Managing productive academia/industry relations: the interview as research method

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article addresses key questions around the use of the semi-structured interview as both a research method and a means of managing productive academia/industry relations. It argues that the establishment of trust is crucial to the effective use of interviews as a data gathering strategy for production studies research, and to the building of a sustained research dialogue with practitioners. It offers some strategies for trust building, and highlights the benefits that can then flow from conducting multiple interviews with individual practitioners as their careers develop. The insights offered here are applicable beyond the genre of the research project from which they emerged, which is a current Australian Research Council grant-funded project examining global trends in the production and distribution of children’s television. The project engages with the production ecology (Steemers, J. 2010. Creating Pre-school Television: A Story of Commerce, Creativity and Curriculum. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan) of children’s television; that is the industrial, economic, creative and regulatory influences that shape its creation, using a range of disciplinary approaches. Some of the challenges researchers face when engaging in sustained research collaborations with industry practitioners and stakeholders are also discussed, including the risks of a perceived loss of impartiality and independence.