Interviews

After initial analysis of questionnaires potential interviewees were identified from those who had responded positively (n=20) to the request for interview volunteers. Several volunteers drawn from my immediate workplace were omitted to reduce the potential for existing workplace relationships to influence the process (positively or negatively) or compromise authenticity. Interviewees were drawn from the remaining volunteers and selected based upon having given interesting, contrary or particularly thorough questionnaire answers.

Six individuals were approached and invited to interview with five responding positively. Interviews were scheduled between 9th and 13th February 2012. One interviewee withdrew at this stage and was, unfortunately, one of very few participants offering more skeptical responses. I was keen to include these perspectives but found it difficult to identify suitable volunteers in this self-selecting cohort. Four in-depth interviews were therefore deemed sufficiently useful for a project of this scale, particularly given the wealth of qualitative data already obtained through the questionnaires.

Interview schedules were prepared and refined resulting in a set of 6 standard questions with prompts (see Appendix IV). Additional questions and prompts were prepared for each interviewee based on their own questionnaire responses, to allow for discussion and expansion on particularly interesting or unexpected responses.

Skype Chat[1] was selected as the environment for interviews as this instant messenger or private chat room-like space, mirrors the online and primarily text-based nature of social media. This format also minimised potential barriers to participation such as the need for greater bandwidth or special equipment. Skype Chat also removed the need for transcription and possible inaccuracies or misinterpretations that might be associated with it. Interviews were scheduled for 60-90 minutes but most took nearer 2 hours to complete. The extended length reflected the generosity of participants and also the variable, often comparatively slow, speed at which such exchanges can take place in a real-time text discussion format.

[1] Skype Chat, also branded as Skype IM, is described on the Skype website: http://www.skype.com/intl/en/features/allfeatures/instant-messaging/

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