Browsing by Subject "radio"

Social anxiety has been widely studied, and it has been established to be a common phenomena. However, there are not studies on anxiety in media interviews or among researchers. Interview in radio or television is a special interaction situation. Firstly, it is a bilateral conversation, which still has an audience. Secondly, media interview often is a rare situation for the interviewee. On the one hand, researcher's media performance is a part of the societal interaction of universities. On the other hand, it is a personal communication situation of the researcher. Presumably people experience anxiety also in this kind of situations. This thesis approaches anxiety as a subjective experience. The aim is to describe and understand anxiety experienced by researchers, who are interviewed in media as professionals. The data of this qualitative research consisted of nine focused interviews. The interviewees were people of different ages and at different stages of career. They had a researcher's education, and they worked as researchers in either university or other research institution. A media interview record was listened or watched during each interview providing a stimulus to the interviewee. Transcribed interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Descriptions of anxiety were categorized based on the reported appearance and defined object of anxiety. The results of this study show the many types of anxiety experienced by the interviewed researchers. The most important reported aspect of anxiety was the experience of changes in concentration. It was interesting, that one interviewee could experience anxiety as having both the increasing and the decreasing influence on concentration. In addition, according to interviewees, anxiety appeared as physical sensations, changes in action, and emotions. Interviewees experienced, that one reason for the anxiety was their lack of competence. They were, for example, uncertain of their expertise. Another reason for the anxiety were some situational factors. In order to reduce or control anxiety, it could be useful for researchers to get communications training. Important competence in media interviews includes, for example, the skills to popularize and to understand the logic of media. In the future, it is advisable to examine more deeply the interaction between researcher and journalist. Another subject of further investigation would be the anxiety experienced in media by other groups of people.