I want to ask whether a researcher can take interview in Qualitative Research using Messenger Chat (Facebook, skype or Whatsapp) and consider the chat as Transcripts for carrying out qualitative research?
Yes, so far as you are able to collect the information you wanted.
The best is to have a live oral discussion and transcribe (write it down word for word) the discussion through recording the live verbal spoken discussion. The audio recording provides much more detail about the tone and the visual recording provides details about the non-verbal reactions accompanying the spoken words. If you simply use a written interview form then that is not exactly a 'transcription' it is a "written narrative" or simply a "Q & A" (question and answer) and not as high a value as the audio-visual documented oral interview on Skype (TM) or another venue. If you aim to have valuable findings I'd perform an audio-video recording of the interview and transcribe it word for word and enter the non-verbal cues. In this way you include the emotions invested in the discussion and report them through quantitative measures (number of frowns or smiles, duration of utterances, number of hand movements, etc.) transforming a qualitative into a combined quantitative AND qualitative methodology.
My main concern is that the replies in most chat sessions are quite short, so you would miss the depth and detail that is one of the main strengths of qualitative interviewing.
actually chat can be measured quantitatively too, though Dr. Morgan is correct, the actual psychological study value of studying chat is low, though statistically the low quality chat study could effectively be used to advance a product, as in PR campaigning - Trump has been extremely successful and utilizes the low chat quality of Twitter (TM) to advance his policies through media citing how many thumbs up he receives on his 'tweets' for the 'wall' and how many positive 'comments' versus negative comments in the Twitter (TM) 'chats'
I considered to use social media comments for a qualitative analysis but I decided against it because as mentioned by Prof David L Morgan there is no possibility for in-depth analysis.
Precisely, it is not possible to identifying the "meaning which is not explicitly evident in the data; the ideas, assumptions or concepts that underpin what is explicitly stated in the data" (Braun and Clarke, 2013).
Literature:
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. sage.
You can develop a perception based on chart or on investigative issue you can do but not good for general issue
Seems like the next gen of qualitative research that explores such social media chats. However, ethical standards must be observed, as the people who are chatting may not agree with such research into their chats.
yes..it is possible, but please consider an important requirement of qualitative interview in which informants have to sign a letter of consent. it is really concerned with trustworthiness and authenticity of the research. bear in mind that such chats are limited in terms of details and information exploration.
face to face in depth interview is still much better for qualitative research, though.
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