## The Online Video Research Interview (OVRI)

## Journalistica: The Methods Section

In this section, Journalistica puts a spotlight on research methods used in journalism studies and/or journalism practice.

## LENE HEISELBERG

University of Southern Denmark

## KEYWORDS

qualitative, online interviewing, participant validation, building rapport, participant activation, turn-taking

## 1. Description of the method

Online Video Research Interviewing (OVRI) (Heiselberg & Stepinska,  2022)  is  a  method  that  can  be  applied  in  scientific projects, e.g. within the field of journalism studies. Using established  video  conferencing  platforms,  such  as  Teams,  Zoom, and Google Meet for data collection is highly relevant for journalism scholars  and  journalism  practitioners  since  many  people  have grown accustomed to handling these. Yet, when conducting OVRIs, it  is  obvious  that  traditional  ways  of  conducting  a  qualitative interview must be reconsidered to fit video conferencing platforms.

By employing online video conferencing platforms, it is possible to design a qualitative study that allows for a collection of rich and thick  data,  access  to  all  shared  data,  ease  of  sharing  stimulus material, and access to hard-to-reach demographics. According to the literature and experiences from conducting qualitative interviews on a video conferencing platform, the most prominent challenge regarding the quality of the interview is building rapport and restricted visual cues. Apart from that, my colleague and I found that  turn-taking,  participant  activation  through  exercises,  and participant validation are important to transform to conduct a highquality interview on a video conferencing platform (Heiselberg & Stepinska, 2022).

## 2. Example of use

Lobe, Morgan & Hoffmann (2022) give a nice overview of how and in  which  areas  online  qualitative  interviewing  has  been  applied. They provide a systematically organized evaluation of the advantages  and  disadvantages  of  online  qualitative  interviewing methods  in  comparison  to  traditional  in-person  interviews.  This produces five different areas for comparison: logistics and budget, ethics, recruitment, research design, and interviewing and moderating.

Furthermore,  Keen,  Lomeli-Rodriquez  &  Joffe  (2022)  confer unique  advantages  of  online  qualitative  interviewing,  such  as: supporting  researcher  and  participant  populations  with  mobility challenges;  enhancing  international  research  where  researcher presence or travel may be problematic.

I  used  the  OVRI  method  in  three  empirical  studies,  both individual  and  group  interviews.  I  had  to  conduct  these  studies during the corona lock-down, and therefore, I had to change my interview strategy to online. One of the studies was conducted for The Danish Broadcasting Corporation, and thus it was beneficial that stakeholders from the media company did not have to show up physically.

## 3. Main advantages and challenges of using the method

The main advantage of the OVRI approach is the convenience of the  data  collection  process  for  both  researcher  and  participants. Advantages for researchers include a time-saving and easy audio and visual data collection process.

Challenges for researchers include a lower number of participants in  focus  group  discussions,  potential  participants'  reluctance  to share  their  personal  space,  and  shorter  time  for  data  collection compared to in-person interviewing since online interviews tend to be shorter than in-person interviews (Epinion, 2021).

While  conducting  OVRIs,  I  learned  that  there  are  aspects  of interviewing which must be altered to fit the platform, for instance turn-taking, participant activation through exercises and participant validation are important to transform to conduct a highquality interview on a video conferencing platform (Heiselberg & Stepinska, 2022). Here, I want to elaborate on nonverbal communication cues and participant validation techniques:

Considering nonverbal communication: In most cases, a camera running while on Teams or Zoom will only be able to capture the head and some of the upper body of the persons interacting. This means that visual cues in the form of body language can be missed. Generally, when talking on online video conferencing platforms, it is recommended to look into the camera because then participants on the other side of the screen will experience direct eye contact. Unfortunately, the downside is that when looking into the camera, you  cannot  see  the  participants,  and  consequently  you  can  miss participant feedback: Is the participant listening? Does she understand  the question? Is she agreeing/disagreeing? etc. I recommend from time to time to look into the camera to create the illusion of eye contact, i.e. when asking questions or rounding up, but the most important thing is to sense participants on the other side  of  the  screen,  and  it  can  only  be  done  by  looking  at  the participants. An important piece of advice is to always avoid looking at  yourself  on  the  screen  while  talking,  it  will  seem  like  your attention is elsewhere.

Participant validation techniques: In OVRIs participant validation (Creswell, 2013; Kvale, 1989), also known as member checking, is of increased  importance  to  secure  trust  between  interviewer  and participant  during  the  interview.  In  OVRIs,  it  is  vital  to  check whether the interviewer has correctly understood the responses of the participants, especially when it comes to picking up subtleties such as irony, emotions, silences, or gestures (McGrath, Palmgren, &  Liljedahl,  2019).  During  OVRIs,  it  can  be  helpful  to  ask  frank questions. For instance, I had to ask: 'Why are you smiling?' because I could not determine if a participant smiled at something being said in the interview, or at something happening in her home that I was not aware of caused her to smile.

As  a  final  point,  it  is  important  to  stress  the  need  to  develop knowledge  about  which  situations  are  uniquely  well-suited  to online  interviewing  (Keen,  Lomeli-Rodriquez  &  Joffe,  2022).  At present,  we  do  not  know  in  which  situations  to  apply  in-person interviewing and the OVRI method.

## 4. Ethical considerations

Established video conferencing platforms, such as Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams are part of privately-owned companies, generating questions about data security.

## PODCAST

Listen to the Journalistica podcast episode about this article on Spotify or in your browser.

## REFERENCES

- Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches. (Vol. 3). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
- Epinion. (2021, April 13). 5 gode råd, hvis du vil afholde dine fokusgrupper online .

[https://epinionglobal.com/pov/fokusgrupper-online/](https://epinionglobal.com/pov/fokusgrupper-online/)

- Heiselberg, L. & St ę pi ń ska, A. (2022) Transforming Qualitative Interviewing Techniques for Video Conferencing Platforms, Digital Journalism, https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2047083
- Keen, S., Lomeli-Rodriguez, M., & Joffe, H. (2022). From Challenge to Opportunity: Virtual Qualitative Research During COVID-19 and Beyond. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069221105075
- Khan, T. H., & MacEachen, E. (2022). An Alternative Method of Interviewing: Critical Reflections on Videoconference Interviews for Qualitative Data Collection. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069221090063
- Kvale, S. 1989. Issues of Validity in Qualitative Research . Lund: Studentlitteratur.
- Lobe, B., Morgan, D. L., & Hoffman, K. (2022). A Systematic Comparison of In-Person and Video-Based Online Interviewing. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069221127068
- McGrath, C., P. J. Palmgren, & Liljedahl, M. (2019). Twelve Tips for Conducting Qualitative Research Interviews. Medical Teacher 41 (9): 1002-1006. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2018.1497149

## LENE HEISELBERG

Assistant professor Centre for Journalism University of Southern Denmark lhei@journalism.sdu.dk