Article Q

Framing the telephone R

interview as a participant- Qualitative Research

centred tool for qualitative 12(6) 630­–644

© The Author(s) 2012

research:  a methodological
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DOI: 10.1177/1468794112439005
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Adrienne  Trier-Bieniek
Valencia College, USA

Abstract
This paper discusses telephone interviewing as a qualitative research method and defines
qualitative telephone interviews as participant-centered. In a research project which consisted
of internet based recruitment, emails sent to set up interviews and an analysis of 39 qualitative
interviews conducted over telephone, I contend that being interviewed over the phone may result
in more honest data as people have become more accustomed to ‘virtual’ communication, serving
to benefit to both the participant and researcher. By merging feminist research methodology
with traditional forms of semi-structured interviewing, data collected over the phone can be
used when dealing with traumatic or sensitive topics and can result in rich data. Thus, this paper
contributes to an ever-evolving conversation regarding the utility of telephone interviewing.

Keywords
feminist research methodology, online research methods, qualitative interviewing, telephone
interviewing

Introduction
Most research conducted on the use of telephone interviewing has mainly focused on the
recruitment and sampling benefits for quantitative surveying (e.g. Holt, 2010; Shuy,
2002; Stephens, 2007; Sturges and Hanrahan, 2004). Perhaps this is because the tele-
phone is a more time-efficient and researcher-friendly tool for conducting interviews as
it garners a quick turnaround of participants, helps to obtain large sample sizes, has many
ways to recruit people for interviews and close-ended questions can be asked in rapid
succession (Chang and Krosnick, 2010; Couper, 2005; Kvale, 1996). However, studies

Corresponding author:
Adrienne Trier-Bieniek,Valencia College, 701 N. Econlockhatchee Trail, MC: 3-29, Orlando, FL 32825, USA.
Email: adrienne.mtb@gmail.com
Trier-Bieniek 631

such as the one by Holbrook, Green and Krisnick (2003) found that people who partici-
pate in quantitative telephone interviews are more likely to censor their answers to ques-
tions in order to protect themselves, complicating the use of telephone interviewing
particularly when gathering data on sensitive topics. This has led some qualitative schol-
ars to suggest that telephone interviewing is a less-effective interview method (e.g. Shuy,
2002; Trochim and Donnelly, 2007; Weiss, 1994).
I suggest that qualitative telephone interviews can be used when studying sensi-
tive subjects, and can be developed, through a combination of semi-structured inter-
views and feminist approaches to research. This blend allows the researcher to
re-define relationships between researcher and participant, particularly when con-
sidering the ‘sender–receiver’ dynamic (Shuy, 2002), or the ways that questions are
asked and responded to. In this article, I demonstrate this combination by weaving
examples of communication I had with 39 participants, prior to and during their
telephone interviews, to demonstrate the rich data that can be collected over the
phone.

Building a rapport over the telephone

Some scholars have described the qualitative telephone interview as a good alternative,
but not as a primary method for data collection (Weiss, 1994). As Shuy (2002) explains,
‘Because time is valuable, researchers may try to figure out ways to reduce their work,
short-cutting the data gathering or finding other ways to meet deadlines and get their
projects done’ (p. 537). Another primary concern regarding telephone interviews is that
there is a lack of interaction between the interviewer and participant (e.g. Shuy, 2002;
Trochim and Donnelly, 2007; Weiss, 1994). This may lead to the inability to build a rap-
port with a participant prior to an interview (e.g. making small talk before turning on the
tape recorder) and a loss of the natural conversation, which helps people begin to feel
comfortable in an interview (Shuy, 2002).
These suggestions have been contested by scholars like Sturges and Hanrahan
(2010), Holt (2010) and Scott (2004). Sturges and Hanrahan (2010) compared their
experiences conducting interviews in person and over the phone while collecting data
on county jail inmates. Previous literature suggested that there would be a marked dif-
ference in the quality of data they would collect, yet Sturges and Hanrahan found no
significant difference with the two interview methods. They concluded that telephone
interviewing can serve as a productive way of collecting data, and also acknowledged
that further research was needed, especially with focuses on recruitment in non-face-
to-face scenarios with people who were strangers, or with individuals who have expe-
rienced trauma. Holt (2010) examined the dynamic of non-face-to-face interviews by
asking participants about their experience being interviewed over the telephone. Holt’s
conclusion that telephone interviewing should be considered as an alternative to face-
to-face interviewing suggests that an examination of reflexivity on the part of the
researcher and participant should be part of conducting telephone interviews.
Furthermore, Scott (2004) found that when combining semi-structured interviews with
previous communication (i.e. email, message board discussions), individuals are more
likely to eschew shyness and offer extremely perceptive points of view on social life,
632 Qualitative Research 12(6)

