Keywords: Face to Face, CAPI, Methodology

Each discipline has its measurement tool, be it a thermometer, clock, MRI, or voltmeter. For public opinion research, we tend to think that our measurement tool is the questionnaire. However, when administered by an interviewer, the interviewer her- or himself becomes part of the tool.
What do we know about the interviewers that use a random route, knock on strangers’ doors, and manage to have a conversation with a random person in the household? Have any of us ever imagined what goes on during this script?
Who are the people who choose to do this, and develop a career of probing strangers to tell them what’s on their minds? How do these people do it? What do they like about their job, and what are the challenges they face?
Face to face interviewers are our proxy to the people. We provide them with a questionnaire, and they provide us with raw data. However, between the two there lies a process that is mostly unknow to us and has a huge impact on our studies.
Since getting to know our interviewers better involves our own emotions and experiences, we decided that a proxy meeting with them will be a better way of understanding what goes on in the field. They listen to our sample; we should listen to them.
Documentary film directors/producers Dana Melaver and Tom Claudon give us a glimpse of precisely that: listening to the listeners. In their short documentary (10-15 minutes) they talk to career interviewers, see them at work, and let them communicate with the end clients.
These interviewers share with us why they do it, how they do it, and provide several tips that have to do with questionnaire formulation, preventing bias, and much more.
The unique presentation format – a documentary film – will help the audience to assimilate not only the functional aspects of the process, but will also provide an emotional experience that may aid in project and methodology planning.
The film will be presented by Nirit Avnimelech, Managing Director at PORI; she will also answer questions by the audience.
Note to Conference Committee: this documentary was shown at the 2024 WAPOR conference. However, the panel in which it was shown was not dedicated to the subject of interviewer-administered surveys, and therefore was missed by several members who would benefit from the exposure to the interviewers' point of view.