2. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
• Quantitative research is data that has been collected that takes the form
of numeral or statistical data. It involves obtaining cold hard facts, often
shown in the form of graphs and charts. It is quantifiable and usually
unbiased data, though this information can be doctored or taken from
only a certain place to put it in the favour of the creator. Mostly it’s the
easiest way to research, but lacks the detail of qualitative research
• An example of this would be a binary pie chart, asking people what
their favourite genre is. Despite the fact it is opinion, the fact that it is
shown as numerical data means it is quantitative research.
Sales
Horror Action Feel-good Romance
3. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Pros:
• Mostly unbiased, due to its straight and quantifiable numeric nature
• using pure numbers means that the research can be replicated, and then
analyzed and compared with similar studies.
• can allow for greater objectivity and accuracy of results
Cons:
• collect a much narrower and sometimes superficial dataset
• The preset multiple choice answers will not necessarily reflect how people
really feel about a subject and in some cases might just be the closest match
they can find on the survey
• results are limited as they provide numerical facts as opposed to actual
human perception of events or medias.
4. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Qualitative data is data that is made up of opinions. Consisting of attitude
and preferences as opposed to numbers. Thus qualitative research cannot
be binary or even multiple choice, and the answers given must be entirely
from the perspective of the person you are asking. This can create problems,
as opinions are very hard to keep track of, and take a long time to get down.
As well as this, bias oftentimes take place in qualitative research, or
recipients will lie or be unsure about what they are saying.
We can see an example to screen left. This is a form given to review movies,
perhaps during early screenings, film company's would show this to the
public to see their reception of the film, and adjust the film accordingly.
5. QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Pros:
• Provides depth and detail by organizing actual opinions, feeling and
behaviours as opposed to pure numbers
• It encourages openness and allows for a greater number of possibilities
as opposed to the multiple choice of qualitative
• Focuses on the individual as opposed to a large group
Cons:
• Cannot afford to study large amounts of people as it takes much longer
to record and much more space to store this kind of data.
• Difficult to make comparisons, as opinion is subjective and the
responses are wildly diffrent
6. PRIMARY RESEARCH
Primary research is very simply research that is collected and written by
yourself. This is advantageous as if you are assured in your own abilities,
it is a good way to make sure the data is reliable, but if only done by
yourself or your organization, the process of getting this data is much
slower and more difficult, especially if there is already Quantitative data
on the subject you intent to research.
An example of this would be, as a TV Network producer, creating a
questionnaire on your website to see what people think of your new show.
I have created an example to the left
7. PRIMARY RESEARCH
Pros:
• a good way to make sure the data is reliable, as you oftentimes understand
what you want better than anyone else
• Allows you to be more specific, and ask the exact questions you want to ask
• You can make sure there are no exaggerations or falsehoods within the
research
Cons:
• Slower and more difficult than if you get help
• The exact question you want to ask might already have been researched and
answered in another persons work.
• Can only interview as far as your reach, so if you are a smaller company, or
not a company at all, you have a smaller amount of people available to
interview
8. SECONDARY RESEARCH
• Secondary research is very simply research that is done by somebody else
already, that you use to give yourself advantage, perhaps because there is no
point in redoing it if their data is reliable.
• It is much quicker to simply find the research that others have done, but it is
much less reliable as the Research could be bias or done without much care.
Or even simply made up on the spot.
• An example of this would be, as a Film producer, using a pre-existing
survey (like the one to the left by the association of film) to see what types of
movies are popular at the time, and base our new production the most
popular genre.
9. SECONDARY RESEARCH
Pros:
• Quick and easy to find relevant research online or through newspaper
• Generally a larger study with more people or ideas within it, meaning it
could be better than anything you could have done on your own
• May have questions you yourself did not think to ask
Cons:
• Could be unreliable, or blatantly false if it is not by a trusted company
• Could be biased data when it was written, or done only from a certain
demographic.
• The exact research you are looking for might not exist
11. AUDIENCE RESEARCH
Successful media is created when it is target towards a specific audience.
Audience research is looking into the types of people who consume your
types of media, so you can create things the appeal to them. Or vise-versa,
creating a piece of media to appeal to a certain group of people. This has
two different forms, Demographics and psychographics. This is
advantages because it allows you to target the groups that are most likely
to consume your media when creating it, leading to a happier target
audience.
A music video producer might have a punk rock song include only
teenage actors, knowing that the largest group of people who listen to
their music are teenagers.
12. DEMOGRAPHICS
• Study of the population based on factors such as age, gender, ethnicity,
locale and other physical demographics. This is useful because you can
see how certain groups of people react to certain types of media, and
tweak those forms to better suit that group.
• For instance, a survey may show that a certain paper is more popular
within south London as opposed to north London. So they start to cover
more south London news in order to appease their current fan base. Or
advertise more in south London. Knowing that is the crowd they need
to appease. We can see to the left and right some of the factors that go
into demographics. The left chart shows the percentage of people who
watch a certain show by race
13. PSYCHOGRAPHICS
• the classification according to opinions, beliefs and attitudes. Such as what
sort of movies or television shows they are interested in. This is useful as
you can judge what sorts of entertainment you should be striving towards in
the future.
• For instance, a movie production company may find out a majority of
viewers that watch their horror movies are also interested in superhero
movies, leading them to create a superhero/horror movie. Believing that
those interested in either genre have overlap, and they would bring in more
viewers. We can see to the left and right some of the factors that are part of
Psychographics.
• On the left, we can see the popularity of the newspaper Express with
different political parties, this can help inform what crowd they need to
please
Percantage readers
Ukip Tory Labour Lib Dem
15. MARKET RESEARCH
• Market research is the collection and analysis of information about the market within
which a particular product will compete with other products for an audience and
revenue. It is looking into other forms of media, not only to make sure that
plagiarizing does not takes place, but to also take inspiration from these forms of
media and to help understand what is popular at the time.
One example of this is how phone
companies interact, an example being
between I-phone and Samsung phones. We
see as the two evolve and innovate
standout features are “appropriated” by the
other company. This is market research as
the two groups, every time they make a
new phone, scout the market too see what's
popular and introduce it into their phone
16. PRODUCTION RESEARCH
is related to the production process itself. It is researching how
much the product will cost to produce, researching what it will
include, and what to write or show within it. Investigating who to
hire onto the project as well as the technology available for it. This
is also researching weather the production is viable to be made, as
if it goes over its budget or predicted income, it is not worth being
made at all.
It is important to log this sort of information as it comes in many
different forms, and contains a vast amount of data.
An example of production research would be when filming for an
action movie, researching what city area would be the best and
most cost effective to film in.
