2. Terminology
• Circulation
– Circulation means the amount of copies of something has been sold and how many people have,
for example newspapers.
• Hits
– How many views someone has on YouTube for example, if they become big, they’re a hit.
• Box Office Figures
– How much money a film has made at the cinema either in a specific country or worldwide.
• Ratings
– When something has a out of 10 rating, for example games get rated, so do films
• Sales
– How many copies of something is sold, for example how many copies of a certain game is sold.
3. Primary Research
• Definition
– This is all research done by yourself, for example using survey monkey, you can send it to your
friends or family, it’s first hand research.
• Advantages
– You get more exact and present information, it also shows you are independent and can save
money, instead of hiring someone. It is also more likely to be factual than an online source. You also
get a more personal approach with regards to your answers.
• Disadvantages
– You can get turned down by people who do not want to do your survey, which is very time
consuming, people could lie and exaggerate their answers, which is hard to analyse into an answer.
You have to be a people person, if you’re not you might not get as many answers as you had hoped
for.
• Example
– One example of primary research can be that you could be conducting a survey on people’s
favourite foods, you could send out your survey online to your friends and family and send you
their answers back so you can analyse their answers for your research.
4. Secondary Research
• Definition
– This is studying research which has been done by someone else, which you can look at to get more
information for your own research.
• Advantages
– One advantage of this is that it can save you a lot of time and all the research has already been
analysed for you. Another advantage of this is that the secondary research is easy to access as you
can research it all on the internet and there is a lot of it.
• Disadvantages
– One disadvantage of this is that some of the information might not be quite factual and the
research you find might not be tailored to the questions you have so you might not be able to find
an answer to a question you need. Some of the research might be outdated and not be useful to
your research.
• Example
– One example of this is that you can use the internet and already archived information. One example
of this is that if someone is making a new shooter game for consoles, they can look at forums
online about shooter games to compile research so they know how to make it.
5. Quantitative Research
• Definition
– This is all about the measurement of your research in a number format, for example bar charts and
pie charts, it’s all mainly one word answers.
• Advantages
– One advantage of this is that it can be reliable and it’s a quick way to gather your research, you can
create pie charts to express the answers you have gathered.
• Disadvantages
– One disadvantage of this is you don’t get the opinion of peoples answers, there is no detail.
• Example
– One example of this is that you could be finding out how many people like a certain TV show and
then compile your answers into a pie chart. Another example of this is that you can find out how
many people bought a certain newspaper and then use that as a demographic for a companies
sales.
6. Qualitative Research
• Definition
• This is all about using peoples opinions, beliefs and reasoning's for your research.
• Advantages
• One advantage of this is that you can get a lot more information out of the people you question.
Another advantage of this is that it can give you the chance to generate new ideas and expand your
product.
• Disadvantages
• One disadvantage of this is that it takes up a lot more time to take their answers and analyse the
answers, compared to the other methods. Another disadvantage of this is that some information you
gather might be useless information for your research.
• Example
• One example of this is that you could be looking at a review for a game you are interested in, the review
you might read is someone else’s opinion, so if it is a bad opinion it might put you off the game, which
might be a good game, but because of someone’s opinion you might not buy it.
7. Audience Research
• Definition
• This is all about conducting research to find out what audience buys or consumes a certain product.
• Advantages
• One advantage of this is that you can find out what demographic is going to buy your product, so you
can tailor your product to their interests. Another advantage of this is that you already know how to
market your product, you could endorse a certain YouTuber on to your product to attract your audience
to buy it.
• Disadvantages
• One disadvantage of this is that you might design your product and find out some of your demographic
might not like some features of your product. You could also have to completely change your product if a
small screening of your product to your audience do not like it.
• Example
• One example of this is that you could go onto a film reviewing site like IMDB and see who have rated the
film, you can find out the gender and age, so if you are thinking of making an action film, you can look at
who has rated it and then when making the film you know what age and gender groups to aim it at.
8. Market Research
• Definition
• This is all about finding out what market your product will be sold in
• Advantages
• One advantage of this is there is less risk because you know who the competitors are and you know
what gap in the market there is for your product. Another advantage of this is that it gives you an insight
to the market and where your product lies in the market, you can look at existing products to improve
your own.
• Disadvantages
• One disadvantage of this is that another company might already have a product similar to your product
so you might not be able to get as far with it as you had hoped. Another disadvantage of this is that your
product might not have a place on the market.
• Example
• One example of this is you could be making a new app for the play store and you could find out that
there is no place on the market for your app or it might already exist.
9. Production Research
• Definition
• This is all about finding out what tools and resources are needed to make your media product.
• Advantages
• One advantage of this that if you understand and gather everything you need to make your product you
can streamline the product. Another advantage of this it can save money as you can use cut costs to
save money for future products or post production.
• Disadvantages
• One disadvantage of this is that you could find out you require an expensive piece of software which
might hinder your production.
• Example
• One example of this could be finding out all the software and resources you might need to make a video
game, knowing how much it will cost so you can plan so your production doesn’t get halted.
10. Terminology
• Objective
– This is when you are stating the facts about a media product.
• Subjective
– This is when you are putting across your opinion on something.
• Valid
– This is when something is correct or worth considering.
• Reliable
– This is when a source is truthful, you can use it because it is up to date.
11. Harvard Referencing
Name of the film being researched; The Shawshank Redemption
1. Frank Darabont (1995) The Shawshank Redemption
2. Stephen King (1982) Rita Heyworth and Shawshank Redemption
1. Warner Bros. (1923) The Shawshank Redemption Website
https://www.warnerbros.com/shawshank-redemption
• Lea, R (2017) Revisiting the film of Stephen King’s The Shawshank Redemption
http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/the-shawshank-redemption/52125/revisiting-the-film-of-stephen-
kings-the-shawshank-redemption
