The Qualitative Interviewing Techniques and Mechanisms - Essay Example

QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWING Introduction Qualitative analysis indulges in data collection mechanisms which are used to collect primary data in a specific research process. The qualitative questions are generally open ended put forward to demonstrate the qualitative perceptions about a topic that is being researched. The essay would look into various aspects of qualitative interview and the need to have them in a research process. The data accumulated from those interviews are qualitative and hence descriptive in nature to give an idea of the perception about a subject of a research. The topic selected for the semi structured interview here is the English Premier League (EPL) and its viewership worldwide. The sample for the interview would be a neighbourhood man of 24 years, UK citizen, working in the US, who is an ardent Arsenal Football Club fan and enthusiast, a regular EPL follower for last 15 years, since childhood. The qualitative interview would be conducted in view of the Qualitative perceptions of the Sample about the various European Football leagues in comparison to the EPL or the one branded as the Barclays Premier league. The recommendations received along with feedback would be used as primary data for the research in view of the Qualitative Interviewing techniques and mechanisms. Data Production and Methods Qualitative interviews had been a part of education in various nations across the globe to have an idea about the perceptions and feelings of one who is interviewed to further do necessary assessments for records 1. The qualitative processes in research is dependent upon the knowledge of the interviewee along with the knowledge of the interviewer about the way the questions are framed to get the desired point of view necessary for the research purpose 1. Again, qualitative interview gives an idea about the intrinsic values of a user about a product and its benefits which are not qualitatively depicted but perceptions those can only be felt. Again, 2 qualitative interviews are a part of ethnography where the imaginations of one is interpreted based on sociological perspectives 2. 1 Gill, P., Stewart, K., Treasure, E. and Chadwick, B. ‘Methods of data collection in qualitative research: interviews and focus groups’ Br Dent J, 204(6), 2011, pp.291-295 2 Koopman, S. and Lit, R. ‘A Dynamic Bivariate Poisson Model for Analysing and Forecasting Match Results in the EPL’ SSRN Journal, 8(1), 2012, pp.12 For an example, the person interviewed here cannot quantify his enthusiasm for the game but can obviously express about what and how the league is qualitatively different from another similar league in perspective point of view. Interview however has its own structure in making that may be formal or semi formal, in accordance to the seriousness of the subject and such various other factors. The interview would be conducted in a semi structured manner where the social aspect of the interview would get more prominence. A structured interview have a set of questions where the answers are not able to divert from the context however semi structured interviews are more open and less formal where the participant are allowed to have different ideas upon a subject, those may not be related to the context. A successful qualitative interview the subject has to be well thought and the questions in relation to that context are to be framed properly to have the depiction on the context 3. The qualitative interviews are conducted in Business management as part of the feedback mechanism especially in the service sectors to get a feedback of the description of the consumers about how they feel in usage benefits or suggestions for improvements. The Data for the EPL would be gathered from the Interviewee who has been viewing the game for the last 15 years and is subsequently aware about the various aspects of the game. The League games like La-Liga (The Spanish National League), Bundesliga (The German national League), SereA (Italian National League) The French league like many international and national level games of the football clubs happens and are widely broad casted all across the Globe in several local languages at different Television Channels. The craze or qualitative entertainment wise the English league is far widely viewed across the globe and the La-Liga and Bundesliga follows the same kind of competitive viewership globally. Therefore the objective of the semi-structured interview is to find out the qualitative difference in terms of Television viewership between EPL and other competing European national Leagues 4. 3 Vecer, J. ‘Crossing in Soccer has a Strong Negative Impact on Scoring: Evidence from the English Premier League’, SSRN Journal, 23(1), 2012, pp. 12-18 4 Weiss, R. Learning from strangers. New York: Free Press. 