Livingstone, Sonia
2010
Giving People a Voice: On the Critical Role of the Interview in the History of Audience Research

Following Lazarsfeld, interviews have been conducted as “powerful interviewer and obedient interviewee” (p. 566). Then audience research moved on to try and learn from the audience. But with the emergence of New Media researchers tend to forget this. They talk of ‘now people are active and they used to be passive,’ which of course is BS. And they tend to talk about ‘the user’ and listen less.

569f
“This reminds us that at the heart of the interview is not only speech but also listening. A poorly conducted interview may be marked both by an interviewee reluctant to speak and by an interviewer who fails to listen carefully. But ask we must, and listen we must, for it is vital to go out and meet the audiences we theorize about.”