ONLINE FOCUS GROUPS AND IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS: WHAT CAN OUR EXPERIENCES ARTICULATE?

Abstract

Online interviewing has increasingly begun to be preferred in qualitative research in recent years. Here, we aim to discuss our methodological experiences based on e-field of the PhD thesis designed with a qualitative approach on poverty measurement. For this, we narrate our strategies improved for in-depth interviews and synchronous focus group discussions conducted in a 5-month-process through Zoom, categorizing them as before, during and after interviews. Scrutinizing our strategies, we discuss situationally prominent key characteristics of the e-field. Within this scope, we find out that the quality of infrastructure, keeping the duration of the interview short and the number of the questions and participants less than the traditional interviewing are significant factors. Last, we find it crucial to indicate that some outcomes of the e-field can have ambivalent characteristics and obligate the researchers to make selections.