Posted by: kgaboury | May 14, 2014

When interviews go bad – Gaboury

Natalie and myself will be presenting on interviewing tomorrow night, but I wanted to give you guys some food for thought before then. The vast majority of interviews go off without a hitch. The interviewee is prepared, helpful, and friendly. However, in what I call the “nightmare interview,” the subject is unprepared, in a bad mood, or just plain mean. Every question turns into an attack on the interviewer’s credibility (“Why would you ask me that? That’s stupid”). As a professional, you have an obligation to salvage the interview somehow, but when do you pull the plug? For an example, here’s Quentin Tarantino going off on some poor journalist:

 I also wanted to emphasize the importance of recording interviews. In my journalist days, I interviewed a political candidate who wasn’t quite the “nightmare interview” type, but almost. When the story came out in the paper the next day, he called in, demanding a retraction because he felt I had misquoted him (he used the interview as an opportunity to attack his opponent). When I asked if he’d like to listen to my recording of the interview, he decided to let it go. Written notes aren’t always reliable, and the recording gives you the extra insurance against accusations of misquoting.

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Posted by: graceroxasmorrissey | May 14, 2014

The Interviewing Self

The good interviewer is a finely tuned piece of research instrument, sensitive to the nuances of the interview situation — the interviewee’s attitude and level of comfort (or discomfort) as the interview progresses — and yet still able to listen actively and steer the agenda of the conversation.

You have to give as good as you’re getting. As your inner wheels furiously turn to keep the momentum of the conversation going, you also have to be aware of your own body language and your sense of timing. Not too pushy or single-minded in your probing so that the whole experience feels like an interrogation instead of a conversation, but not giving too much of the floor either to the interviewee that you walk away with a sense of missed opportunities. An interview should feel more like a good musical performance rather than a successful milking of the cow.

It’s also important to remember that you are ultimately relying on the kindness of strangers, even if the interviewees are getting compensated for their time. Although it’s not always possible because of limited time and other constraints, I feel that there should always be a portion of an interview that is dedicated solely to verbally “massaging” the interviewee. It goes beyond establishing rapport to serve the purpose of the interview. I think that the most profound way to thank interviewees for their time is acknowledging their unique humanity by being genuinely interested in them.

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Posted by: kpokrass | May 14, 2014

Interviews – Hoping not to phone it in…

Phone interviews can be particularly unnerving. It’s hard to pick up on non-verbal queues, and back and forth banter can be frustrating. This is why I’m particularly interested in this week’s topic on qualitative interviewing practices. This topic is perfect timing, because not only am I planning on incorporating interviews into my terminal project, but next week I’m interviewing my leader over the phone for Brian’s class.  

Lindoff and Taylor (2011) state that qualitative interviews “can be vehicles for exploring people’s explanations.” Having the option to dig deeper and interview someone for further explanation is not something that you always have the opportunity to do. With this in mind, I want to make sure that i’m utilizing the techniques and practices that researchers have developed to maximize my interview next week. Lindoff and Taylor (2011) also explain that the best way to elicit open-ended responses in an interview is to conduct a “respondent interview.” With open-ended responses being the goal, this method seems to be the best option for my leadership paper and terminal project. 

On Thursday, I hope to learn how to utilize the “respondent” method when interviewing my leader. Or learn how a different method would be better suited for my interview. I also hope that tips and tricks are shared on how to conduct a successful phone interview. With only 30 minutes allotted to interview my leader, I want to make sure i’m well prepared and ready to go. 

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Posted by: Melissa De Lyser | May 14, 2014

Honesty or rapport?

While empathy was not one of my top five Strengthsfinder strengths, it is something I used often in interviewing when I was a reporter.  Lindlof and Taylor talk about the importance of an interviewer establishing rapport with a participant.  Empathy is a very effective tool for this.  When interviewing domestic violence victims, for example, empathy comes easily.  When interviewing someone found guilty of domestic violence, empathy is nonexistent.  How do you build rapport with a criminal?  Is it ethical for an interviewer to pretend to empathize with a subject in the name or journalism or research?

