Written Online Interviews in Qualitative Social Research: On the Methodological Grounding of a New Research Practice

Abstract

In this article I discuss whether asynchronous written online interviews (e.g., via e-mail or a web forum) can be conducted narratively and based on guidelines, or whether the potential of written interviews is only reserved for certain forms of qualitative procedures. For this purpose, I utilize an empirical study and discuss if qualitative interviews are dependent on situational presence for their respective research goals. It turns out that discursive dialogues work in qualitative written online interviews, while narrative monologues without an immediate counterpart do not function as well. The written medium can therefore be used on the one hand via guided interviews and on the other hand via ethnographic processes, provided the research topic suggests this.