Review by Jorge Luis Barrera Vega, April 10, 2025.
Interviews can be viewed as conversations based on inquiries from the researcher to a subject in the interest of finding patterns and identifying trends related to a research problem. They are a tool for collecting data that allows deeper insight into the subject’s perspective and can serve as both primary and secondary sources, depending on whether the focus is on the group (subject) or the research work generated as a result.
Any interview is usually preceded by a literature review, and considerations based on both a theoretical framework as well as works of journalism. These allow the researcher to think about their research question, the groups of people they have to interview based on the research problem and question, and the connection to the theoretical framework that helped guide the research. The questions that follow relate to picking a kind of interviewee, their cognitive ability to answer the inquiries posed by the researcher, and the way the interview will be conducted to get the best results. Regarding the last one, interviews can be categorized into three types.
Owing to their name, unstructured interviews are open-ended and seek a free flow of conversation between the researcher and the interviewee. Unstructured interviews allow the latter to express themselves freely to the point of offering unexpected and potentially useful data, but, in the same way, this information can be completely unrelated and yield unsatisfactory results by the time the process is over. On the opposite spectrum, structured interviews control the inquiry by following a script to the letter, prioritizing consistency across responses and collecting only useful data; however, this removes the opportunity to gather potentially useful data if it does not relate to the questions. In the middle ground, semi-structured interviews have the flexibility of the first type while maintaining the principle of consistency of the second, allowing the researcher to explore new topics during the conversation while sticking to the main theme of the interview. Each type has its pros and cons, and their implementation should take into consideration the kind of results expected by the researcher.
The creation of a questionnaire for an interview is affected by the selection of any of these types, but also by additional criteria. Open-ended questions are useful for unstructured and semi-structured interviews because they allow the flexibility favored by these types, but closed questions yield results that are easier to operationalize even if they risk inducing pre-assumptions; therefore, it’s a good idea to mix them both regardless of the type of interview chosen to balance their contributions and limitations. People interviewed will be more reluctant to answer a particular question if they can’t understand it or it appears biased against their beliefs and interests, so the wording and phrasing are also points to consider. Going further with this argument, the researcher must present themselves as neutral and willing to listen without imposing judgment on the subject, creating some level of closeness while also probing for a deeper elaboration on the questions that allow it. If the researcher is not willing to make compromises with the cultural background of particular groups or people, it’s not worth attempting an interview with them.
Finally, the researcher should use all possible resources to access an interviewee, bring all the tools needed to conduct it properly, and arrive on time for the interview in question.