1994 The interview is qualitative hence the semi-structured format where a degree of participation to indulge, in informal but pertinent subject talks would be allowed. Again, since the Qualitative Interview is not happening with a preconceived notion therefore the inductive or deductive approach is not considered at the beginning. The approach of ‘interview data as topic’ for the project of qualitative interview is applied, where the interview itself along with its structure develops the objective for such investigation5. Thus the data in this process would be ‘constructed’ than ‘found’ objectively from the interview process. The constructive viewpoint informs many of the viewpoints of co-construction of identity, social and cultural facts and viewpoints 6. Therefore the moot question of the research would focus on developing ideas and views of the interviewee about ‘Why do you think EPL is the most viewed Football League in the globe over other competent National Club leagues across the Football world?’ The question would also add in its end to give a few suggestions about making the league more competent and kept it the most viewed Game show on the planet. This would further venture in understanding and interpreting the ways to make it better and also give an overall perspective that would qualitatively help the research in making up a construction of view from the semi structured interview. The questions would be open ended therefore the answers would rely on descriptive analysis of the fact of the questions. The question here is been put forth given the fact that all are aware and agree to suggest that EPL is the most viewed Football league in the globe. 5 An interview questions should be understandable, neutral and sensitive to get the best of views and all the angles of the subject, unbiased from the one who is being interviewed. The place chosen was a public place in the midst of people at the Library Ball Reception of the University of Lincoln College. 5 McCracken, G. The long interview. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1988 6Qualres.org. ‘RWJF - Qualitative Research Guidelines Project | Interviewing | Interviewing’. [online] Available at: http://www.qualres.org/HomeInte-3595.html, 2014. The phone call was made a week in advance to schedule the interview and a time of 2.5 hours was asked on a Saturday afternoon for the interview to happen. In the process, the interviewing techniques were sorted out by trying to frame the questions and developing the body language and spoken language to maintain a level of neutrality in the process. This in the researcher’s view would give a better inward look into the development of the interviewees own view without any outside influences. Transcription This part would provide the description of the interview as recorded. Not every detail of the semi structured interview is given but the one which are competent to evaluate and in the context of the Question is been put. The 2 basic sets of Questions that was put forth was given to the interviewee a week in advance to give him appropriate time to consider the aspect of every prominent leagues and their viewership details in the Football playing nations of the world. The interviewee was seated in front to give the answers where a recording devise was used in the interview process that is put as transcript here. Interview begins with the researcher asking the following: “As was previously discussed, I know for myself you are a great football enthusiast and you are quiet aware of the EPL in UK-Tell Us more about it and suggest its futures in the context of the other new markets like US and Australia”. The Answers received are as: “English Premier League is a venture that was undertaken in major way post the FIFA’s game rules for the Club league were changed where the participation of a culturally diverse players with different skill sets were brought in, to form a compact team of 11 to play on field at a time, while keeps another about 20 players additionally in the reserve bench to see that the league is conducted without any breakage due to injury or inconsistency in performance problems. Therefore, the beauty skill and art of football was first developed by the UK based EPL before the other European clubs inherited them to form the same format of the game to make an international impact. The UEFA cup was another major addition where the Professional Men’s club of footballers across all the nations of Europe from Russia to Switzerland participates to be the best performing club of the continent. This award too is very prestigious followed by Europa League like formats in European Football. English premier league is however a national league of top performing 20 English Football Clubs in a yearlong league process with 2 seasonal breaks of player transfers”. “Since the very inceptions the English were very keenly following their football back home where the regional clubs and the fan and followings that they had started to grow with the advent of broadcasting technology developments. The format has seen a major intake of very key players in World Football to come from different parts of the globe with different football ideologies and skill sets to play together to form the best 11 men team and defend the trophy. The league table of 20 is evaluated and updated during every match where winner gets 3 and looser gets 0 while the drawn match would fetch each side 1points. All teams are given a fair chance to play among each other and one who gets the highest point after each game leads the table therefore the most match winners with highest scores gets the League. Promoted by the Barclays bank of the UK, the brand of EPL is now a household name for Football fans worldwide. A total number of 380 matches in a home and away format are used where the teams those score 15th to 20th after the league faces