Research

In this assignment I am going to analysing different types of research within the creative media industry and discuss the pros and cons of them. Research is when there is lots of information gathered from various different resources.

One method of research is primary research which is something that is done first hand. Primary research consists of surveys, questionnaires, interviews, sampling, focus groups and test screening. These methods for research can be good because it’s something you do yourself and you can find out exactly what you want to know. However some primary research such as surveys can be time consuming and the answers received can be unreliable, this is because not everyone is serious when they fill out surveys and also questionnaires.

Also many people can lie about factors of their lives when filling out surveys, such as the amount of income and age. This means when all the information is gathered it will be an incorrect outcome for those sections, which could completely mess up what you are trying to achieve/find out with the survey. Another disadvantage with surveys is not knowing exactly what to ask, meaning when you get the survey back you realise you didn’t get the answers you were looking for. This can mean that the survey will have to be done again being another time consuming issue. Surveys also consist of questions that have a space for “please explain” and this can be good because you can then get more of an in depth opinion of what people think. However this can take a while to look through and everyone could have a completely different opinion so it could also be hard to gather one overall outcome.

Although it has become a lot easier the create surveys now as it can all be done electronically, this means it doesn’t have to be pen to paper and can be created on Microsoft Excel or now website Survey Monkey which also has survey templates which also makes it a lot easier. Surveys and Survey Monkey can only be completed by an older age group as younger children would not be able to complete them to a good enough standard. This means for certain industries such as a company designing and creating a new toy, they would have a stand at the end of a popular store with the chance for children to try their new toy. Someone would stand and observe the children and their reactions and asks them about the toy to find out what they need to know instead of doing the survey.

Interviews are a better and more reliable source of primary research than surveys, this is because the person will be more honest if they are face to face. When interviewing someone you can also ask them to expand their answers, and question them on what they say to find out more in-depth information of what they think. Interviews are also good because you can choose who you ask getting a visual image of the person and also not just getting a random person who happens to click on the link online. However some people might not want to take part in the interview meaning it might be hard to find someone to take part. This then means it could become time consuming and also preparing the questions can take a lot of time as well as not knowing what to ask and not getting the answers you were looking for, which is a main disadvantage for all primary research.

Focus Groups are then a better way of primary research for finding the exact target audience. For example film studios will use focus groups to ask a specific group of people from the highest age they are trying to target to the lowest what they did and didn’t like about the film. This is good because they can find out from the exact people they are trying to target what they didn’t like so they can then change it. Or with a toy company they could get the age group of children (highest to lowest)that they are targeting and see which specific age plays with that toy to find the rating on the box, for example 10+. Again this can be time consuming and also could be hard to find a good mixture of the age group who would be willing to take part.

Quantitative Primary research is all to do with numbers and the questions which require numbers being added up. For example if there was an option for someone to tick and cross a box on a survey or questionnaire asking if they were male or female or if they are aged between 16-18, 19-21 or 22-25 then this would qualify as quantitative research. This data can then be made into a chart, so the results are then clearer and easier to understand as they can be visually seen. The charts can then be of use to other people who may be looking for secondary research for the same project. Also it could allow people who are also doing their own to have chart to have a comparison to.

Quantitative primary research is mainly used to gather the demographics of an audience but can sometimes also gather some psychographics as a yes or no tick box question can also have a space underneath for people to write their opinion. If they have a written response of their own opinion this is then qualitative research.

Qualitative research is the quality of writing at which someone answers a question. For example if the question on the survey or questionnaire asked for a reason or an explanation, and the answer contained more than one word, it would then be qualitative primary research. This research is an answer given that can’t be counted and is used for finding out exactly what the person responding thinks to get an in-depth answer of their opinion. A film company could use qualitative primary research in a survey after a test screening and ask a question such as ‘If anything, what did you like about the end of the film?’ To find out any specific details which could help them decide what to keep or if there’s anything they need to get rid of.