Lindlof and Taylor point out that “rapport can exist even while we disapprove of the other person’s ethics, values, or conduct.”  I know that’s true – I lost count of how many times I resisted the urge to argue with a subject/source.  I also know that, despite my best efforts to remain objective in my reporting, an element of the disagreement/disgust I felt towards the subject – and, to be honest, myself for not challenging him/her – resulted in a biased report. My personal emotions and beliefs colored those articles.  I ask myself: Would it have been better, or at least more ethical, to challenge the subject, break the rapport and have no story? Or was it better to maintain the rapport even if the resulting story was not objective?

Things that keep me up at night…

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Posted by: Joel Arellano | May 8, 2014

A post in which I say something good about Microsoft

I’m glad that Boellstorff, et al mention the importance of observing the websites, offline meetings, and other important events that contribute to the cultural context of gameplay within virtual spaces (11). As retailers surely know by now, regular online gamers share a number of traits and experiences that provide a rich contextual landscape for subtle cultural references during game play, such as inside jokes, analogies, and slang. Plus, online gamers necessarily have access to the digital means to communicate and be aware of events and information far beyond their geographic location. How could anyone possibly track all those bidirectional channels of influence?

I think the solution has to be structural- that is, embedded in the same digital networks that gamers are using both to log in to their games as well as access unrelated content online. With the Xbox One, there is a huge economic incentive to track individuals’ digital activity across on/offline games, TV & streaming video viewing patterns, and the Internet itself, and I would expect that the potential for exhaustive cross-channel behavior observation is a huge opportunity for modern ethnographers. Especially with the Kinect, ethnographers could partner with Microsoft to solicit, screen, enlist, and observe research subjects in the natural comfort of their own homes, and even compensate them directly through the same network, with Xbox Rewards Credits, free games, or other digital incentives! Katherine points out below that businesses today need ethnographic research data in weeks rather than years, and so, while it does still seem a bit creepy, I think Microsoft’s new comprehensive entertainment paradigm might offer an economic model that’s too good for any party to pass up.

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Posted by: Emily Priebe | May 8, 2014

Ethnography in Virtual Worlds: Observer or Active Participant?

“…participation entailed intense involvement and engagement, often to the point of mastery.”

Doing ethnographic research on virtual worlds inherently requires becoming a part of that world, as the authors of the virtual worlds ethnographic research handbook point out. While they argue that the field of ethnography seamlessly transitions into the virtual space, is there an extent to which the researcher themselves become a part of the research? By creating an avatar and immersing themselves in that world, they are becoming active participants in that culture. Does that engagement shift the  virtual world’s culture at all?

In the second week of class we brought up the issue of avoiding deception when doing virtual worlds research. Hidden behind a screen, it would be easy to collect research without identifying yourself as a researcher, but clearly this crosses a line that ethnographic research in person wouldn’t necessarily. I would be interested in reading further into what the authors of the handbook have to say on that issue.

The authors also talk about how ethnographic research in virtual worlds is shifting research from data that has traditionally been quantifiable to qualitative data. As a marketer, I’m trained to tune into analytics (page views, likes, number of referral links) and I don’t focus as much on the qualitative data aspect. Even though these researchers don’t consider the traditional social media sites to be virtual worlds, their guidelines offer an interesting perspective on how ethnographic research could be beneficial for online study as a whole.

 

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Posted by: swhee1er | May 8, 2014

The unique challenge of ethnography

Ethnography occupies a somewhat unique position among social science research methodologies in that its data collection occurs in relatively uncontrolled environments in real time. While other qualitative researchers seem to have the luxury of revisiting their data sets as often as possible to glean whatever information they deem necessary,[1] ethnographers need to be able to “spontaneously decide what is and what is not important” (Lindlof & Taylor, 2011, p. 139) when witnessing incidents that may not occur again during their research period. How do they make these snap judgments as to what is essential and what is trivial? Unfortunately, Lindlof and Taylor offer little direction beyond advocating the “constant practice of curiosity and reflection” (p. 139), though the six questions they propose for tactical observation could be used as a potential rubric for determining what communication phenomena to include or exclude.

 

Even if we accept those questions as a set of guidelines, another question still looms: do ethnographers have a fallback strategy if they discover they may have missed or ignored some critical piece of data after the fact? Do they return to the scene in the hopes of revisiting the event? Do they acknowledge the missed opportunity when discussing the issues and limitations of their research? Or is there a third option?

