Relationships and The Dog...

Building a relationship with the informants is the single most important thing one can think of doing in the field. I have 21 interviews after 4 weeks of research, but I am not sure how many are actually of any use, because I don't know how some of them represent the truth about what these people do and think in their work.

People, and journalists specially, can be very doubtful of our intentions in asking all those questions about how they do things, they are afraid that giving in to much could put them in risk, or make them vulnerable. Also, I perceive in some of them a discourse that matches the management's discourse, and the opposite in others, which means that the the first case is when they are not disclosing what they really think, what they really do: they are just afraid of where am I going to send that tape...

Also, I am not sure if I observed enough. It is very difficult to tell what they are doing from any distance. Unless they talk you through it, it is a very misterious -- or dull, depending on your take -- think to do to watch a journalist working.

I had some very honest testimonies, people that said very confidential things, complained and told me what they think about things. But in those the problem is now separating their personal opinion about management from what are actually processes they go through in a days' work.

I think the most difficult part of my job is about to start: analysing this data will be The Dog...