Respondent Interviews

Respondent interviews are data collected for research purposes. When conducting respondent interviews, a researcher or research team will ask questions of individuals about the individuals’ opinions or experiences regarding a particular activity or event. The responses they receive from the individuals are the data that the researchers will use to conduct their analysis for communication research. Respondent interviews can be structured or unstructured, and can produce many different types of data. This entry will describe respondent interviews, compare and contrast the different types of respondent interviews, and discuss some of the ways in which interviewers can best accomplish the process of respondent interviewing.

Initially, respondent interviews can be structured or unstructured. A structured interview is similar to a questionnaire for data collection. When collecting data in ...