The power of the interviewer

African censuses and surveys remain dependent on interviewers for data collection with data quality assured through training and supervision. Many survey concepts and definitions are difficult to translate into African languages and some, such as the household, may have multiple criteria (sleeping, eating together and recognising an authority) which may not be fulfilled by everyone leading interviewers to prioritise different criteria. Some questions introduce unfamiliar ideas which may require considerable explanation by interviewers in order to obtain acceptable answers. Using published definitions, enumerator manuals and qualitative interview data with interviewers, supervisors, trainers, survey organisers and analysts in Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal and Burkina, we identify key areas where interviewer judgement plays a significant role in determining who is included or excluded from household surveys, or in shaping responses to certain questions. Interviewers take their responsibilities seriously but their preconceptions and interpretations have consequences for data reliability and harmonisation goals

Causes of Mode Effects: Separating out Interviewer and Stimulus Effects in Comparisons of Face-to-Face and Telephone Surveys

We identify the causes of mode effects in comparisons of face-to-face and telephone surveys, by testing for differences in the extent of satisficing and social desirability bias due to differences in the stimulus (visual vs. aural presentation of response options) and the presence vs. absence of the interviewer. The stimulus did not lead to differential measurement error; the presence or absence of the interviewer however did. Telephone respondents were far more likely to give socially desirable responses than face-to-face respondents when the stimulus was the same for both modes

The Analysis of Power Relations between Participants in The Oprah Winfrey Show Episode of J.K. Rowling (A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach)

ABSTRACT Mahardhika Bekti Prasetya. C0311029. The Analysis of Power Relations between Participants in The Oprah Winfrey Show Episode of J.K. Rowling (A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach). Thesis: English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Sebelas Maret University. This research was conducted to analyze the power relations between participants, the interviewer (the host) and the interviewee (the guest) in The Oprah Winfrey Show episode of J.K. Rowling. In this research, the way how the participants in The Oprah Winfrey Show demonstrate their power was described. This research is a descriptive qualitative research. The data were collected by using criterion-based sampling. The source of data is the video of talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show” taken from You Tube. The data in this research are all interactions during the interview which contains power struggle between participants. There are 23 data which were analyzed to reveal the power relation between the participants. Some results are found in this research. First, the relation between the interviewer and interviewee in the talk show is unequal. The interviewer dominates the interaction during the interview. The interviewee is restrained by the capabilities of the interviewer who is able to control the contribution of the interviewee. Second, some indicators of power which show the interviewer’s authority in controlling the interview are initiating the interaction, intiating the topic of the interaction, aligning the position of herself and the guest, providing questions, and performing interruptions. The interruptions are used by the interviewer to change the topic of the interviewer, to ask clarification, to give assessment, and to provide repairs. Meanwhile, the interviewee sometimes performs power struggles to gain power. The interviewee performs interruptions to take the control of the interview from the interviewer. In some occasion, the interviewee produces questions which cause a role-switching between the interviewer and the interviewee. However, the interviewer is always able to overcome the role-switching and retakes the control of the interviewe. Third, the interviewer is the one who has more power within the interview. The interviewer sets and maintains her position as the one who controls the interview within the talk show. Keywords: critical discourse analysis, talk show, power relations

In the Eye of the Interviewer

Though unemployment was low across the United States at 3.3% in 2019, it was almost double that for Black people at 5.4% in 2019 (https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpsee_e16.htm). Because the interviewer’s attention to the eyes of a job candidate produces a better understanding of the candidate, it is possible that identifying racial bias in eye contact during the interview process could reduce racial disparities in unemployment. We will investigate how attention to the candidate’s eyes moderates race and gender disparities in hiring decisions. Participants will look at either a White man, Black man, White woman, or Black woman who is ostensibly a job candidate while listening to a supposed recording of that candidate during a job interview. Notably, participants will listen to the same male voice recording regardless of the race of the man and will listen to the same female voice recording regardless of the race of the woman. While participants listen to the recording, we will track where their eyes focus. We predict for the White male candidate high attention to the candidate’s eyes during the interview will lead to high interview scores, whereas low attention to the eyes will lead to low scores. For the White female candidate, we predict less attention to the eyes than the White male candidate, as well as lower interview scores. For the Black male and female candidates, we expect low interview scores, but no difference based on attention to the eyes. Future research should examine what causes racial disparities in attention to the eyes

The Effect of Non-lexical Verbal Signals on the Perceived Authenticity, Empathy and Understanding of a Listener

Active listening plays an important role in the relationship between clients and therapists. Here, we investigated whether variations of the confirmatory nonlexical verbal communication signal "mmh" influenced perceived authenticity, empathy and understanding of a listener. Eighty-one participants were in a conversation with an interviewer and reported about a difficult work experience. They were randomly assigned to one of three groups: The control group did not receive any verbal feedback from the interviewer; In one experimental group (1x-mmh), the interviewer uttered several monosyllabic confirmatory nonlexical verbal signals ("mmh") during the presentation; In a second experimental group (3x-mmh) the interviewer voiced several three syllable "mmh-mmh-mmh" while listening. All participants were then asked to rate the perceived authenticity, empathy and understanding of the interviewer. Participants in the 3x-mmh condition rated the interviewer to be significantly less authentic than those in the other two groups. No differences in reported empathy and understanding were found. The use of consecutive confirmatory nonlexical verbal signals ("mmh") - at least as currently implemented - may influence the perceived authenticity of a listener

