2. Terminology
Circulation
-How many print documents have been distributed.
• Hits
-How many times a certain web page has been used.
• Box Office Figures
• How much money a film has made at a cinema.
• Ratings
• How something has been rated e.g. 4/5 stars
• Sales
• How many products have been sold.
3. Primary Research
• Definition – Research you do yourself, audience in contact with the
researcher.
• Advantages – Knowing the facts / statistics are correct, getting more
quantitive and qualitive research first hand that can be used straight on
paper.
• Disadvantages – Takes longer to gather research by yourself, finding the
right people to question and partake in surveys may take some time.
• Example – Asking a select amount of people in the street to complete a
survey or questionnaire (these are called vox-pops)
4. Secondary Research
• Definition – Studying pre-taken research using it in your
work.
• Advantages – Saves time, quicker than primary research.
• Disadvantages – Could be incorrect information may
have to take more time fact checking it before using it in
your work/statistics.
• Example – Researching an article online and using the
articles facts / statistics for your own research.
5. Quantitative Research
• Definition – Research you can put into numbers e.g.
percentages and fractions.
• Advantages – Helps show statistics better and gives a simpler
understanding.
• Disadvantages – People reading the numbers and statistics
may prefer reading articles and text rather than just numbers.
• Example – Writing an article on current events and describing
the happenings using numbers and percentages over writing
an article.
6. Qualitative Research
• Definition – Research that goes more in depth than just
numbers and statistics, usually presented as full texts or
discussions.
• Advantages – Find a deeper meaning to questions and get a
better understanding of why people choose a certain answer.
• Disadvantages – Takes a lot longer as you go into more depth.
• Example – An interview and the questions are based on
religion and instead of answering with yes or no they tend to
answer with why.
7. Audience Research
• Definition – finding out who consumes the product.
• Advantages- knowing your customer base and who is consuming
your product.
• Disadvantages – not always fully knowing your customer base.
• Example – taking a survey of people who use said product to find
out the gender / age of the consumers.
8. Market Research
• Definition – finding out about the market in which
the product is sold
• Advantages – can potentially target a larger audience
• Disadvantages – incorrect information can effect the
market.
• Example – people going to a certain video game store
to purchase a new release.
9. Production Research
• Definition – finding information and resources to produce media.
• Advantages- collecting information makes the likeliness of the facts
higher meaning you wont be producing lies.
• Disadvantages- false information can lose customers / consumers
• Example – writing up research to better your product as you know
who is consuming it and who is going to be purchasing it.
10. Terminology
• Objective – research that is not effected by bias or personal
opinions.
• Subjective – research that has been effected by opinions and
emotions.
• Valid – Where the proposed research can answer the said question.
• Reliable – research with consistent and accurate results.
