The mobile instant messaging interview (MIMI): Using WhatsApp to enhance self-reporting and explore media usage in situ

TLDR

Media researchers seek to understand how people use media technologies in everyday life, but rich, context‑sensitive data are hard to obtain as consumption becomes pervasive and smartphones’ potential for qualitative research remains underexploited. The study introduces the mobile instant messaging interview (MIMI) to address this gap by leveraging mobile instant messaging apps for in‑situ exploration of media use. MIMI combines diary techniques and mobile experience sampling, using WhatsApp to capture participants’ media usage across distinct settings and situations. A pilot study with young smartphone users demonstrated that MIMI offers advantages such as real‑time, context‑rich data, while also revealing drawbacks from both researcher and participant perspectives.

Abstract

How do people use media technologies in everyday life and how do they make sense of them? This is one of the core questions in media and communication studies, gaining even more in relevance in light of the rapidly changing, convergent media environment. Yet, rich and context-sensitive data about media and technology use are difficult to generate when media consumption is increasingly pervasive, ubiquitous, and often goes on in passing. At the same time, the full potential of smartphones in qualitative research has not yet been realized. The mobile instant messaging interview (MIMI) introduced and assessed in this paper is intended to fill this gap by exploiting some of the unique communication and multimedia features offered by mobile instant messaging apps. Drawing on diary techniques and on the tried and tested mobile experience sampling method (MESM), the MIMI uses WhatsApp for an in situ exploration of distinct settings and situations of social action (e.g., media usage). To substantiate the approach, the results of a pilot study conducted with young smartphone users are presented, discussing the advantages and drawbacks of mobile instant messaging interviews in detail, from the researcher’s as well as the participant’s point of view.