demonstrating what Denzin (2001) views as the opportunity for interviews to reflect
the performance of the self and society. As he writes, ‘The interview is an active text,
a site where meaning is created and performed’ (p. 25). These studies show that inter-
viewing over the phone can work within various settings but that more information is
needed on the execution of telephone interviewing. I continue these studies by describ-
ing how I structured telephone interviews through a combination of semi-structured
interview methods and feminist approaches to research. I note how this combination
can be beneficial when recruiting and interviewing participants who are strangers or
individuals who have experienced trauma.

Feminist approaches to research

Feminist approaches to interviewing places participants at the centre of the interviewing
process, implementing feminist approaches to research can contribute to further discus-
sion on framing telephone interviews as qualitative methods. By structuring the conver-
sation to meet the needs of each individual participant, there is the potential to empower
the participant. Feminist researchers often approach interviews with an awareness of
how power and authority (characteristics of patriarchy) might impact the interview
(Hesse-Biber and Leavy, 2007). As Oakley writes, ‘The goal of finding out about people
through interviewing is best achieved when the relationship of interviewer and inter-
viewee is non-hierarchical’ (Oakley, 2008: 222). This is often combated through the
language used to describe the people interviewed. For example, in this article, I use the
term ‘participant’ as opposed to ‘subject’ or ‘respondent’ (connoting passive, recipient
roles within a study) as a signal that I am presenting the women I interviewed as com-
peers in my study (e.g. Harding, 1987; Reinharz, 1992; Smith, 1987). Furthermore, as
Olesen (2000) and Stanley and Wise (1993) suggest, there are multiple ways to do femi-
nist research, which cross disciplines and methods, including quantitative feminist
research, especially when connecting feminist methodology with feminist empiricism
(e.g. Leckenby, 2007). A purpose of this article is not to insinuate that there is one femi-
nist methodology, just as there is not one type of feminist. Rather, I contend that feminist
approaches to research challenge research models that ‘[u]tilize abstractions from reality
organized and presented within a pre-chosen framework’ (Stanley and Wise, 1993: 104).
While some may find this attempt to be facile, others point out that feminist standpoint’s
standards for combinations of strong objectivity and reflexivity is exactly what research-
ers need to attempt to overcome power differences in interviewing (McCorkel and
Myers, 2003).
Constructing interviews from a feminist perspective can mean coupling feminist
research methods with feminist standpoint epistemology, challenging researchers to ‘[u]
nderstand the world through the eyes and experiences of oppressed women’ (Brooks,
2007: 53). Feminist standpoint theory reframes the way research is designed because it
places the lives, words and stories of participants (generally women) at the foreground of
the research, challenging positivist notions of science and addressing the larger methodo-
logical discussion of the position of the researcher and participant in the interview
(Brooks, 2007; Harding, 1987; Hartsock, 2004). Rather than focus on objectivity, and
assert that the researcher remain disengaged from their research in order to achieve an
Trier-Bieniek 633

unbiased result, feminist research methodology advocates for a strong objectivity and
calls for the researcher to become knowledgeable of power structures within their
research (Harding, 1987).
As Shuy (2002) points out, considering power structures within social research is
particularly salient, especially when considering the typical interview dynamic of
sender–receiver. ‘By analysing only the sender (interviewer) and the message (question),
most researchers examining interviewing practices have overlooked the third major
component, the person who answers the question’ (Shuy, 2002: 538). I attempted to
reconstruct the sender–receiver dynamic by considering not only the questions asked and
the order in which I asked them but also how they were answered. This combination of
feminist research methodology and semi-structured interviewing can serve as a way to
structure qualitative telephone interviews in which participants are asked to speak about
trauma or emotional topics.
It should be noted that feminist approaches to research done over the telephone are
not limited to a focus on women. Crowley’s (2007) study of the gendered aspects of child
custody and child support focused on the experiences she had while interviewing 158
leaders of father’s rights groups (primarily over the phone), with the purpose of under-
standing why father’s rights groups attempted to reframe custody disputes as detrimental
to fathers. She found that the men would attempt to shift power relationships in the inter-
view by recording Crowley as she interviewed them and requesting to know details about
her study, something she was not comfortable sharing. Crowley’s study speaks to a con-
tinued need to understand the role that gender plays when individuals are interviewed
over the phone (Shuy, 2002), something I attempt to address by illustrating my experi-
ences recruiting and interviewing women over the telephone.