Overall primary research is very time consuming as it consists of creating the questions and gathering people to answer them. However it can be useful in the sense after creating all these surveys or questionnaires many can be printed and handed/posted to anyone to get opinions from many people. It also means the person doing the research can be selective with who they ask to interview or answer a survey meaning they can ask people who they think their fall into the category of their target audience.

Another method of research is secondary research, this is the use of the internet and books to find out information from other peoples research. These methods can be good as it means the information is there for anyone, meaning people can look for the specific information of what they want. However the information that is found might not always be reliable as anyone could’ve put this information out for anyone to read, meaning it could be incorrect.

Wikipedia is a website used on the internet by many people for secondary research as it contains a lot of information for specific topics. This is due to the number one search engine being Google and the first result to appear on Google is most likely going to be Wikipedia. However, this website allows anyone to post information onto it meaning what they post could be false. If this information is then used by someone else it could result in them getting a piece of work wrong or getting into trouble for using inaccurate information. Although Wikipedia does contain a reference list at the bottom of every page so it can be seen where the information on that page has come from. This then means that for anyone who is going to be taking this information they can check that it is correct from going to the official websites of where it came from. Or they could just research further into this topic on these other websites.

The internet also contains thousands of websites meaning it holds a lot of information, however it can sometimes be hard to find specific things of what information is needed. This could be due to what is needed to be found being hard to explain, and not knowing what key words to search for. This could be helped by another example of secondary research such as FAQ’s. This stands for Frequently Asked Questions which means if someone had a question that they wanted answered for their research which they think may be answered somewhere else, they could then look online for official websites for reliable answers to quote from. However this can then make the research very time consuming if the information cannot be found, however if it’s easy and quick information, then it can be a very easy process.

Books are more reliable compared to the internet as their work has to be proof read and the book wouldn’t be released if it was sharing incorrect information. However if someone did happen to quote from a book and it was incorrect, it would be the publishers fault and not the person who used the quote. This is then an advantage as this wouldn’t result in any trouble meaning someone could quote from a book without having any worries of what they might face if they used information that was wrong. As books are printed this means they don’t get updated with the newest information and could be outdated very quickly. So if the information needed is old, books would be a lot more useful for finding this information however newer updated information would more likely be found online.

Quantitative secondary research is again numerical facts, for example official statistics to do with the topic being researched. This could include things such as dates, records, percentages etc. This then means that it’s easier for anyone to find out this data than collecting it and working it out by themselves. It could also be information that would be impossible for one individual to collect, meaning they could just find one which has been put online or in a book. This could be used in the film industry when the company are doing research of how well the film has done once it has been realised, as this could be looking at film ratings and how much money it has made.

Qualitative secondary research is the writing within the research which is the information that gives more in depth data about the certain topic. This can include the data from articles, newspapers, magazines, documentaries etc. It allows people to get a better understanding of what they are looking for however can be a long winded process if there is lots of information to read about and look for. This is due to the information being a lot more in depth, meaning it could be hard to find the exact thing that is needed.

As a result of this, secondary research can be a long process to be able to find exactly what is needed throughout the whole internet and to make sure that it is reliable information. However it can also save one person time in finding all this information out by themselves and allows them to have a lot more information given to them at one click. It also allows companies to be able to do in depth research into what they are thinking of creating and seeing how other companies have pulled of similar ideas. For example if an advertising company were creating an advert they could use secondary research by looking into other adverts and researching what techniques they have used to make it successful. They could again use the secondary research afterwards to look at the ratings and reviews online after the advert has been released.

In conclusion all research within the creative media industry is used for finding out the target audience. Primary research gathers information for finding out the demographics of an audience using surveys or interviews and secondary research can help to research into the topic beforehand and also after to see how well it has done. They are both very useful techniques of research as primary allows the information to be found in a personal way and can conclude very useful answers. And secondary can give much wider information on top of this finding information which could never be found by one individual.