Interview Analysis Report_michelle Diab

Interview Analysis Report Movieforums.com Submitted 29th October 2009 Michelle Diab DIGC102 University of Wollongong

Acknowledgements

Special thanks are given to the research participants whose answers were analysed in this report. Thank you for your time, patience and thorough responses to the questions you were presented with. Without your aid this research report would not be possible.

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Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 2 Table of Contents........................................................................................................... 4 Introduction.................................................................................................................... 5 Discussion...................................................................................................................... 6 Conclusion...................................................................................................................... 9 Appendix...................................................................................................................... 10 Interview Number 1 (a).............................................................................................10 Interview Number 2 (b).............................................................................................12 Interview Number 3 (c).............................................................................................14

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Introduction This report was commissioned to discuss and decode an interview analysis on three users of the website movieforums.com. The users were female university students aged between 18 and 25 years-old. The objective of this report is to examine how users present themselves when they are immersed in an online community of interest. The theory being tested is that Movie Forums users feel a greater sense of well-being from their interaction with the forum and other users, one that is on a different level to real-life communication. This theory will be analysed in terms of the users’ honesty, integrity and devotion to Movie Forums. The subjects were asked a series of 16 questions in relation to their interaction with the forum itself, and other forum users. Thus, the body of this report is divided into two sections: user-to-forum interaction and user-to-user interaction. This report focuses solely on the technique of interview analysis and therefore, accuracy of results are limited as the two other major forms of analysis – conversational and observational – are disregarded. Another boundary which the report is working within is a confined study group. Only three interviews were conducted and these results may not represent the majority of Movie Forums users.

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Discussion User-to-forum Interaction The interview subjects were analysed through their answers in terms of how they interact with the website movieforums.com. It was important to analyse this type of interaction via interview analysis, as it demonstrates how users pursue their interests through an online identity. The subject in interview (a) engages with the forum spontaneously and for her own specific interests, highlighting that she has a defined movie persona. She does not feel secretive in her participation, indicating that she does not feel ashamed to use the forum, and that she does not feel like it is a separate part of her life. However, her passion for movies which is not-shared with her friends is what draws her to the forum, supporting the hypothesis which states that users experience a greater sense of well-being by using the forum. The theory is also supported by the fact that the user does not display a picture of her physical self in her profile- indicating that she steps into a new persona, therefore experiencing different feelings and emotions through movie conversation which is of great interest to her. Interview subject (b) demonstrates her immersion in the forum as it has impacted her daily thoughts and activities. This is shown through her answer to question 5, in which she calls movie forums a “hobby” and thinks about posting a review on every movie she watches. The theory is also supported by the fact that she chose to use a profile image not of herself, in order to follow a trend within the forum. This is on a different level to real-life interaction; however, it is parallel in the sense that people often mimic others in their environment. From her responses, it is evident that interview subject number (b) is insecure about her Movie Forum participation and does not experience feelings of wellbeing, proving inconsistency with the theory. The user “floats around” the Michelle Diab

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forum and has not yet formed an identity within the community, although she does possess a slight interest in movies. “The uncertainty of who you are talking to” is an important point made by this user, and a deterrent for her participation on the website. This interviewee demonstrates that lack of participation and self-generated content leads to an unsuccessful interaction with the forum.

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User-to-user Interaction It is important to analyse how users feel about their interaction with other users, because this can connote their overall feelings about the forum. Interview subject (a) demonstrates feelings of trust in relation to other users, as she is influenced by their reviews. The fact that the user gets angry when other users refute her reviews, shows that she experiences emotions that she would experience in real life. Thus, this contradicts the initial theory as the user treats the forum like a real life relationship. The user seems to treat Movie Forums as an extension of her real-life and not on a different level. She does this because she does not have anyone else to talk to about movies, other than on Movie Forums. Thus, her participation seems very similar to parallel activities in the real world, and Movie Forums does not evoke different emotions; rather, it is a convenient community of common interests. Interview subject (b) described her experiences with other users as “rewarding” when they agree with her review. It is unlikely that a person would find the same satisfaction out of a person in real-life agreeing to their opinion on a film. Perhaps this demonstrates that user (b) puts a considerable amount of effort into her responses and reviews on Movie Forums, and is pleased when others praise or agree with her response. Her answer to question 7 corresponds with the theory as she enjoys the type of forum interaction rather than real-life, as each response can “carry more depth”. This shows that she views her forum participation in a different light to real-life, therefore evoking a greater sense of well being.

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Conclusion A finding derived from the interview analysis is that not every user interacts with the forum in the same way. Generally, the users treated the forum different to their real-life activities, and focused on the positive rather than negative aspects of the forum. It appears as if they do feel a greater sense of well being from using the forum; perhaps because they are interacting with people who share the same interests as them and therefore user-to-user interaction in a closed community is beneficial.

Strengths of email interview analysis •

The ability to ask a variety of questions allows the subjects to be analysed from a large number of angles.

