Semiotic theory on qualitative interviewing using stimulus texts

Abstract

In qualitative research interviewing we can use stimulus texts (such as photos, films, adverts, sketches, news, historical sources) as devices for encouraging our interviewees to speak about the research topic. In literature this subject has, however, received very minor analytical interest. This article proposes that there are at least three analytically separate strategies for selecting and using stimulus texts in the production and analysis of interview data. In qualitative research, stimulus objects may be used as clues, as microcosms or as provokers. The different strategies imply different research designs, interview procedures and ways of analyzing the data. When we use stimulus texts as clues, we build the interview session so that the texts, together with the interview questions, induce our interviewees to extrapolate how the texts stand for the whole (metonymy). When we use stimulus texts as microcosms, we pose the interview questions so that our interviewees compare their worlds and identity positions against those of the stimulus objects (mimesis, identification). When stimulus texts are used as provokers, the researcher chooses cultural products that challenge, with the aid of provocative questions, the interviewees to deal with the established meanings, conventions and practices (symbolic dimension, naturalness, normality) of the phenomenon under examination.