Revisiting Audio Observations to Collect Qualitative Data During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

With its physical distancing rules, the COVID-19 pandemic regulations urged researchers working in a qualitative paradigm to find pandemic-ready approaches to data collection. While many researchers turned to modern videoconferencing software, we explored an alternative route, and revisited audio observations. Audio observations replace the researcher as observer with audio recorders. Audio observations were pioneered in the 1960s, and continued to attract interest into the 1980s. Connecting with the methods literature from this earlier phase of interest, we evaluate a study design that combines audio observations with an interactive task that we applied to study active parental mediation of harmful media content. Drawing on a re-coding of data from two waves of data collection, we report on participants’ awareness of the observation episodes, issues with the recording quality, and the situational control during the observation episodes. We conclude that, although truly not a panacea, the combination of audio observations with interactive tasks not only helps to confront the challenges of physical distancing but also constitutes a serious alternative to more established qualitative data gathering approaches—even beyond pandemic restrictions. Thus, this article contributes to the extension of the methods repertoire in qualitative research.