Researcher position and project parameters

Consistent with exploring the researcher’s position within all aspects of research, (e.g.
Finlay, 2002; McCorkel and Myers, 2003), my dissertation research focused on studying
female fans of the musician Tori Amos, and was born out of my own fandom. Amos, a
singer/songwriter/producer whose music is piano based and structured in what may be
considered an ‘alternative rock’ or ‘baroque pop’ genre, has a distinctly feminist approach
to her music. I knew that Amos attracted groups of women who shared similar experi-
ences with her (e.g. sexual violence, miscarriage, religious upbringing and women’s
repressed sexuality). I had found my experiences with trauma reflected in Amos’ music,
and I also knew that Amos’ music brought together groups of women who had used this
music to help them heal. Therefore, when I proposed a dissertation focusing on women
who are fans of Amos and who are using her music as a catalyst for emotional support
and/or healing, one of my central research questions was ‘What is the nature of the emo-
tional connection(s) fans of Tori Amos make with her music?’
In the summer of 2009, I began recruiting women to participate in my study by using
internet message boards where fans of Amos meet to discuss her music and through a
website created by a fan of Amos. (Of the 42 women I interviewed, only 3 were in per-
son). To recruit potential participants, I posted recruitment messages on both the message
boards and the website, inviting women to participate in my study and noted that
634 Qualitative Research 12(6)

interviews would be conducted mainly by telephone. (Prior to posting, I asked for and
received permission to post from the message board administrators.) On message boards,
I opened new ‘discussions’ or ‘threads’ under the appropriate discussion topic, introduced
myself as a researcher and graduate student, briefly described my project and asked for
participants to contact me via the message board email system. For the fan-based website,
I emailed the website administrator and asked whether she would place my recruitment
message on the website’s homepage. The recruitment note was the same as the one placed
on the message boards, but it also included my university email address as the means to
contact me. I had originally planned to interview 25 women, but I ended up with approxi-
mately 80 requests to participate via the website’s message boards. Thus, I increased my
sample size to 42 women with 39 interviewed by telephone.
Because I advertised that I would be conducting interviews over the telephone, I
received a flood of email from women all over the United States expressing their interest
and excitement at the possibility of being a part of my study. This is best exemplified by
the correspondence I had with Pandora:

Just noticed your paper on hereinmyhead.com and would be thrilled to be involved with your
interviews! How are you conducting the interviews, via e-mail or telephone? (I am in
California).

[ATB: I am conducting them over the telephone. How is 1pm on the 12th?]
Could it be 1pm for me? I am so excited about this!!! Thank you again for this oppor-
tunity, I already have loads of notes about songs and why I love Tori.

Being able to talk with me over the telephone was exciting for Pandora because she
was able to participate in a study with a researcher who was located out of state. This
also exemplified the most obvious benefit to telephone interviewing because it
allowed me to connect with people in various regions. Indeed, 33 percent of women
lived in eastern parts of the United States, 31 percent lived in the Midwest, 26.2 per-
cent lived in the southern United States and 9.5 percent lived in the western parts of
the United States. I should note that restricting my study to US-based women was
mainly a financial decision. While I did receive a small department grant to cover the
travel expenses for observational aspects of my study, I did not have the monies avail-
able to pay for overseas/international phone calls as most interviews lasted between
an hour to an hour and a half.
Each interview began with my asking whether there were any questions before I turned
on the tape recorder, while also noting that I could stop at anytime and I could turn the tape
recorder off if the participant did not want to say something on the record. (I had one
person ask to speak, briefly, off the record.) I put each participant on telephone speaker
and recorded each interview with a small, hand-held tape recorder. To protect each partici-
pant’s identity, they each chose a pseudonym and I conducted interviews alone in my
office with a ‘Do Not Disturb: Phone Interview in Progress’ sign on the door.
Since my interviews were semi-structured, I used a flexible interview script
(Fontana and Frey, 2003), and the questions I asked ranged from questions about
favourite songs and albums, emotional connections to songs, Amos’ feminism and
whether Amos’ music had been healing for them. I allowed myself considerable
Trier-Bieniek 635

