I wanted to take the opportunity and use this blogpost to talk about the topic of interviews for my research.
In class, we conducted interviews with each other – originally aimed at practicing how to handle an interview situation, which pointers to have in mind, how to interact with the interview partner and how to document the talk. I have to admit, however, that for me it turned out to be not just valuable as a practice opportunity but actually helped me in figuring out some key questions that I want/need to ask in my research. Furthermore, the talk with my interview partner already offered some interesting insights and new approaches I had not yet fully considered.
The interview I conducted was all about the topic of science communication with the following questions being at the center of the conversation:
- Of course, it is a very large field, but are you generally interested in science and research?
- Are there areas that are of special interest to you?
- Which sources do you use for getting information about (scientific) topics?
- Which formats do you find interesting?
- How do you like content that is, for instance, being presented via social media, in podcasts or posters?
- Can you think of any platforms/accounts/creators that are focused on scientific content?
- Do you follow science platforms / accounts / creators?
- If you get in touch with a scientific topic, for instance through a fun fact, are you interested in exploring the topic further?
Essentially, I wanted to find out about my interview partner’s personal experiences and opinions about the general topic of science communication formats. I was particularly interested if, and if yes which, science communication channels are interesting for the other person.
Although I tried to be neutral when I asked my questions, I was hoping for answers that support my general opinion on the potential of science communication formats and I was pleased to see that, at least in this case, I was under the impression that I am on the right track with my topic.
To give a short recap and analysis of the interview: the interview partner, while not having a specific interest in science topics, showed general curiosity and openness to them. He stated the platform YouTube, in particular, as the main source of engaging with science content. Even though he is not specifically searching for that kind of content, he has come across it through, for example, the suggested videos page and by now does follow some accounts and creators that he has learned to value for their appealing treatments of scientific topics. The way these creators present their topics and the trust in their reliability that accumulated over time are pivotal in the interview partner’s willingness to consume such specific content, the topics themselves not even mattering as much as the knowledge that a certain channel or person will present them in an appealing way.
Overall, the interview was extremely helpful for shifting my attention to YouTube as an important platform for educational content and gave me some ideas as to what matters when getting people to watch/consume scientific content. It leads me to believe that the „how“ is more important than the „what“. While the „what“ is something I believe is crucial when deciding which topics could be worth knowing about, the „how“ probably is an extremely important subject, especially in the beginning, where building trust with the public community might be more important than instantly teaching about complex issues. Furthermore, the way a topic is being presented can make or break the viewer’s interest. Essentially, it does not matter what one is talking about, it could be the most theoretical, boring information but if it is presented with enthusiasm, made to be entertaining, interesting and/or impressive, people can get inspired by it. Of course, the same is valid the other way around – viewers could lose interest in the most interesting topic if the presentation lacks all the attributes mentioned above.
I will definitely conduct further interviews to see which touch points are natural for people and what platforms and formats currently matter to them.
For that purpose, I put together a questionnaire that I just published as part of this blog posts topic. (If you are reading this, feel free to complete the survey, I would appreciate anyone taking the time to do so!)
It picks up on the questions I asked in my test interview with a bit more It is currently open for answers in the hopes of getting more insights that will help me create better science focused content.
The survey can be found here:
