Interview Analysis
It took me a while to get started on the interview process. Having picked the NJ Pine Barrens and the state parks, it was hard to go to any park during the cold season. The one person I tried to contact from the Pine Barrens website did not respond. Although I had some idea of the things that interested me from the research I had done on the Pine Barrens, I felt that unless I visited a state park, it might be hard to finalize the questions. When I finally got to the Wharton State Park in the second week of March, I was amazed at this tranquil ecological haven in the middle of New Jersey, and it brought home the importance of preserving this area of amazing biodiversity. Questions about the park and the whole preserve started forming in my head. Then I met the superintendent of the park, Rob, who agreed to be interviewed but at a later date. When I went home I was able to come up with a more definite set of questions. I was ready to interview people but didn’t find any interviewees. Then I went to the course on the Pine Barrens that was held at Burlington County College. I met several people involved with doing either research or preservation efforts in the Pine Barrens. Some of them agreed to be interviewed. Although I offered them several different options of being interviewed, both Melanie and Scott picked the email option. I emailed them a set of questions and they responded with answers. This interview process was convenient and allowed the interviewees to respond at their convenience. Both of them gave fairly comprehensive answers and assured me that I could contact them with follow up questions if needed. But it definitely lacked the immediacy and intimacy of a face to face conversation or the possibility of exploring any areas that come up during the course of a chat either on the telephone or in person. The other two interviews were conducted by phone and I definitely preferred this method because I was able to use any opening in the conversation to change or modify the direction of my questioning. None of these interviewees were open to the idea of either tweeting or online chats. I was unable to do any face to face conversations due to lack of availability of the interviewees at a suitable time.
I think that if I were to change something about the interview process, it would be to have started the whole process ahead of time. I did not realize how hard it would be to get the interviews done in a timely manner. I also would have ensured that I included an in-person interview because I’m sure reading the body language of the interviewees would add another dimension to the responses.
Your process really shows the important role of that one thing that is such a pain in the neck: timing. It is unfortunate that you started so late, but it is also great how two interviews emerged out of the course that you found. I think you did the best you were able to do with your resources, though it would have been interesting to see if you could have found someone via twitter, as well. Great work!
Comment by Bill — April 27, 2010 @ 10:29 am |