Interviewing Suspects in Denial: On How Different Evidence Disclosure Modes Affect the Elicitation of New Critical Information

This study examines how different evidence disclosure modes affect the elicitation of new critical information. Two modes derived from the Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE) framework were compared against an early disclosure mode (i.e., the evidence was disclosed at the outset of the interview). Participants (N = 88) performed a mock crime consisting of several actions before they were interviewed as suspects. In both SUE conditions the interviewer elicited and disclosed statement-evidence inconsistencies in two phases after an introductory phase. For the SUE-Confrontation (SUE-C) condition, the interview was introduced in a business-like manner, and the interviewer confronted the suspects with the in/consistencies without giving them a chance to comment on these. For the SUE-Introduce-Present-Respond (SUE-IPR) condition, the interviewer introduced the interview in a non-guilt-presumptive way, presented the in/consistencies and allowed the suspects to comment on these, and then responded to their comments; at all times in a non-judgmental manner. Both SUE conditions generated comparatively more statement-evidence inconsistencies. The SUE-IPR condition resulted in more new critical information about the phase of the crime for which the interviewer lacked information, compared to the Early disclosure condition. A likely explanation for this was that (for the SUE-IPR condition) the interviewer used the inconsistencies to create a fostering interview atmosphere and made the suspects overestimate the interviewer's knowledge about the critical phase of the crime. In essence, this study shows that in order to win the game (i.e., obtaining new critical information), the interviewer needs to keep the suspect in the game (i.e., by not being too confrontational and judgmental)

A Conversation Analysis on Interview with Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Sky News Australia Channel

The aims of this research are to identify and analyze how the aspects of conversational interactions are realized in the conversation. In collecting and analyzing the data, the researcher uses documentation method and qualitative content analysis. The utterances which used by the interviewer and interviewees are as the data of this research, while the video of the interview which downloaded from Youtube with 29:44 minutes is as the source of data in this research. The data are analyzed by using Paltridge theory. This research results are, five aspects of conversational interactions are used by the interviewer (Peter Vanillin) such as, Opening Conversation, Adjacency Pairs, Preference Organization, Turn Taking and Closing Conversation, while the interviewer does not use Feedback and Repair. However, five of seven aspects are used by the interviewees (Paul Kelly and Julia Gillard) such as, Adjacency Pairs, Preference Organization, Turn Taking, Feedback and Repair, while the interviewees do not use Opening and Closing Conversation. Thus, all of seven aspects of conversational interactions are used with different realization. The realization of those aspects of conversational interactions used by the interviewer and interviewees are different. The interviewer does not use Feedback and Repair, while the interviewees do not use Opening and Closing Conversation

Interviewing the Interviewer: A Conversation with Charlotte Wood

Charlotte Wood is an Australian writer and editor, the author of four novels, most recently Animal People, which won the People's Choice medal in the 2013 NSW Premier's Literary Awards, with a fifth, The Natural Way of Things, about to appear later this year. She has edited a book of essays, Brothers and Sisters (2009) and written a memoir on food and cooking, Love and Hunger (2012). I have long been a fan of Charlotte’s work, and was delighted when I learned in 2013 that she was beginning a new online subscription magazine, The Writer’s Room, which would contain interviews with her fellow writers. This was particularly exciting since it was at this time we were exploring the establishment of what would become Writers in Conversation. I subscribed immediately and have found the Writer’s Room interviews unfailingly illuminating – essential reading for creative writers and anyone seriously interested in the craft of writing. Details of Charlotte’s publications are at http://www.charlottewood.com.au/ and The Writer’s Room subscription page is http://www.charlottewood.com.au/store/p27/2015_Subscription_The_Writer%27s_Room_Interviews.html. When Writers in Conversation was established, Charlotte kindly agreed to join the Advisory Board. It seemed clear that we shared a commitment to the long-form literary interview, so earlier this year I decided to ask Charlotte if she would agree to an interview for WIC

Erorile datorate operatorului de interviu in cadrul sondajelor / Survey errors generated by interviewers

The interviewer is a major source of errors in surveys, besides the researcher and the respondent. This situation is specific to the types of surveys that rely on the abilities and the activities of the interviewer, such as the street/mall-intercept, the survey at the respondent’ home or the telephone surveys. The paper analyzes the sources of errors related to the interviewer activity as well as the alternative tactics to diminish such errors with the aim of reducing the total error of the survey.marketing research, survey, interviewer, errors, field work

Awareness towards Chikungunya virus infection risk by general practitioners in Rome: a questionnaire based survey before the 2017 outbreak

Autochthonous cases of Chikungunya (CHIKV) have been recently detected in Rome. A survey was conduct- ed prior to the 2017 outbreak to assess knowledge, attitude, and practices towards CHIKV infections on 103 randomly selected general practitioners (GPs), practicing in the centre of Rome. Only 24.3% were aware of CHIKV and completed the interview. Among completers, the knowledge of basic elements of CHIKV in- fection was insufficient. Only two thirds of them were able to identify possible CHIKV cases in hypothetical clinical scenarios presented by the interviewer. Our study highlights the need to improve GP knowledge to- wards CHIKV, as a necessary step to establish an efficacious epidemic surveillance