Contents
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Preparation: Research
Preparation: Questions
Conducting: Questions
Conducting: Structure
Conducting: Recording
After the interview

SPEAK INTO THE MIC, PLEASE

Many devices and apps are available to record conversations. The prof and TAs can help you find, figure out, and troubleshoot many different kinds. Here are some recommendations:

Recording
  • For the iPhone, I recommend Voice Record Pro (free). This app lets you export to mp3 and send to your email.
  • For Android phones, try Cogi (free). This also allows exporting via email as well as Dropbox, etc.
  • Want to borrow a recorder? ACMS has a limited number available for checkout. Students should talk to Prof. Irani if they want to exercise that option.
  • For Skype, there are apps available to record calls/videos. On Windows, try Pamela (free/$25) or MP3 Skype Recorder (free). On Mac, I've used Ecamm's Call Recorder with great success; it's not free ($30), but there is a free weeklong trial version.

Transcription
  • Try F4 (free). It lets you play back mp3s slowly so you can type out excerpts.


Note taking vs. recording

You’ll be recording interviews for this assignment. This does not mean that you won’t be taking notes, as well.

The actual practice of note taking has a few distinct advantages:

  1. It focuses your attention on what’s being said, forcing you to listen.
  2. Taking notes allows the interviewee to see you working, to see you scribbling down what they say, making them feel important (and thus wanting to keep talking).
  3. It’s a backup for technological perils. Trust me, there is no worse feeling in the world than working through an hour-long interview without taking notes only to find, at the end, that the machine wasn’t working the whole time. Be careful not to take notes so much that you lose sufficient eye contact with your subject. In my journalism career, I never recorded interviews; I always wrote my notes. As a result, I became skilled at writing without looking at the pad. It can be done.

Many interviewees, however, are intimidated by the unflinching presence of a recorder. How can you deal with that? Ask permission (at the beginning, before hitting Record), explain why it benefits them (tell them your interest is to present them as accurately as possible, and that this is the best way to make them look their best), and offer to turn it off whenever they want to.