ABSTRACT

I wrote a paper with Barry MacDonald in the early eighties about interviewing. In qualitative research it represents the third leg of the observation-interviewdocumentation triptych and probably is the most significant of the three, judging by the sheer volume of data generated by this method and the degree to which it is preferred in determining eventual research and evaluation judgments. What we tried to do was to contrast the approaches and consequences of using a tape recorder or fieldnotes for interview recording purposes. At that stage, we could not find much deep analysis of the technologizing of the interview process.