relegation and thus have to play the other lower second division to get a position in the top group of selected 20 clubs. This also made the chance for the 2nd division teams to showcase their talents and make a space in the highest form of the game.” Reflection on Research findings and Process The Google search would suggest that the EPL is the most viewed league or as is suggested since 1992. The league is broadcasted and shown via TV in 212 territories reaching 4.7 plus billion mankind. This makes the league earn around 2.2 billion Euros just by selling their television viewership rights7. This has made the league so popular outside the UK too and the format is now ventured by all under the FIFA’s regulations by all European nations that has also brought back the top competitiveness among the teams and helped it to develop and search players to serve the club. This format has not only built the domestic level of football player production in the grass root level but has also brought international players to have a lucrative playing contract with the clubs. The competence of the match along with the social and technical message those FIFA promotes has brought the football world closer now8. 7 Chadwick, S. and Clowes, J. ‘The use of extension strategies by clubs in the English Football Premier League’ Managing Leisure, 3(4), (1998). pp.194-203. 8 Evers, J. and Boer, F. The qualitative interview. The Hague: Eleven International Pub. 2012. Nevertheless, the research was more concentrating upon the idea of EPL and what makes it so popular or most viewed football league series in the globe. The back ground studies suggested that Bundesliga is the second most popular in terms of attracting the domestic crowd for the game. Thus it can also be said that the in-house stadium viewership for these games are very high making the sponsors to feel interested in the advertising investments. Thus the first finding was the viewership has brought in the sponsors and thus the league maintained its standards and developed. The other finding was that the idea of such a TV Viewership based league was conceived in 1992 that was first taken up by the League. Thus, the added attraction was the TV viewing population of world who views these games as religious festivals especially in the Latin American, African and European nations since inceptions. The consistencies of the crowd towards the team and stadium along with the huge viewership on TV have generated the sponsorship benefit outcomes. Another major finding was the cultural diversity that the league has undertaken to give football playing a new philosophy that attracts a diverse population 9. The increasing fanfare for the league in the US and Australian markets and the availability of the Social Media audio visual viewing of the game has improved the viewership of the league globally. Thus, I feel that the future is very bright for all the football fans across the globe with availability of You-tube like media that has made the limitations of the time zone related viewing problems null today. This was an observation that came out during the informal discussion over and above the subject discussion that was noted. There is another observation that was made by the interviewee about the TV viewership and its assistance to the new players training along with the formats in the league to promote and build new supply of footballers from every level of the game. The fan following across the globe for the ‘Big Four’ of EPL like Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool like clubs is being another factor that has attracted the styles and adoption of club values by all who follows the league across the globe, making the cultural distance between two very different football styles merge and play in harmony together 10. 9 Premierleague.com, Barclays Premier League football fixture list, season 2014/15 fixtures. [online] Available at: http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/matches.html, 2015. 10 BBC Sport, INDEX. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/premier-league/, 2014. However, it is to be noted that the view was that the difference between the teams is minimal in EPL over other European leagues due to the continuous inward flow of different new talents from various places. Steve Blurter, the CEO of FIFA once said that the football is the best way to make the distance between two nations or civilizations to break the shackles of Language, origin, sex, colour, values fade to sublime in a moment. Such a popular idea of participative fun and the uniqueness of English league that has the element of each of the other alternative football styles very neatly adopted to make the teams a team game if 11 of the best on the day. Thus the early launch and the in-house aspirations along with the refines football senses of the globe have made the league unique. The qualitative data received from the interview also showed few very prominent marketing aspects of launch of a service or product with new innovative inputs to form a certain monopoly over the globe and consistently maintain it. The home game sees a heavy fan following in the fields or stadiums where the average attendance although out the league is near 92%. This has brought the game a great inflow of football fans in field added to the TV viewership that has encouraged the promotional campaigns