee, & Blank, 2008;Meho, 2006) or netnography (Hall, 2010;Kozinets, 2002Kozinets, , 2015. In fieldwork contexts where participants cannot engage in a face-to-face conversation, e-mails secure an interview that would have been lost otherwise.…”

“…In email interviews we do not expect a complete account of the experience, but that the participants enact a process of organization of their thoughts and feelings about the visit that includes their dispositions, moods, emotions, affects, judgments and cultural sentiments (Maynard, 2002). Emotive meanings are negotiated and mutually interpreted by the participant and the researcher, that can perceive the emotional reactions and images that the tourist wants to invoke (Bowden & Galindo-Gonzalez, 2015).…”