Using messy map interviews to describe and analyse elements pertinent to interviewees

Abstract

In this article, I introduce and evaluate the use of messy map interviews. Based on messy situational maps, messy map interviews is an interview tool I have developed to facilitate understanding of elements pertinent to interviewees. I present and evaluate how the tool contributes to interview studies that aim to describe and analyse elements pertinent to interviewees. This is done by use of an exemplar of working with messy map interviews, exploring parental decision-making about human papillomavirus vaccination. Based on the results, the study shows that messy map interviews can help keep qualitative research loyal to what interviewees ascribe relevance to. Furthermore, the tool can potentially help nuance the analysis of how elements are understood by interviewees. The article concludes that messy map interviews can be a useful mapping tool that keeps interviewees’ perspectives in focus in interview studies.

How Perceptions of Responsibility and Affective Consequences Influence Parents’ Digital Media Engagement in Relation to Human Papillomavirus Vaccination

“…I conducted the interviews by asking the parents to make messy maps about the HPV vaccination situation and by use of semi-structured interview questions (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015; Nordtug, 2020). Messy map interviews is an interview tool inspired by Clarke’s situational maps, and it is a technique in which interviewees map relevant elements in a situation (Clarke et al, 2018; Nordtug, 2020).…”

“…I conducted the interviews by asking the parents to make messy maps about the HPV vaccination situation and by use of semi-structured interview questions (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015; Nordtug, 2020). Messy map interviews is an interview tool inspired by Clarke’s situational maps, and it is a technique in which interviewees map relevant elements in a situation (Clarke et al, 2018; Nordtug, 2020). The messy maps were created by giving the parents pieces of paper and a pen and asking them to map elements based on open-ended questions such as “If I say HPV vaccination, could you write down everything that somehow matters in relation to that?”.…”

Digital mapping as feminist method: critical reflections

“…While mapping as a method itself is not new – having well-documented use in research across disciplines and from a wealth of different methodological perspectives (see, e.g. Allen and Queen, 2015; Clark, 2011; Hall and Smith, 2014; Nordtug, 2020; Suddick et al, 2020; Sweet and Ortiz Escalante, 2017) – the use of digital mapping and its application in qualitative social sciences research remains under-examined.…”

“…As Levell’s research involved participants who could be considered vulnerable, her use of this method also aimed to enhance participants’ ‘control and agency to decide the topics discussed’ (2019: 3). I argue that digital mapping can similarly work to enhance participants’ control over how they share their experiences and facilitate active participation in the research process, as well as serving a generative role lending itself to the co-construction of a rich and nuanced dataset (see also Boschmann and Cubbon, 2014; Datta and Ahmed, 2020; Nordtug, 2020).…”

Who knows best? Health risks and digital media engagement in Discourses relating to human papillomavirus vaccination

“…The analysis was conducted in two steps. Initially, I coded the entire data set according to the elements the parents deemed pertinent in the interviews (Nordtug, 2020). I understand ‘elements’ here as everything that constitutes a situation, that matters in a situation or that makes a difference in a situation (Clarke et al, 2018).…”