latitude with these questions and structured each interview to meet the needs of the
women being interviewed. For example, if the woman began the interview by talking
about Amos’ feminist identity, I would skip ahead to those questions and ask follow-
up and probing questions as necessary. I would then return to the questions on the list
as they fit the conversation.
In the interest of full disclosure (e.g. Finlay, 2002; McCorkel and Myers, 2003), after
I had asked my prepared questions, I asked each woman whether she wanted to ask me
about my study or my interest in Amos’ music. These discussions often took the turn of
women asking me questions about my life and whether I had used Amos’ music as a
means to heal. Some asked whether I had experienced trauma, which I answered by
describing the events that had lead me to her music. Most women wanted to, at the very
least, know of my fandom and whether I shared any of their experiences. It was in these
moments that I felt like I was engaging my own philosophy because there was a power
shift in who was asking questions and who was answering. Perhaps, more importantly,
power took a slight backseat to having an open and involved discussion.
Once the interview was done, I offered a copy of their transcript to each woman and
noted that she could ask me to amend or omit any of her statements once she had read it.
In all, 20 of the women asked for a copy of their transcripts, and 2 women emailed me
with edits they wanted me to make. I also offered a copy of my dissertation to each of the
women (of which all the women interviewed requested a copy).
In the next few pages, I have provided details about the correspondence that I had with
women while setting up interviews as a means to demonstrate the logistics of setting up a
telephone interview. I then correlate these with some of the responses women gave to my
questions in order to illustrate the rich data I had received. I contend that participants felt at
ease sharing sensitive information over the phone, possibly because they were somewhat
anonymous and stayed in settings that were comfortable for them.

Situating interview experiences

I first began to understand how telephone interviews have the potential to benefit the par-
ticipants while participating in email discussions regarding the day/time that I would call
to interview a woman. Indeed, a common comment regarding being interviewed over the
telephone was ‘I am so excited to participate!’, or ‘Thank you for choosing me!’ This led
me to understand that conducting the interview over the telephone was opening up oppor-
tunities for those women to participate who may not have had the time or ability to partici-
pate had the interviews been in person. An example of this can be seen in my correspondence
with Emma:

Yes, Wednesday at 11:00 am will work for me. I will be at work, so I am giving you my work
telephone number and when you call me I am going to transfer the call into a vacant office so I
can have privacy. (My desk is in a ‘cubical’). I’ll take annual leave for the telephone call so we
don’t need to worry about my boss or employer getting upset!

[ATB: Would talking after work be better for you? I would hate for you to use your leave for
a telephone call. I am fairly open that day so just let me know].
636 Qualitative Research 12(6)

Ok, let me talk to my husband and email you later today or Saturday, it might work
for us to do the call right at 5pm, still at work, but I wouldn’t have to use leave time
– If I go home my kids will never let me have that much telephone time so I have to
make sure my husband will watch the kids if I’m late.
[ATB: Sounds good. Just let me know].

Later in the week, Emma emailed me and said:

The way things are working out for me this week I think it will work best if we keep the
Wednesday telephone call. Please call my direct line. I will transfer the call to another telephone
after you call me.

Emma’s concern that she would not be able to take time at home to be interviewed con-
flicted with her excitement about participating in my study. Being able to talk at work
and over the telephone, when she was free from the complications of her home life,
allowed her to participate. Furthermore, her willingness to use her personal leave spoke
of her enthusiasm for participating in the interview. With Emma’s interview, I got some
of the richest and most profound answers to my questions as we discussed her sister’s
suicide, her own abuse of alcohol and how music has served as her means to deal with
these experiences:

I’d had instances, you know, in my life that were sexual assault in nature that I felt like maybe
I still needed to fight against or get beyond a little bit … It really hit me at a time in my life
where, you know, I was really not doing well. You know. I was drinking way too much, I was
involved in a relationship with somebody who didn’t give a crap about me and, and it was like
there was all this stuff that I didn’t care enough to do anything about.

My sister committed suicide. She did it in California, which is not where I live. She moved
away and then did it, you know, in California. And here’s this, this artist that I just, I just love
her music so much, doing this song called ‘Maybe California’.

