This chapter describes and analyses the research process undertaken in the work. Secondary data relevant to telecommunications social policies and literature discussing disability and telecommunications issues were analysed to inform the interview process. After obtaining a basic understanding of the issues, in-depth interviews were conducted. However, contemporaneously, the research of relevant documents and literature continued. The interviews were reflexive in the ethnographic sense (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1983, 112-113) although they followed a strict research focus and specific topics pursued.
Three seminal works that describe, analyse and evaluate the history of telecommunications policy in Australia provided an initial understanding of Telstra and Government policy and are listed in research sequential order:
As well as providing a useful historical overview of telecommunications, in varying degrees each author also addressed issues of access and equity in the provision of service. For the purpose of this work, people with disabilities were chosen as a useful sub-sector of the community to investigate the social dimensions of equitable access in telecommunications policy. Wilson and Goggin (1993) produced a significant document that specifically addresses the concerns of people with disabilities for equitable access to the telecommunications service, Reforming Universal Service: The future of Consumer Access and Equity in Australian Telecommunications. The research focus and subsequent interview questions were informed by the initial research of secondary policy sources.
Twelve people were interviewed and one of them on two occasions throughout 1997. Their responses and observations made a significant contribution to the body of data gathered and analysed. Most interviews were approximately one hour. The first interviewee, proved to be a valuable source for later interviews and policy literature suggestions. His suggestions were particularly useful given the dearth of literature surrounding telecommunications policy toward people with disabilities. The interview and responses also contributed to deciding the range of questions eventually pursued with most interviewees which tightened the research focus. As discussed above, the initial literature review, also assisted construction of the structure and scope of interview questions.
Typical interview questions while gathering primary data:
The answers to these questions addressed the following issues:
The interviews were conducted as follows:
Primarily the interviews intended to explore the interrelationships among representative groups and social actors and also to glean insights into: a) reasons for specific decisions; b) priorities chosen; and c) what strategies were employed by various actors to achieve favourable outcomes for the groups they represented.
The interviews were a means of interrogating the social, political and scientific contexts of policy. Consequently additional material was uncovered that contextualised policy outcomes which the official records and other documents omit or obscure. Secondly, the interviews intended to explore the discourses of social actors and the groups which they represented. Discourses of disability and telecommunications were analysed to uncover political inferences from the language structures and terms used to describe the policy arena. Consequently, the interviews had two roles: a) to provide information that contextualises policy choices; and b) to provide texts that could be analysed to uncover the impact of worldviews on policy.
It is important not to overestimate the significance of the individual responses of the interviewees. Thick descriptions that represent broad brushstrokes of social phenomena are the intentions of discourse analysis in a sociological sense and not discovering individual peculiarities (Jankowski and Wester in Jensen & Jankowski, 1991, 63). Isolating an individual response from an institutional setting raises problems of ecological validity and representativeness (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1983, 10-11; 44-45). The different interview settings and limited number of interviews undertaken raised both problems. Consequently, the interviews attempted to uncover particular discourses exposed by rhetoric which suggested that particular institutional worldviews were underlying policy perspective/s (Throgmorton, 1996).
Detecting patterns of rhetoric and policy priorities among social actors was a higher priority than isolating individual personality nuances. Responses were compared later with other primary and secondary texts (eg. discourse literature, legislation, policy documents, ) to identify similar discourses that could indicate institutional influence. Questions were not asked in any particular order, and time was allowed for extended answers. Extended pauses were not interrupted and tangential issues were not discouraged and usually had relevance to later topics of inquiry. The relaxed interview approach put interviewees at ease, added to the total knowledge of the issues, and also allowed sufficient flexibility to detect possible embedded institutional worldviews from responses.
The interview methodology described above is defined as unstructured by some social scientists (Wimmer and Dominick, 1994, 128). Hammersley and Atkinson (1983, 112-113) describe it as reflexive interviewing. Both definitions contrast the approach from a survey interview which uses ``a standardised set of interview procedures'' (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1983, 5). Hammersley and Atkinson observe that in standardised structured approaches, such as survey interviews, the same questions are asked in the same order and often in the same interview setting with the purpose of minimising any ``effects'' that the interview process may have on research outcomes. Despite the different objectives that survey interviews pursue, Ethnographers are sceptical of the validity of positivist approaches to interviewing human subjects (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1983, 5).
As discussed above, the main method of collecting primary data from social actors involved unstructured or reflexive in depth interviews which were not restricted to a set number of questions asked in a fixed order. A structured approach has been likened to a swimmer who swims against the a rip tide of human nature:
The structured interviewer is like the ignorant swimmer who fights against a powerful rip tide and finally succumbs to the tide because of exhaustion. Creative interviewers try to divine the flow of the rip and to swim with it in order to eventually gain control of the rip and to swim with it in order to eventually gain control of the outcome- saving themselves. You can't beat the reality of human nature and the communication processes that flow from that nature so you might as well understand them, and then work with them to triumph over ignorance and falsehood (Douglas, 1985, 22 in Jenkins, 1995, 254)
By stressing a creative approach the interviewer can:
Taking an unstructured and creative approach to interviewing does not mean to suggest that there are no prepared questions. Instead the interview is free to take its own direction which will only be challenged if it appears that it has lost any useful focus of inquiry. During the course of interviewing, many prepared questions went unasked because the context of the discussion had covered the issues sufficiently.
Jenkins (1995, 254) provides some useful hints in approaching interviews which were used. Among them are phoning to arrange interviews rather than writing letters. Written correspondence can involve lost opportunities through slow replies as well as distancing the interviewer from the prospect. In contrast the use of the telephone enables an appropriate time and date to be talked through on the phone and reluctant people or those who feel that their contribution would be irrelevant to the inquiry can have their concerns removed (256-257). In addition, three of the later interviews (pers. comms. anon; TMPP; MDSUT) were mediated by phone entirely.
After gaining the interviewee's permission a tape recorder was used to avoid the loss of important details. An exact record of the conversation has enabled a useful synwork of notes and an electronic record has allowed me to focus on recording finer details while interviewing. Unfortunately recording interviews can have a self-censoring effect on the interviewee and can influence the degree of frankness and disclosure in their responses. A tape recorder was not used with the three phone interviews and there did not appear to be any noticeable difference in the nature and level of disclosure between taped and untaped interviews.
The reluctance of Telstra personnel to discuss some issues arguably resulted in strong reliance placed on interviewees who were more cooperative. However, all were interviewed separately, some many months apart and in various locations- Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne. In addition, press releases, TACC publications, specialist magazines, Hansard, legislation and Annual General Reports were analysed to draw a picture of Telstra policy as well as substantiate claims by interviewees. The President of DPI(A) and the President of the NFBCA, both executive directors of consumer groups representing people with disabilities were also ex Telstra-employees and able to offer insights from both inside and outside the telecommunications corporation. Other interviewees were also ex-Telstra senior employees involved in the disability area (MDSUT; TMPP; annon. pers. comm).
The research of secondary data comprised an in depth analysis of literature pertaining to: