Hammersley and Atkinson Chapter 5: on insider accounts:
There are distinct advantages in combining participant observation with interviews, in particular the data from each can be used to illuminate the other. As Dexter notes from his research on the United States Congress, one's experience as a participant observer can have an important effect on how one interprets what people say in interviews. (: 131)
They also discuss the difficulties in selecting and having access to informants and people to interview. Also the problems in choosing the setting for an interview and deciding between an individual or group interview.
The advantages of the interview is that it can elicit different types of data, required by the changing demands of the research (:156)
As for the answers gathered, they shouldn't be treated as "the truth" about any phenomena, because they are only one person's account of that reality, but neither should be discharged, as they can be a valuable source of information about events and perspectives and practices of those who perform them. (:156)
About informants, they present Dean et al illustration of types: (:137)
(see book for details, it is pretty funny)
1. Informants that are specially sensitive to the area of concern
2. The more-willing-to-reveal informants
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