Semi-Structured Interviews

The second stage of data collection is conducted by means of semi-structured interviews. The goal of such interviews is to reveal the research topic from the perspective of the interviewees (Kvale, 1983).

In broader terms, qualitative interviews can be divided into two opposing types. In the first type, the interview situation determines participants‘ responses (Madill et al., 2000). The content of this type of interview is detached from the participant‘s personal experience, and for that reason cannot be used as a source of triangulation in events analysis. Conversely, the second type of qualitative interviews enables researchers to learn about participants‘ experience outside the interview setting and is therefore very much concerned with the accuracy of accounts produced. This type of interview is generally more structured as comparability of accounts must be ensured. This type of data collection has been termed ‗realist interviews‘ (Madill et al., 2000) and is used in this research. The critical point here is that researchers may compare realist ‗interview findings with those obtained through other methods, such as documentary analysis‘ with the purpose of triangulation (King, 2004, p. 12).

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Realist interview guides tend to be fairly structured with a more narrowly defined topic for discussion (King, 2004). The interview guide used in this research is presented in appendix 4. The process of developing the questions was very much influenced by the analysis of the newspaper articles and two pilot interviews with industry experts. The latter revealed the need to simplify the questions²⁶ and focus the interviews solely on the participants‘ experience/knowledge of corporate disputes in the country. The pilot interviews also uncovered a challenge inherent to the research design, i.e. asking participants to recall a corporate dispute from as far back as 1998. This flaw was overcome by making sure that the interviewees received a copy of the questions well in advance of the interview²⁷. Furthermore, in order to provide participants with more flexibility it was decided to refer to the late 1990s rather than specifically 1998. Nevertheless, despite this change in the research design, all of the disputes referred to in the interviews took place in 1998²⁸ and were covered by the Moscow Times reports.

2.2.1 Interviews with the Moscow Times Reporters

Altogether five interviews with the Moscow Times reporters were conducted. Three interviews were with the reporters who worked for the newspaper in 1998 and two interviews were with the reporters who wrote in 2006²⁹. The interviewees were chosen on the basis of their contributions to the selected articles in the respective time periods.

With regard to this study, the purpose of the interviews is to triangulate and complement analysis of archival data as well as seek the opinion of the reporters on the newspaper‘s independence and influence. Even though the number of

26 I itiall , a ade i te s like i stitutio al o st u t a d e t a judi ia e fo e e t e e used i the interview guide.

27 Most of the reporters found it useful for interviews to begin with a brief recap of most commonly reported disputes at the time.

28 The explanation for that could be the 1998 financial crisis that increased the number of corporate disputes and generally made that year particularly memorable.

29 The reason for including an extra interview for 1998 lies in the fact that participants had difficulty

remembering facts from almost a decade ago. By including an extra interview, the impact of this asymmetry with 2006 data was reduced.

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interviews is fairly limited, in terms of the combined coverage, interviewed reporters contributed to just under 50% of the articles that had been selected for analysis in the first stage of data collection.

2.2.2 Telephone Interviews

Telephone interviews are by no means inferior to face-to-face interviews (Wiseman, 1972). According to Rogers (1976) telephone interviews have a number of compelling advantages. They are:

- less biased towards socially acceptable responses;

- no different in accuracy and completeness in comparison with face-to-face interviews;

- cheaper and easier to arrange.

However, the most commonly cited criticism of telephone interviews is that they deprive the interviewer of an opportunity to interact with the interviewee at the level of engagement offered by face-to-face communication (Rogers, 1976).

Furthermore, absence of the visual aspect of communication not only poses challenges to the actual conduct of interviews, but can also lead to a possible loss of data. A lot of signals that facilitate interaction between the researcher and participant in a face-to-face interview are unavailable in a telephone interview situation. Absence of these clues may make it more difficult for researchers to establish the right rapport with their interviewees.

Interviews with all Moscow Times reporters were conducted by telephone. In general, journalists depend on other people‘s willingness to talk, and therefore tend to be very approachable themselves. Moreover, reporters are very skilled at conducting interviews by phone themselves. This fact made it easier for the researcher to establish a positive rapport with the respondents.

Additionally, all interviews with the reporters were recorded by means of special teleconferencing equipment making it easier to concentrate on the systematic questioning and participants‘ responses.

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2.2.3 Transcribing

All recorded interviews were subsequently transcribed with the help of a professional typist. In total, approximately 20,000 words of transcribed material was produced. Subsequently, the text was checked for mistakes by the researcher. This made it possible to eliminate content inaccuracies and typing errors, as well as provide the researcher with an opportunity to become more familiar with the data. Amended transcripts were sent back to the research participants for their comments. Once feedback³⁰ from the research participants had been received, the final text was subject to proofreading, after which it was deemed ready for initial analysis.

30 Feedback primarily constituted additional facts and never serious amendments to the actual content. No comment was withdrawn by any of the interviewed reporters.

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