Because I did not have face-to-face contact, I had to rely on intense listening prac-
tices and become keenly aware of how participants were answering my questions
(Rubin and Rubin, 1995). I could not rely on body language queues to let me know
when a person was confused, upset or misunderstanding the question. Instead, I
had to focus on how each woman answered a question. I would often ask her to
clarify a statement and expect that there will be long silences while she considers
her answer. (In general, long silences over the telephone are one of the most
socially awkward positions to be in.) Engaging the senses was particularly impor-
tant when I was interviewing women who had experienced trauma. When I inter-
viewed Dawn, we had to break several times so that she could stop crying and
compose herself:

I made my mother take me to the store and buy the Tori Amos album. And I can remember
listening to it … Sorry … (Choked up).
Trier-Bieniek 637

[ATB: It’s ok. Take your time].

I remember listening to it alone in my room and just thinking for the first time that
somebody understood. (Crying now; there is a long pause).
[ATB: Somebody got you].
Somebody got me. That’s like hell for a 14-year-old who’s had to be a … To all the
sudden have something out there.

As we continued our discussion, Dawn revealed that she had been raped at 12 years of age
and that she had not begun to deal with the rape until hearing Amos’ music as a teenager:

There was nothing else that spoke like Tori and I longed to hear. When I was 12 I had been
raped and so I would say that ‘Me and a Gun’ definitely set things off and resonated. Also um,
‘Precious Things’, it had that, um, anthem, just the right amount of anger that I needed to feel
and know that I could survive.

[ATB: Did you ever tell anyone you were raped?]

No.
[ATB: Have you ever told anyone since then?]
Yeah, I have, as an adult.

My questions ‘Did you ever tell anyone you were raped?’ and ‘Have you ever told anyone
since then?’ were meant to get a feel for Dawn’s support system. Prior to conducting each
interview, and as part of my Human Subjects Institutional Review Board (HSIRB)-
approved protocol, one of the preparations that I did was to pull up, on my laptop, their
local references for counselling, women’s shelters or sexual assault hotlines. Generally,
this took the shape of a local Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), community
mental health office or the US national hotline, the Rape Abuse and Incest National
Network (RAINN). This was done as a means for me to be able to offer further support
and services to any woman who may have needed it. I felt that it was important that, when
dealing with potentially sensitive interviews, I have resources available for the women to
immediately turn to. (I should note that I never needed to refer anyone.) Furthermore,
being prepared to offer referrals to participants in an interview relates to feminist
approaches to research and the objective that participants are able to explore their own
biographies and share experiences in a supportive environment (Hesse-Biber and Leavy,
2007; Reinharz, 1992; Warren, 1988).
Another interview that resulted in rich dialogue was with Donna. Donna’s emails indicated
that she wanted to talk while she was on her half-hour lunch hour, as this was her only free time
during the day, and that we might have to break the interview up into two interviews, which we
did. Over the course of the two interviews over two different days, the conversation turned to
the stress of being the only member of her family to attend and graduate from college and
attend graduate school. Below are excerpts from Donna’s interview:

I was deciding on a path for myself and whether I should go to grad school and I had some
personal drama going on as well with my health. And that, that album really speaks to me about
the fact that you might feel like you’re a victim, but there is a way out and that you can really
make things better for yourself.
638 Qualitative Research 12(6)

[ATB: Can I ask what it was about her music that helped you decide to go to grad school?]
I always find, like these literary references and artist’s references and it’s ok to be,
without a better word coming to my mind, like a nerd. I think she’s called herself the
Queen of the Nerds sometimes. And I’m the only person, [in my family] unfortu-
nately, to date who’s graduated from college. So, in that sense she’s also a huge
comfort to me.

