Interpreting Communication Research Ethnographic Interview Research Chapter 10

Introduction to the Method Ethnographic interviews allow researchers to ask about communication events too time-consuming or too private to observe Ethnographic interviews are good for getting below the surface, for discovering what people think and feel about particular events

Ethnographic interviews are useful for obtaining detailed accounts and specific examples Respondents are encouraged to speak frankly, at length, and in their own terms about the phenomena being investigated, not simply to answer uniform questions Ethnographic interviewers attempt to establish warm rapport with their respondents, in order to elicit deeper, more extensive replies Some researchers conduct “focus groups”

Most ethnographers seek out a nonrandom purposive sample, as opposed to a random sample (p. 286) Ethnographers seek out people they know, or they solicit volunteers, go from referrals to referrals (network sampling) Ethnographers usually contact fewer respondents than survey researchers Ethnographers have enough respondents when they stop “hitting pay dirt”--stop learning anything new about the phenomena being studied

Some ethnographic interviews are brief, informal conversations amidst the researcher’s participant observation while normal activities are going on Other interviews are more formal--a meeting for the purpose of the interview Interviewers take care to present a neutral stance For specific question strategies, see p. 289, bottom

Analyzing Ethnographic Interview Data Ethnographers begin analyzing data as they obtain it, as opposed to survey or experimental researchers who first gather all the data They read over the transcribed data or listen to the tapes, seeking categories, patterns They go back to the data with the new found categories and patterns in mind, seeking examples

Patient’s Perceptions of Touch During Labor Did the study produce valid findings?