Virtual Methods

–3–
Online Interviewing
and the Research Relationship
Joëlle Kivits
Opting for the email interview as the main method for qualitative data collection
requires the researcher to accept that she or he is undertaking a tentative interview
project. At first sight a method free of cost, travel and transcription concerns, email
interviewing is an interpersonal journey that demands from both the interviewer
and interviewees a strong commitment towards the subject under study and the
interviewing process, lasting long after the first email exchange. Each email interview
is unique in terms of the personal contact between the researcher and the
respondent and of the final quality of data. Often opted for in situations where populations
are not easily accessible in an offline context (Coomber 1997), the convenient
and attractive practicalities of interviewing by email generally determine
its use in a research project. However, the researcher wishing to conduct interviews
online needs to be aware of, and anticipate, the unusual, even sometimes troubling,
research relationship.
Email interviewing is an asynchronous mode of online interviewing. The oneto-one
relationship between the researcher and the respondent, as well as the repetitive
email exchanges, make interviewing by email a personal and thoughtful form
of communication (Mann and Stewart 2000). The technical prerequisites are for
the researcher and participants to be competent and comfortable in using email.
The unfamiliarity of the field (Markham 2004) comes from the necessity for the
online interviewer to create a personal relationship in order to achieve the interview’s
purpose of collecting qualitative data. That implies a constant negotiation
of the email communication where motivations waver between establishing and
keeping up an interpersonal and enjoyable talk with respondents and simultaneously
installing a delineated research interview situation.
Based on my novice experience as an online researcher taken by surprise by the
challenging and demanding nature of email interviewing, this chapter first presents
the background of the study and then discusses two interconnected aspects of
the interviewer–interviewee relationship and its necessary adaptation to email
35