After interviewing Emma and Donna, I began to see a pattern emerge, of women wanting
to talk with me while they were on their lunch break at work, in the car on the way home
from work or when their children were down for a nap. For example, when Anne and
Becky indicated their interest in participating in my study, both mentioned that the best
time to talk was during their hour-long commute home from work. As we were saying
goodbye, Becky indicated that she was happy to be able to talk with me about the music
she loved while she was making the commute home. This was echoed by Anne who
wanted to make sure that I called her right at 3:30 p.m. because her commute lasted from
then until 4:30 p.m. and that she would rather talk with me then.
Talking to me while driving home did present some obvious challenges. Although talk-
ing while driving is legal in most US states, I was not sure whether women were talking on
hands-free telephones, so I had some safety concerns. However, I was unsure whether this
was something that I should raise. Therefore, unless someone indicated that they were feel-
ing unsafe while talking to me, I left this matter alone. I did receive an email from Alba
about an hour before her interview which read, ‘I got called away from home and I want to
talk to you when I am at home rather than while driving. Can we reschedule?’ Alba was the
only person who articulated a problem with talking to me while in the car.
A second challenge was cell phone signals. With Anne’s interview, we were consist-
ently interrupted during our conversation due to her cell phone losing its signal during
her commute. We had to call each other back several times during the course of the inter-
view. While I was able to finish the interview, I thought that the structure and depth of
the interview were jeopardized because of the loss of natural rhythm.
With women who were parents, being able to be interviewed over the telephone was
often received as an escape from motherhood. For some of the mothers interviewed, their
excitement to participate was coupled with the knowledge that they would be talking
about areas of their lives that they did not necessarily want their children to know about.
When I interviewed Marianne, she mentioned that she wanted to talk about the more
sexual side of Amos’ music. She then narrated her walk through her house to get to a
room where her son could not hear her quote lyrics that talk about sex. She said, ‘I have
to make sure my son can’t hear us’ and then nervously giggled. Other women, like
Jasmine, were thrilled to have an adult conversation while they were home watching
their children. (Avoiding the need and cost of day care in order for her to travel for an
interview.) When I was working out the logistics of speaking with Jasmine, she indicated
how happy she was at the thought of talking with another adult because her days were
spent at home with her children:

I would absolutely love to be a part of your project. Tori is my #1 gal, and has helped me get
through a lot in life. From domestic abuse to just surviving mommy hood, Tori’s music and
Trier-Bieniek 639

lyrics have been the one thing that’s kept me from feeling like I could jump off the edge.
Anyhow, I’m a stay at home mommy who is available anytime of the day for questionnaire or
discussion.

After signing and returning the consent form for my study, Jasmine sent me an email
which read, ‘You can reach me anytime during the day. I stay home with my two little
ones, so I’m free to talk whenever. I can’t wait!’
In her interview, Jasmine discussed the abuse she had suffered from her father. We
spent a lot of time talking about her Hispanic heritage and how the ‘machismo’ practiced
by the men in her family resulted in physical and emotional abuse of the girls and women.
She shared an experience she had while still in high school when she invited a boy over
to watch a movie while her parents were out for the night:

My parents came home early and I asked the boy to leave and he [my father] came into the
room and that was the first time he ever really hit me. And he didn’t just hit me. It’s like he was
hitting me and he was telling me ‘I didn’t raise you to be like this, to be a whore and be a slut
and what are people going to think about you?’ And after he said all that stuff he just, he kicked
me in the vagina. And I thought at that moment, you know, ‘Ok I see how it is to be a girl. And
I see what I’m gonna have to go through’.

My interview with Jasmine served as an example of Denzin and Lincoln’s (2008)

assertion that the purpose of qualitative research is to collect a variety of experiences
that describe moments in the lives of individuals, gathering first-hand accounts of a
participant’s life. Denzin and Lincoln assert that the purpose of qualitative research
is to collect a variety of experiences that describe moments in the lives of individu-
als, gathering first-hand accounts of a participant’s life. Qualitative researchers ‘[s]
tress the socially constructed nature of reality, the intimate relationship between the
researcher and what is studied’ (Denzin and Lincoln, 2008: 14). Feeling comfortable
enough to describe the abuse she suffered with a stranger, over the telephone, is an
example of this relationship and speaks of the need for further research on the ben-
efits of telephone interviews. Indeed, these examples of women who detailed abuse,
violence or assault in their interviews serve as contrasts to previous scholars who
claim that telephone interviewing should be regulated to quantitative or rigid struc-
tures, void of emotion or variation of questions asked (e.g. Chang and Krosnick,
2010; Couper, 2005; Kvale, 1996; Shuy, 2002; Sturges and Hanrahan, 2004).
For Elizabeth, being able to be interviewed over the telephone meant that she could
easily balance taking care of her son and talking with me. About 10 minutes before
Elizabeth was scheduled to be interviewed, she sent me the following email:

We are supposed to talk today at 12:30. That’s in about 10 minutes. I think you are on east coast time,
but I’m not sure. My son woke up LATE this morning and so our entire schedule is off. I’m so sorry
that I won’t be able to talk at the time we agreed on. If it wouldn’t screw up your schedule too much,
I could just call you when he goes down this afternoon. Should be within the next hour, for sure.