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Not much effort is required once the questions have been compiled and results are often easy to interpret. It is very useful to have the raw data ready to be compared and contrasted.

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Answers were direct and straightforward.

Weaknesses of email interview analysis •

Answers are somewhat unreliable as the data is being tampered with. The interview subjects answered the questions in their own time and results may have been answered incorrectly (for instance, if they did not understand the question’s actual meaning or did not want to answer truthfully).

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Some of the answers were simply ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and it was difficult to follow up on these as it is important not to push the candidates further into answering.

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Interviewing 3 users is not as reliable as analysing the conversations of all of the users which has been untouched/un-staged, and offers a more diverse range of case studies, and thus, a more accurate conclusion to be drawn.

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Appendix

Interview Number 1 (a) 1. To what extent are your movie choices influenced by other user reviews on Movie Forums? My movie choices are not entirely influenced by other users reviews. However if it does seem that a majority of movie reviews are negative I will not be so compelled to see that movie. But I try and give every movie a chance! 2. What types of emotions are evoked when you find many agreeing with your responses? Could you compare these feelings to those experienced in person-to-person interaction? I do feel as if I was right! And I would most likely get the same feeling if it was person to person. 3. How do you feel when people refute your review on a movie? Do you take it to heart? If I am passionate about a film I do get somewhat pissed off at first, but after a lot of thinking the review is of the opinion of another person after all. 4. Within what context do you navigate around Movie Forums? Do you follow particular users/genre or do you float around? Why? I navigate myself to topics that I find interesting. This applies to the whole website! 5. Do you feel as if your forum participation is secretive and do you feel the need to review every movie you have seen? I don’t really feel secretive in my participation. When reviewing, I tend to only review the movies that I have really enjoyed or in my opinion really sucked. 6. What provokes you to use movie forums and share your thoughts with other users? Because it’s a interest, and in my personal life my friends don’t have the same interests as me, and this is a way for me to talk to other people who share common ground as myself. 7. Do you feel as if it is easier to express yourself via Movie Forums than in real life conversation? Why? Yes it is because in my real life, as I said, my friends aren’t as passionate in movies like I am, so most of the time I talk to friends about movies it either a minimal amount of conversation or it feels like I am talking to a brick wall! Michelle Diab

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8. Why did you choose that profile image to represent you and why not use a real image of yourself? Because its one of my favorite cartoon characters! I would like to keep my appearance a secret. 9. How do you structure your movie reviews? Is there a specific way you go about writing them, or do you write whatever spontaneously? In reviews, I tend to give a small description about the movie without any spoilers, then I address the flaws with the story line and characters and then I focus on the positives. 10. How has the use of movie forums shaped your daily/weekly activities? I wonder on a few times a week to see what’s new and if anything interesting has been posted. 11. What makes you feel like a significant part of this community? When people respond to my reviews. 12. In what ways is the forum lacking? In terms of engagement, interactivity, creativity, manifestation of information and so forth? I have no problems with it. It simple and that’s what I like.. 13. Movie forums are popular over the internet, why did you choose movieforums.com? Simple Google search! 14. When reviewing movies, have you somehow developed a relationship with fellow users who you are constantly talking to on the web site, and where have these lead? (Constantly arguing on boards, or civilized conversations throughout forums etc)? There have been some regular users posting comments but that’s the only extent. 15. Through past conversations, have you felt compelled to use inappropriate language to get your point across, and what lead you to this? No. Most people on the website do not use inappropriate language but you do get the needle in a haystack. 16. Is there anything else you would like to add about Movie Forums? Nope.

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Interview Number 2 (b) 1. To what extent are your movie choices influenced by other user reviews on Movie Forums? They impact my choices quite often. I see other users as having very valid opinions. If something was to gain a good review I would definitely consider seeing it and if a film was gaining a few bad reviews, well I might stay clear of it. 2. What types of emotions are evoked when you find many agreeing with your responses? Could you compare these feelings to those experienced in person-to-person interaction? Well considering that my post are mainly my thoughts and opinions, to have some agree is pretty rewarding. I suppose it is good to see that someone got the same response out of the film that I did. 3. How do you feel when people refute your review on a movie? Do you take it to heart? Well I probably will disagree with them on another movie, so I don't take it to much to heart. They are all peoples opinions so we are definitely going to come across people disagreeing at some points. 4. Within what context do you navigate around Movie Forums? Do you follow particular users/genre or do you float around? Why? I consider myself a floater. I tend to follow a few of the topic that I like commenting on more closely, like the Movie Reviews and Top 100 films. 5. Do you feel as if your forum participation is secretive and do you feel the need to review every movie you have seen? I tend to review every movie I see, but not because I feel like I'm forced to but because I like doing it. I see it as a sort of hobby, and after each film I'm thinking about what I'm going to post. 6. What provokes you to use movie forums and share your thoughts with other users? Well I have already established relationships with other users, so when I tend to post do want to know what they all think. 7. Do you feel as if it is easier to express yourself via Movie Forums than in real life conversation? Why? I like the delay of thinking about my responses over the internet. It makes the Michelle Diab

