In the following essay I am going to be looking at
three different points: Types of Research, Methods and Sources of Research and
Purposes of research. I will be looking at why these are useful and why there
are used.
Types of Research
Qualitative
research
Qualitative research is research that is text based;
it is based on views, preferences and peoples opinions. This could be anything
from textbooks to newspapers to reviews on websites such as IMDb – where people
write reviews of films and also give them ratings, so IMDb is also a
quantitative research method. Qualitative research is particularly important to
the media industry because it helps to find out what groups of people or
individuals think of a product. McQueen and Knussen (2002) said that “qualitative research approaches explores
and describes explains and predicts” McQueen
and Knussen are saying qualitative data that is text based can be presented in
a way to show a persons opinion.
Quantitative
research
Quantitative research is research that is based
around numbers – numerical data. Information that is based around numbers can
be found in places such as BARB (Broadcaster’s Audience Research Board), which
is used to look at the viewing figures for TV. RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Limited) which is used to find out how
many listeners radio stations/shows have. And movie ticket sales – box office
takings. As quantitative research is number based, it is usually presented in
charts and tables. Before a new product is released onto the market companies
will look at previous viewing/listening figures so they can find out their
target audience.
Methods of research
Primary
research
Primary research is research that has been gathered
by yourself for example using techniques such as conducting a questionnaire,
interview and a survey. By using this method the information that is gathered
is relevant to the subject that it is being collected for, such as to find out
peoples views or opinions of a TV show. When research is collected this way it
can sometimes be biased, if the person conducting the survey is biased then it
probably wouldn’t be a fair gathering of results, so sometimes collecting
information this way is not always going to be correct.
When an interview is to be conducted, it can be
either structured or semi structured this is supported by May. T (2002) says
that “semi structured interviews are said
to allow people to answer more on their own terms than the standardized
interview permits.” This implies
that if a semi structured interview has taken place, it allows for more
information to be gathered on the given subject, such as if peoples opinions
wanted to be collected about a book or a film, they would give their opinions
about it and the interviewer wouldn’t be trying to put words in the
interviewees mouth.
Secondary
research
Secondary research is research that had already been
collected by other people then written and posted on the Internet or published
in books. A problem with collecting information this way is that people have
different opinions about things and it can have differing perspectives.
Also secondary research will assist in finding out
more information that you wouldn’t be able to find on your own, as it can be
difficult to gather research for large groups of people by just using primary
research methods. This is supported by McQueen
and Knussen (2002) that say “secondary
data will often exceed what an individual might achieve on their own.” This means that information that is gathered
from a secondary source is possibly going to be more academically rated higher
than information collected by yourself, this is
because they have a lot more experience and they are experts within the
field of their chosen subject.
Sources of
research
The purpose and nature of research are audience,
marketing and production.
Audience
It is important to research audiences so the
specific product, tv show or film will entertain the customer. When looking at
audience research it is a good idea to research a specific radio station, the
research company will look at a number of items such as what is currently
selling well for example music. They will look at what genre of music people
are listening to then use that to attract people to listen to their radio
station. For example Smooth radio, they play the same songs from the same genre
repeatedly to attract their target audience.
When researching an audience lots of things can be
taken into consideration such as: age, race, sex, education level, income
level, and many more factors. When you sign up to a website like Facebook, they
ask you lots of different questions like ‘What TV shows do you watch?’ and
‘What sort of music do you like?’ questions on websites such as these can help
audience researchers find out what a majority of people like then they can use
this information to come up with new ideas then sell it to the world and then
they can aim it at a specific target audience. The BARB website allows
researchers to look at the viewing figures to decide whether a specific media
product such a TV show is doing well.
The National Readership Survey is an example of
demographic classication. And it is graded in two groups: ABC1 and C2DE.
A
|
Upper
middle class
|
Higher managerial, admin. or professional
|
B
|
Middle
class
|
Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
|
C1
|
Lower
middle class
|
Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, admin, or
professional
|
C2
|
Skilled
working class
|
Skilled manual workers
|
D
|
Working
class
|
Semi and unskilled manual workers
|
E
|
Non working
|
Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners
|
Another way of looking at audiences is by looking at
the BARB website. This website shows viewing figures for all the different TV
channels. If a show has over 10 million views for example Downton Abbey, then
researchers will take this information and decided that people are more
interested in programs that have had a lot of thought and planning put into
them. The main purposes of completing research is to find their specific target
audience when then means it is easy to establish what product would fit into
their audience range.
Market
research
Market research allows people to make sense of the
current market and what is selling well. For instance at a publishing company
like Penguin or Bloomsbury, they would look at what genre of books are selling
the best and are top of the market such as EL James and her Fifty Shades of
Grey books. Then they would probably make a questionnaire or a survey and see
what feedback people gave. In addition, they could also look online to see what
was selling the best, but collecting information this was is not always
reliable. When looking for new authors/books to publish, research is a vital
key, as it reduces the risk of a title failing, and not researching where the
publishing house or the authors wants it to get to such as into the top of
bestselling books.
The first thing when researching is the audience –
so this would be book readers. Researching other aspects such as age, gender,
hobbies, jobs etc. this will help to gather a wider understanding on what
people want. For example looking at what people are currently reading, by
conducting a survey.
Market researchers look at what the current market
trends are and what products are currently selling the best.
Production
research
Production research is also another important step
for researchers. Production research looks at points such as: financial issues,
location and facilities. Also it looks at copyright issues that are important
when a product is being created and if it has been copied in anyway. Production
research is used to find out whether a project can be funded or not, or whether
you have to find funds from sponsorship.
When planning to make a show or a film lots of
different paperwork will need to be filled out such as: actor release forms,
recces, shot lists, story boards, risk assessments, production schedule, all before
filming can actually start. These are useful because everything you need would
be written down and it provides structure to the day and everyone included
knows what they are supposed to be doing and it is organised. For example a
recce provides a visual observation link to the chosen location prior to the
event.
Bibliography
- Social
Research. Open University
Press, Buckingham
- Research
Methods for Social Science, an introduction. Prentice Hall. London.
