Often, it is not enough to passively archive and analyse traces of online social interactions (for example, posts and comments to a Facebook group). To achieve the type of nuanced and rich understanding of digital cultural phenomena that Netnography is geared towards, investigative (passive) practices are often complemented by interactive (active) practices, perhaps most commonly in the form of interviews (Kozinets, 2020). Interviews enable a better understanding of the interactions you, as a researcher, observe during participant observations and offer a window to a subjective understanding of the participants’ perspectives, such as how things are experienced and interpreted. Following this idea, we may even propose that actions as such cannot sufficiently provide explanations of cultural phenomena. For example, as a researcher, you will use your own words when you take notes while scouting digital sites and reading through collected archive material. To understand the perspective of the participants, you need to speak to participants who can provide inside insights and descriptions of their community or consocial context, using words and concepts that have specific meanings to them and their social setting (cf. Spradley, 1979). 

Interviews may be understood as a collaboration to find topics to discuss that are meaningful for both parties (Davies, 2008). Kozinets (2010, 2020) stresses the importance of keeping an open mind during interviews to pick up on surprising answers or interesting topics in need of more information and remember to ask clarifying questions to understand the participant’s perspective. Establishing and developing a relationship with the participant, where you understand and trust each other sufficiently, is also important. This relation-building will be conditioned by the researcher and participant's identity and may be developed and fostered through interaction and immersion during fieldwork. 

For interviews in Netnography, you can use a wide variety of approaches: group-based or individual, formal or informal, structured or unstructured, synchronous or asynchronous, in person or online (using, for example, Zoom, FaceTime, or Google Hangouts). Your research project should influence your choice of interview approach, including style, length, and focus. Online interviews, a common alternative in Netnographies, are similar to conventional interviews. You need to approach a participant, ask for her to be interviewed and secure informed consent, and then conduct the interview-like conversation where you, as a researcher, primarily ask the questions. Before the interviews start, you should construct an interview guide or a ‘discussion guide’ that should be constructed carefully based on your research questions and possibly pretested and revised. Your interview guide should typically include an opening (introducing the study, the interview, and breaking the ice), a set of questions (broad questions to identify and explore relevant issues, narrow questions to explore details and to clarify), and a closing (what will happen next). In the literature, you will find several good instructions for preparing and conducting research interviews (see below for further readings). To learn more about the basics of designing an interview guide, try this word puzzle:

---

References

• Davies, C. A. (2008). Reflexive ethnography: A guide to researching selves and others. London: Routledge.
• Kozinets, R.V. (2020). Netnography: The essential guide to qualitative social media research (3 ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Chapter 9
• Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative interviewing. Qualitative research and evaluation methods, 3(1), 344-347.
• Spradley, J. P. (1979). The ethnographic interview. New York: Holt.