Interviews

Luker’s discussion this week with respect to interviews, where she discusses how a researcher should look when doing an interview, didn’t seem that important to me at first, however after reading this chapter, it changed my perspective. If we can construct our questions so that they can be answered in a specific manner than we can also influence how participants answer the questions being asked by the way we appear. Luker states “we telegraph our opinions, our class status, our religion and almost everything else about ourselves”. As the interviewers, we need to be aware of what messages we are sending or projecting with the image we portray. We want to look generally professional and older, making sure the “look” fits with what we hope to accomplish out of our interview.  Another interesting point which Luker discusses is the technique regarding laying out index cards of your single questions in different orders and you will start to notice a “clump”, which is forming a topic outline of the area(s) your interested in. This is great because you will get a visual understanding of the themes in your topic and make possible connections.