About 5 minutes later she sent another email:

640 Qualitative Research 12(6)

I just got my son down for his nap. Not sure if you’re checking your email or not right now, but
if you get this, feel free to call me any time!

Elizabeth’s interview focused mainly on her experiences coming out as a lesbian at a

time in her life when she was attending a Christian (religious–secular) school. She spent
some time talking about songs that made her feel like coming out was acceptable:

I remember the first time I heard that song being like ‘Holy shit!’ Like this woman is doing
something really amazing here. So at the time I hadn’t come out yet, as a lesbian, but I think I
was really, I was struggling with Christianity but I was also just generally struggling with
sexuality … And um, I listened to the rest of the song and realized she is talking about
masturbation. Wow! Who talks about that? Like what woman is saying this kind of stuff? And
then I started juxtaposing it with religion and how those two are related or not related or
whatever. And I remember then, even then when I was first listening to her, feeling guilty about
being a sexual person.

Elizabeth and Jasmine are examples of the benefit of flexibility that telephone inter-
views provide. Because they were being interviewed from their homes, they did not
have to consider childcare or be concerned about cancelling because their kids were
sick. I found that being able to talk with me during ‘off’ time or in their homes made
for in-depth discussions, which often lasted well beyond the 1-hour time frame I had
planned.
With the women interviewed, discussing sensitive subjects over the telephone was
contradictory to some scholars’ assertions that the telephone leads to lacklustre inter-
views with less-honest discussion (e.g. Shuy, 2002; Trochim and Donnelly, 2007; Weiss,
1994). I found that being interviewed over the phone was attractive to many women who
would not normally want to participate in a research study. As Josie articulated:

I’m surprised at myself. You know? To speak to a stranger about Tori Amos, it surprises me as
a person about how deeply I care about this to be able to do this. You know, because this is
really not in my personality at all to just send emails to people that I don’t know about studies
that they’re doing. I never do these kinds of things. I do it for things that I really, really, really
care about and so I’m just surprised at myself. You know?

Josie’s sentiment demonstrates the allure of participating in a telephone interview. She did
not have to leave the comfort of her house nor did she have to be concerned with how she
was presenting herself to me. She just had to answer my questions and take part in a conver-
sation about an artist she admirers. Her statement is also an example of Scott’s (2004) asser-
tion that a combination of email (or previous written communication) and a semi-structured
interview gives those who would consider themselves to be ‘shy’ or unwilling to participate
in research the opportunity to reconsider. Indeed, many people who are introverted often are
misinterpreted as uninterested, and as Scott (2004) notes, ‘[s]hy people prove themselves to
be shrewd observers of social life’ (p. 103). I would contend that incorporating feminist
research methodology with semi-structured interviews creates interviews where people feel
more comfortable because they have some control during the interview.
Trier-Bieniek 641

However, I do not disagree that one must work a little harder to build a rapport with a
participant at the onset of an interview. I addressed this concern when constructing the
methods for my study by asking participants whether they had any questions before we
began the interview, generally leading to a short conversation of our shared knowledge of
Amos’ music before the ‘formal’ interview began. I also began each interview with a gen-
eral ‘getting to know you’ question and moved into corresponding questions depending on
what an answer was. At the end of every interview, I asked participants whether there was
anything they wanted to add. Many women echoed Donna’s sentiment:

It was really good experience! To be honest I was a little nervous.

I was wondering if I would get really emotional just talking about some things. But you are a
really great interviewer. I really appreciate it.

[ATB: Oh thank you! You know, I get nervous every time I call someone!]
Do you?
[ATB: Yes!]

I felt that, by acknowledging my own nerves about calling participants, I broke down
barriers between myself and Donna. I allowed her to hear that I was present and involved
in the interview even though we could not see each other. Furthermore, I was adhering to
my methodology by acknowledging that myself and the participant were compeers in the
interview process.

