Preparing A Cancer Interview Report

It can be challenging to conduct an interview with another person. Especially when you know the interview needs to be safe, comfortable, and produce useful knowledge. How should you go about making sure these criteria are met? I explored these topics in hopes of gaining new knowledge of interview skills.

The type of interview I wanted to conduct was a health topic that had personal meaning to me. Ever since my father was diagnosed with cancer, I have been more attuned to the mentions of cancer in the media I consume. I wanted to get more information on how people without the personal connection comprehend the topic in media. My main theme did not change at all as time went on, as the more I thought about it, the more I was interested in it.

Also, some of them were vague and not relevant to my main theme. I was having a difficult time fixing these issues, but the second workshop helped me get out of that slump, and I used the feedback to edit my questions. The third workshop aided me in my interviewing strategy. The questions I ended up using were asking the participant if she had any preconceived ideas of what cancer patients looked and acted like. I followed those questions with how that perception related to the representation of cancer patients in media. I thought it would be interesting to see how her own thoughts contrasted with the popular portrayal. I ended the interview by asking her what her opinion of cancer being depicted in media that does not take the topic seriously. I included this last question because I was not sure where I stood on the topic myself and was hoping to gain some

I was quite nervous beforehand, but once the interview began, I became more comfortable. I could tell the participant felt the same way. Her answers got more detailed as the interview went on, confirming she got more comfortable as the interview progressed. My participant began by answering the questions with short answers, and I had to reword the questions or ask her to elaborate to eventually get the information-rich answers I was hoping for. I stopped having to prompt her about halfway through, as she understood more what type of answers I was looking for. Other than rewording the questions or prompting for an expansion on an idea, I did not say much to the participant. I did not want to persuade her with any of my own personal ideas on the