Expanding the Reach of the Interview in Audience and Reception Research: The Performative and Participatory Models of Interview

This chapter discusses the interview method in relation to context, a central notion in audience studies. Through a critique of the traditional conception of the interview method as a question-answer model, the chapter suggests two different articulations of the interview method in the framework of a contextual inquiry: the performative and participatory models of interview. These models are presented in their original theoretical, methodological and empirical contexts and then highlighted along four methodological considerations that help position audience research towards the challenges of a contextual inquiry.