of different businesses see its face in the game. The game thus got a substantial contract with the businesses getting it a good inflow of money from various sources along with a guarantee of seasons to come. The money has built great world class infrastructures along with enough money to attract new talents across the globe to learn and develop football skills with the best football minds of the globe 11. The La-Liga, Bundesliga or SireA are also competent but the difference between the first few and the last few is so wide that the league tends to be somewhat a one sided match. However, the end of this research do brings out why the league is so popular but the idea of what it may do in the US, Australia like markets where the craze for the game is growing. The success of the interview was on one single front to identify the elements those make the league so competent but how to make it popular in new markets was yet to be understood. Probably the Qualitative data about the trends of Viewership along with Quantitative inputs of the TV viewing time, peaks and promotional elements needed to be focused upon still needs to be identified and discussed. 11 FoxSports, EPL transfers: Manchester United set to spend big — so where will Louis van Gaal spend his millions?. [online] Available at: http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/premier-league/epl-transfers-manchester-united-set-to-spend-big-so-where-will-louis-van-gaal-spend-his-millions/story-e6frf4ec-1227201890056?nk=fff4e4174bcb4d51d5a697127a5287ed, 2013. Nevertheless, the idea of why the league is so popular was the key theme that was now deducted to a result to see the similarities of the product or EPL with new innovation launch. The interactive platforms along with a high degree of participation among the school going children is growing and this trends needs to be identified and analyzed to come to a conclusion about recommendations for its new markets. Since the Football in the US is different, the cultural fan-following is very domestic which this league may further study to understand the US market along with Australian Big Bash of cricket tournaments to understand the Australian markets of sports following and data. The secondary sources can give the research a better inward look about how to approach the topic in terms of quantifying the viewership and its preferences in the new markets. Other perspective of viewer’s outlook towards the game also needs to be analyzed to give a suggestion about the next big step of market development in the new markets. Conclusions The research did a qualitative interview to find out the reasons for popularity of EPL while the suggestions to make them popular in the US still need further investigations. The quantitative data was not used to suggest about the current market strength of EPL in the US and the future projections for implementation was thus not found in the process. The interview was somewhat successful to access the reasons for the Products popularity from a single member. The other part was not found in the discussion which needed the suggestions for new market development as it needs more research and data collection to collate an idea to develop the theme. Nevertheless, the interview was conducted for 2 hours with many aspects of football unknown to the researcher along with format of the game was learnt in the process from a new product development and launch view of marketing management. Further research is needed to complete the case with quantitative research and more qualitative research to reach a conclusion or objective of how the same can be implemented in the process. List of References Chadwick, S. and Clowes, J. ‘The use of extension strategies by clubs in the English Football Premier League’ Managing Leisure, 3(4), (1998). pp.194-203. Evers, J. and Boer, F. The qualitative interview. The Hague: Eleven International Pub. 2012. Gill, P., Stewart, K., Treasure, E. and Chadwick, B. ‘Methods of data collection in qualitative research: interviews and focus groups’ Br Dent J, 204(6), 2011, pp.291-295. Koopman, S. and Lit, R. ‘A Dynamic Bivariate Poisson Model for Analysing and Forecasting Match Results in the English Premier League’ SSRN Journal, 8(1), 2012, pp.12 McCracken, G. The long interview. Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1988 Qualres.org. ‘RWJF - Qualitative Research Guidelines Project | Interviewing | Interviewing’. [online] Available at: http://www.qualres.org/HomeInte-3595.html, 2014. Vecer, J. ‘Crossing in Soccer has a Strong Negative Impact on Scoring: Evidence from the English Premier League’, SSRN Journal, 23(1), 2012, pp. 12-18 Weiss, R. Learning from strangers. New York: Free Press. 1994 Premierleague.com, Barclays Premier League football fixture list, season 2014/15 fixtures. [online] Available at: http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/matches.html, 2015. BBC Sport, INDEX. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/premier-league/, 2014. FoxSports, EPL transfers: Manchester United set to spend big — so where will Louis van Gaal spend his millions?. [online] Available at: http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/premier-league/epl-transfers-manchester-united-set-to-spend-big-so-where-will-louis-van-gaal-spend-his-millions/story-e6frf4ec-1227201890056?nk=fff4e4174bcb4d51d5a697127a5287ed, 2013. Read More