Video Link: https://youtu.be/HXYvSWPUK04
Article Link: https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0143622810001141?token=5FC14DEECCAFAD282CE7A95896AE3F5674C22A999FF42595B85C92253FE51CCBC027F1A1AF60CF96044F99BDD0770F1D&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20211003222657
Reference:
Evans, J., & Jones, P. (2011). The walking interview: Methodology, mobility and place. Applied Geography, 31(2), 849–858. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2010.09.005
Summary:
Researched a unique article on Google Scholar, and stumbled upon a great read. The piece was titled The Walking Interview: Methodology, mobility, and pace, and was written by two authors, James Evans and Phil Jones. In the article, Evans and Jones relayed findings from a study that compared two interview practices: the common, sedentary one, and the more informal interview that involves movement. Since the early to mid 2000’s, emphasis on mobility in interviews has been studied by researchers in the social science field. Difference in walking interviews compared to sedentary interviews that are in motion. What we see in the article is an experiment conducted on random residents of a town that either have a walking interview, a sedentary one, or both at different time intervals. For context, the experiment took place in an area known as Digbeth, which can be found in Birmingham, England. This area was ideal because of the varying landscape, which a person may typically industrial buildings and apartments to canals and parks. GPS was used to track movements, and take some pressure away from the interviewer in taking down notes and vantage points. In addition, the tracking system can gain the quantitative data that most interviews lack. Some key takeaways resulted in the end, one of them being that walking interviews last longer. Typically due to the fact that once the researcher stopped posing questions, the sitting interview usually expired. However, while walking, outside stimuli could trigger continued conversation. Weather and noise during the walking interviews did not show any statistical significance, however, the article does mention that could be skewed by the relatively low amount of data points and pretty similar weather days. For beginner researchers, gathering data through a walking interview may be more beneficial because of the stimulated interviewee. However, a drawback to the walking method is that the environment can distract participants, and a sedentary approach is more reliable if autobiographical content is desired. For my project, interviews could be helpful in several different ways. Being interested in recruiting and the skills that are required to land great recruits, whether it be sports or business, conducting interviews is an integral part of that process. It will be nice to have some sort of knowledge on the scientific side of interviews, because important decisions can be made off great or poorly executed interviews with desired participants. In addition to learning about being a better recruiter, interviews can also be used to warn new individuals to the harshness and possible punishments of recruiting violations. Adds an emotional tone, which is personalized and should resonate with the audience more.