Discussion and suggestions for future research

Because quantitative and positivist-driven approaches to telephone interviewing are
presented as efficient, previous quantitative research has focused on the ‘[r]esponse
rate rather than on quality or type of response’ (Shuy, 2002: 553). This is not to say
that quantitative research cannot come from a participant-centred position. Rather, it
suggests that when conducting semi-structured interviews over the telephone, the
qualitative researcher has to battle the stereotype that telephone interviews are
hygienic, an act of convenience, and that they foster less of a rapport between
researcher and participant (Shuy, 2002; Stephens, 2007; Sturges and Hanrahan,
2004). Indeed, there is never a guarantee of a rapport between the researcher and a
participant in an in-person interview.
However, understanding the needs of the participant within the telephone interview
was a focus that I found to be essential when creating my study. I attest that conducting
qualitative interviews over the telephone led to rich and descriptive accounts from the
women who participate in my study. I found that the use of a feminist approach to
research methodology can be used as a guide for making telephone interviews partici-
pant centred, and I contend that telephone interviews can be beneficial in studies of
sensitive subjects or studies that require in-depth interviews. Indeed, approaching sen-
sitive subjects over the telephone further speaks to the ever-increasing comfort with
technology (e.g. Seymour, 2001). It is not uncommon for many people to have limited
face-to-face interaction with another person during their day due to email, virtual
642 Qualitative Research 12(6)

chatting, social networking or the telephone. These data suggest that interviews done
over the phone yield the potential for more honest discussions because of the anonym-
ity involved, as well as an increasing security with virtual conversation.
While I understand that my study may seem limited in scope because my sample is
strictly women, I nevertheless contend that looking at telephone interviewing from a
gendered perspective requires that the researcher re-evaluate the ‘sender–receiver’ dia-
gram (Shuy, 2002: 538). Re-arranging the sender–receiver–message dynamic by
addressing the logistics and impact of telephone interviews through feminist methodol-
ogy allowed me to consider the structure of the interviews and the impact that the questions
will have on participants. Through feminist approaches to research methodology, more
attention can be paid to the receiver, privileging the standpoint of the participant
(Oakley, 2008; Shuy, 2002).
Furthermore, conducting interviews over the telephone with people who are stran-
gers can lead to interviews that are rich in data, allowing me to contact and interview
women who I would never have been able to access using in-person interviews. This
feeling was also mutual with the women interviewed as many of them expressed
gratitude for my methods. Being interviewed over the telephone meant that women
who were working or staying at home with their children could participate at a time
in the day most convenient for them, without having to neglect their job or finding
someone for childcare. Indeed, in these interviews, I often listened to women detail
the most private and intense moments of their lives. These experiences demonstrated
how telephone interviewing can, and perhaps should, be used when talking with par-
ticipants about traumatic or devastating events. I found that researching sensitive
subjects via a telephone interview can benefit the participant because they are being
interviewed in familiar, comfortable settings and can dictate the course and direction
of the interview.
A potential result of this article, as well as an area of future study, could be to fur-
ther consider how the anonymity of a telephone interview can lead to more empower-
ment on the part of the participant, while also presenting new challenges to the
researcher. These challenges will continue to grow as technology changes, and the
need for further study on the means of interviewing participants, through social
media, cell phone and mobile video messaging, video conferencing, texting, chatting
and so on, becomes as much a part of daily life as the telephone has been. Indeed,
these areas have become natural forms of communication. It would be interesting to
further study whether participants are becoming more comfortable in interviews
where they are not face-to-face with a researcher. Furthermore, as Morgan and Fraser
(2010) point out, advances in technology have generational appeal because young
people are more likely to participate in and get excited about using technological
trends as part of gathering data or when participating in studies. This could lead to a
focus on how technology is benefiting participants, rather than focus on technology
as a benefit to the researcher.

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or
not-for-profit sectors.
Trier-Bieniek 643

Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Dr Patricia Leavy; Dr Michael Gillespie; Matthew Dufon, MAED,
Amanda Pullum, MS and Lisa Kruse, MA and the four anonymous reviewers for their helpful com-
ments on early drafts of this article. She also thanks Dr Angie Moe for guidance during the early
writing stages.

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Biographical note
Adrienne Trier-Bieniek focuses her research on the emotional, healing and activist impact that
music has on women through a feminist approach to the study of music and gender. She is the
author of the forthcoming book Sing Us a Song Piano Woman: Female Fans and the Music of Tori
Amos which will be published by Scarecrow Press, and can be reached at www.adriennetrier-
bieniek.com