1. Unit 1: P1, M1, D1
Why would you complete research if you were creating a new media product?
• To find out if your target audience would buy your product
• To find out how much you could sell your product for
• To find out how to make your product more appealing to your target audience
• To find out how to market your product to your target audience
Method Definition Advantage Disadvantage
Primary
Experiments, investigations, or
tests carried out to acquire data
first-hand, rather than being
gathered from published
sources.
• You can research exactly
what you want, how you
want, and don't have to
rely on other peoples work.
• You can interpret the
results how you want, and
don’t need to rely on other
peoples interpretations.
• The research will be
accurate for the current
time / place / situation you
are studying
• It can take a lot of time
and cost a lot of money to
conduct primary research
• You might not always
have the necessary
things to conduct it, e.g.
samples etc.
Secondary
Secondary research (also
known as desk research)
involves the summary, collation
and/or synthesis of existing
research rather than primary
research, where data is
collected from, for example,
research subjects or
experiments.
• It already exists, so it
saves time.
• It is often cheaper than
doing primary research.
• It may allow you access to
data you could not
otherwise get.
• In some cases, it is very
expensive (scanner data,
e.g.)
• You may have less
control over how the data
was collected.
• There may be biases in
the data that you don't
know about.
• Its answers may not
exactly fit your research
questions.
• It may be obsolete data.

2. Unit 1: P1, M1, D1
Quantitative
The use of sampling techniques
(such as consumer surveys)
whose findings may be
expressed numerically, and are
amenable to mathematical
manipulation enabling the
researcher to estimate future
events or quantities.
• Testing and validating
already constructed
theories about how and
why phenomena occur
• Testing hypotheses that
are constructed before the
data are collected
• Can generalize research
findings when the data are
based on random samples
of sufficient size
• The researcher’s
categories that are used
might not reflect local
constituencies’
understandings
• The researcher’s theories
that are used might not
reflect local
constituencies’
Understandings
• The researcher might
miss out on phenomena
occurring because of the
focus on theory or
hypothesis testing rather
than on theory or
hypothesis generation
Qualitative
Qualitative research is a method
of inquiry employed in many
different academic disciplines,
traditionally in the social
sciences, but also in market
research and further contexts.
• Its strength is in
uncovering more about
people’s experience (why
things may be the way
they are).
• As qualitative research
focuses on small groups, it
can be less expensive
than quantitative research
which may require large
groups of participants or
expensive measurement
tools.
• Qualitative research
methods collect data
about what your select
group of participants feel
or think, or how they
behave. You can't
necessarily use this data
to make assumptions
beyond this specific group
of participants.

3. Unit 1: P1, M1, D1
What research methods did you use when completing the assignments in year 11 (Unit 18 Advertising and Unit
21 Media Project? (e.g. primary, secondary, qualitative, quantitative)
When completing the assignments Unit 18 and 21, I used different types of research methods. In unit 18, I used a lot of
secondary research looking at other products and how they’ve advertised it to give me ideas on how to do my advert. I
also did this for unit 21, looking at other dance videos to inspire me. To help me find out what my audience like when they
watch a video, I did qualitative research and made a survey with various questions about aspects of a video.
What research techniques did you use when completing the assignments in year 11 (Unit 18 Advertising and Unit
21 Media Project? (e.g. using the library, the internet, watching videos, reading info, recces, practises, plans etc)
In unit 18, I looked at other products and how they’ve advertised it to give me ideas on how to do my advert. I also did this
for unit 21, looking at other dance videos to inspire me.
How did you collate, store and use the information trail for Units 18 and 21? (e.g. did you book mark key
websites? Keep a list of websites used? Print off or save any info for your folders?)
For Unit 18, I book marked the majority of the websites I looked at to help me look at them again in the next lesson. For
Unit 21, I did not do this because all I did was look at videos on YouTube and I could remember the name of the videos
easily.

4. Unit 1: P1, M1, D1
How and why might you use the four research methods in a real life situation? For example if you worked for the
BBC and were tasked with creating a new reality TV show how might you use the four research methods to help?
Firstly, it would completely depend on what type of TV show you were creating. If you were creating something that is
uncertain and people may not like then it would be best to do primary research because you can personally see people’s
reactions to it and talk to them about it. Alternatively, if you were creating something that you think will fit in with the crowd
then it would be best to use secondary research because it is much quicker and you will be able to release your show
quicker, however it is quite expensive so you will have to be confident that your TV show will be successful. I think that
quantitative data and qualitative data is better for bigger TV shows because they are used for large scale surveys and are
quite expensive.