 

[1] Even focus groups, which also occur in real time, differ from ethnographic research in that they occur in a controlled environment and are generally circumscribed by institutional or organizational interests.

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Posted by: Mike Plett | May 8, 2014

Ethnography and the role of cultural bias

Shortly before I entered the Master’s in Strategic Communications program, I had completed reading 1491: New Revelations of the America’s Before Columbus (Mann, 2005), which argues that much of what was previously believed about Native American culture is incorrect. I was reminded of this book as I read Lindlof and Taylor’s chapter on fieldwork, ethnography and participant observation. I was especially reminded about Mann’s cautionary tale of ethnographer Allan R. Holmberg, who lived among the Sirionó Indians of Bolivia during the 1940s. He published an influential account of their lives that described the Sirionó as remnants of the Paleolithic Age living in an essentially ahistorical, culturally backwards state.

Although Holmberg was apparently a careful and compassionate researcher, he nevertheless was blinded by his own cultural biases. He was unable to realize that, far from remaining unchanged since the Stone Age, the Sirionó were relative newcomers to the region who became victims of an epidemic that wiped out 95 percent of the population about 20 years before Holmberg arrived.

Ethnographers need to practice self-awareness to identify possible biases in order to avoid making Holmberg-type mistakes. Lindlof and Taylor suggest fieldworkers should inventory their physical characteristics, social attributes and cultural capital, and then “consider how they correspond to cultural categories that are relevant for the group members (they) are studying” (2011, p. 142). Such careful considerations may not eliminate but can definitely help mitigate cultural bias.

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Posted by: B. Scott Anderson | May 8, 2014

Adding mean-spiritedness in virtual worlds

One area Boellstorff et al (2012) covered was the idea that these virtual worlds have to be persistent in that all of these things are happening even when the person behind the avatar is not online. I don’t completely agree with that because it’s possible to have a group of friends who play online games together where things are still happening even if one of the group members is not online. Take Grand Theft Auto V for example.

I played this game a few weeks ago with one of my nephews at Easter and it seemed to have each base covered — place, persistence, multi-user and embodiment (Boellstorff et all, 2012). However, I’m not totally sure this game would be categorized as a virtual world because I’ve never heard/seen it grouped in with games like Dungeons and Dragons or Second Life.

Maybe for differentiation between games like Second Life and GTAV (and a more defined handbook), there has to be some sort of mean-spiritedness displayed. For instance, in this SourceFed video, hosts Steve and Trisha play GTAV (FYI – there’s swearing in the video) and there are interesting things going with not only what they say about the police, but what they do and how others join in on the interactions with the police. Do they hate police in real life and taking out their aggression in the game? Or are they simply shooting them because it’s what they need to do to stay alive in the game?

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Posted by: graceroxasmorrissey | May 7, 2014

Ethnography and the “decisive moment”

The mundane has never been so important. In our search for authenticity and resonance in strategic communications, ethnographic research is one of the best (if not the best) approaches out there to reel in those telling vignettes of human experience that build up to the bigger story of our product, service or brand.

In their seminal paper on market-oriented ethnography, Eric Arnould and Melanie Wallendorf talked about using ethnography “to provide managers with vivid exemplars of the layers of meaning that organize behavioral constellations.” It reminds me of the term “decisive moment” coined by the legendary French photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson to describe a transcendent or poignant (or both) slice of reality captured in a still photo.

cartier-bresson-henri-iza-gare-st-lazare-paris-1932

Ethnography and street photography even share the same work ethics, entailing long hours of mindful observation and balancing a subjective perspective with detachment. The process that led Cartier-Bresson to the monumental “Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare” has similarities to the method of exploration that might lead a creative director thinking about a washer and dryer ad campaign to discover a quirky ritual that elevates the human laundry day experience.

Ethnographic research has truly expanded from its exotic anthropological roots when the likes of Bronislaw Malinowsky probed the frontiers of civilization, inspiring fictional prototypes ranging from Colonel Kurtz to Indiana Jones. In our class presentation, we will also touch on how the Malinowskys of our time are going to the “tribes” of the workplace and cyberspace to understand the human impulse.

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