Invisibility by Choice: Telephone Interviews as an Opportunity for More Inclusive and Participant-Centred Qualitative Research

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many qualitative researchers to consider alternative interview modes to face-to-face interviewing. While video communication platforms have gained immense popularity, video interviewing has been the focus of much of the post-pandemic methodological literature, with less attention paid to telephone interviewing. Both modes can produce data that are as rich as those generated in face-to-face interviews while offering greater cost efficiency, flexibility, and safety. Telephone interviews have been criticised for their lack of visual cues, whereas video interviews are said to exclude individuals without access to the necessary technology. In this article, I discuss the continued relevance of telephone interviews in qualitative research, based on a comparison of 62 narrative interviews with 33 former welfare recipients—some conducted face to face and some by telephone—as all research participants declined the use of video platforms. The findings indicate that similarly rich data could be generated with both modes, provided that research participants were allowed to choose the interview mode with which they felt most comfortable. Furthermore, offering telephone interviews created opportunities to include individuals who wished to be heard but not seen. I therefore propose adapting to potential research participants' needs by allowing them to choose their preferred interview mode to enable more inclusive and participant-centred research.