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discussions more interesting and each response can carry more depth. 8. Why did you choose that profile image to represent you and why not use a real image of yourself? Well when I joined up other users didn't have their real images up, so I sort of just followed the trend. 9. How do you structure your movie reviews? Is there a specific way you go about writing them, or do you write whatever spontaneously? Well each movie is different so each review I write is going to be different depending on what the film does for me. 10. How has the use of movie forums shaped your daily/weekly activities? I like to go on a few times a week even if I don't post anything, I like to keep up to date with what is going on in the site.

11. What makes you feel like a significant part of this community? I would say people discussing my posts. 12. In what ways is the forum lacking? In terms of engagement, interactivity, creativity, manifestation of information and so forth? I'm not sure what is lacking, but it is slowly getting better. We can now posts links and thinks which makes explaining so much easier. 13. Movie forums are popular over the internet, why did you choose movieforums.com? I stumble upon it one day and signed up straight away. 14. When reviewing movies, have you somehow developed a relationship with fellow users who you are constantly talking to on the web site, and where have these lead? (constantly arguing on boards, or civilized conversations throughout forums etc)? A few of the other users I have developed certain relationships with. Sometimes when I go to post, I know that a certain user is probably going to reply to my thoughts. 15. Through past conversations, have you felt compelled to use inappropriate language to get your point across, and what lead you to this? Never. There are disagreements but they are quite civil and I think that we all know that movies can be different for everyone and they are all quite opinionated. 16. Is there anything else you would like to add about Movie Forums? I love that as a user we control the site and fuel its content. I enjoy discussing not only movies that I have seen, but movies that haven't even been made yet.

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Interview Number 3 (c) 1. To what extent are your movie choices influenced by other user reviews on Movie Forums? I believe the internet movie forum does influence my movie choices although not based on the personal opinion of other users rather their movie overview that they have posted. I read the reviews to find out who is in the film and the storyline that is being portrayed and make a personal, non-influenced decision based on the facts given to me. 2. What types of emotions are evoked when you find many agreeing with your responses? Could you compare these feelings to those experienced in person-to-person interaction? No, I wouldn’t compare the feelings of emotions to those experienced in person-tp person interaction as some conversations can be misconstrued without the use of tone and gestures which is carried out through person-to-person interaction. 3. How do you feel when people refute your review on a movie? Do you take it to heart? It is slightly dissatisfying when people refute a review when they attack it on a personal level. I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion and enjoy discussing movies on the website although when they are personal attacks on movie choices it can sometimes be taken to heart. 4. Within what context do you navigate around Movie Forums? Do you follow particular users/genre or do you float around? Why? I float around at this present time as I am still considered a new user and have not yet fully understood how to navigate around the website or particular users with similar tastes. 5. Do you feel as if your forum participation is secretive and do you feel the need to review every movie you have seen? Yes, I do feel my participation as secretive as it is not something my social group Michelle Diab

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usually partakes within. No, I don’t need to review every movie just the ones that I have a strong opinion on. 6. What provokes you to use movie forums and share your thoughts with other users? When I have a strong opinion on a movie and want to share it with other users. It is good to discuss your thoughts with other individuals who share the same passion. 7. Do you feel as if it is easier to express yourself via Movie Forums than in real life conversation? Why? No, because you have to think about what you are going to say and you do not know exactly who you are talking to as everyone uses code names. I prefer to know who I am talking to. 8. Why did you choose that profile image to represent you and why not use a real image of yourself? I have chosen not to put a picture up to preserve my identity. 9. How do you structure your movie reviews? Is there a specific way you go about writing them, or do you write whatever spontaneously? Structure in an essay form as this is the way I have grown up and learnt to write and review. 10. How has the use of movie forums shaped your daily/weekly activities? Not many at this point in time although, I believe as my leisure time increases after the spring university session movieforums.com will shape my daily/weekly activities. 11. What makes you feel like a significant part of this community? When I am a part of a discussion or review comment. 12. In what ways is the forum lacking? In terms of engagement, interactivity, creativity, manifestation of information and so forth? Just the uncertainty of who you are talking to and interacting with. 13. Movie forums are popular over the internet, why did you choose movieforums.com? It was a popular search engine result. 14. When reviewing movies, have you somehow developed a relationship with fellow users who you are constantly talking to on the web site, and where have these lead? (Constantly arguing on boards, or civilized conversations throughout forums etc)? Not at this present moment, although this could be a possibility in the future. 15. Through past conversations, have you felt compelled to use inappropriate language to get your point across, and what lead you to this? No, I believe using profanity is inappropriate and not necessary. 16. Is there anything else you would like to add about Movie Forums? No Michelle Diab

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