In the first set of reading, it explains an interview and the importance of letting people speak and listening to what they say. Their are important strategies to conducting a successful interview, such as asking questions and listening to their responses. An interview needs to be organized yet free to comments and stories. A story, artifact, or a phrase can sometimes make the best interviews. One example I enjoyed from the reading was Bonnie interviewing Ken. Bonnie connected his ideas with a philosopher by the name of John Dewey. She was influenced by his thoughts and ideas that she read about. In the end, Bonnie asked Ken which of Dewey's works was the most important to him. In reality, he had no idea who Dewey was. Without a well conducted interview, Bonnie would have never known Dewey was not one of Ken's favorites.
Being a good listener is key to having a good interview. Interrupting, moving conversation, eye wandering, are all negative points during an interview. Follow up questions and positive comments keep the interview flowing. Some example questions come from an interview conducted by Paul Russ. He interviewed five AIDS survivors for his ethnographic film. Some questions included, "How many months have you lived with your diagnosis?" While another question was, "When did you first request a "buddy" from health service?" These questions had a specific answer and were fairly simple for the AIDS survivors to talk about. As the interview went on, the questions and answers kept flowing and Paul was getting very informative and emotional answers from the survivors.
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