This document defines key terminology used in research and summarizes different types of research. It discusses primary and secondary research, quantitative and qualitative research, as well as audience, market, and production research. Key terms defined include circulation, hits, box office figures, ratings, sales, objective, and subjective. Advantages and disadvantages of each research type are provided. Examples are also given for various research methods.

1. Research
Adam Wheeler

2. Terminology
• Circulation
• How many copies of a print product have been distributed
• Hits
– How many times a webpage has been viewed e.g. a YouTube video has gone viral and has reached over 10
Million Hits
• Box Office Figures
– How much money a film has made at the cinema during its release
• Ratings
– Ratings How something has been rated e.g. a Film, Book or a TV Show (4/5 stars, 6/10, 24% etc.)
• Sales
– How many products have been sold in total

3. Primary Research
• Definition
– Research that you carry out by asking the public directly using questionnaires etc.
• Advantages
– If you choose a random 50 people of the street it will give a fair result as it’s unlikely to be biased
– It’s practical
– It’s very cost efficient
• Disadvantages
• Lacks Validity
• There is no way that you can ensure that the information is truthful and correct.
• The choice may be biased if you’re just asking in the same area
• Example
• Interviews
• Questionnaires

4. Secondary Research
• Definition
– Studying previously undertaken research by others e.g. Internet articles
• Advantages
– There’s a vast amount of research available and multiple resources to obtain that information from
– The research has been carried out previously so it’s very time sufficient.
• Disadvantages
– The research may not be easy to find as a lot of irrelevant pages my come up rather than what you’re
looking for.
– The information you have gotten from the information collector may not always be correct
• Example
– Yellow Pages
– Internet research e.g. Google
– Library research e.g. looking through papers and articles

5. Quantitative Research
• Definition
– Research that you can turn into percentages, fractions and numbers.
– Expressible as a quantity
• Advantages
– Quantitative research allows the researcher to measure and analyze data
– Quantitative research is conducted with closed questions
– Requires a short, often one word answer
• Disadvantages
– The quality of the research is dismissed as they want a larger vote
• Example
- Open-Ended Questionnaires
- Unstructured interviews

6. Qualitative Research
• Definition
• Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying
reasons, opinions, and motivations
• Advantages
• So we get quality answer rather than a short answer which doesn’t really give us any information
• Disadvantages
• The quality of data is time consuming
• Findings can be time consuming
• Example
– Open-Ended Questionnaires

7. Audience Research
• Definition
• Audience research is defined as any communication research that is conducted on specific audience
segments to gather information about their attitudes, knowledge, interests
• Advantages
• It will assure that your campaign will respond directly to your target audience
• Disadvantages
• The Audience may not answer truthfully manipulating the results of the research.
• The area you ask in may have a biased opinion
• Example
– Surveys
– Questionnaires

8. Market Research
• Definition
• The action or activity of gathering information about consumers' needs and preferences
• Advantages
• It’s easy to find out if their current customers already like their product and if they woul be interested in
buying a newer product from them.
• It is up to date
• It is relevant and useful to do.
• Disadvantages
• Expensive and time consuming to collect.
• Needs a large sample to be accurate, which takes time.
• Example
• Trial runs of selling the product to see how well it sells

9. Production Research
• Definition
• Finding information and resources required to produce a piece of media.
• Advantages
• I have everything I need for my production
• Helps to see an overview of commercial availability
• Disadvantages
• Some resources are limited because I don’t have access to them
• Time consuming
• Example
– Taking into account the filming and editing equipment required to make the product with budgets

10. Terminology
• Objective
– a thing aimed to reach e.g. My objective by the end of the year is to get a distinction in my College
course.
• Subjective
– based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.
• Valid
– Factual point on a subject
• Reliable
– A point which you can trust

11. Harvard Referencing
Name of the film being researched;
1. Scorsese, M (2014) The Wolf of Wall Street
2. Belfort, J (2007) The Wolf of Wall Street
3. Scorsese, M (2014) The Wolf of Wall Street http://www.paramount.com/movies/wolf-wall-street
4. (2014) The Wolf of Wall Street http://www.empireonline.com/movies/wolf-wall-street/review/