REPORT ON RESEARCH METHODS AND THEIR USE IN MEDIA PRODUCTION:
Introduction:
There are a number of ways to research for media products, such as: Looking or reading through textbooks or articles in magazines or through the internet (websites, online articles, social media analytics) and many other sources on the internet, these are considered as secondary research. There are also ways to research for media products on yourself without the help of the internet by doing surveys, interviews, focus groups and so on and this is where you collect primary research.
There are a number of ways to research for media products, such as: Looking or reading through textbooks or articles in magazines or through the internet (websites, online articles, social media analytics) and many other sources on the internet, these are considered as secondary research. There are also ways to research for media products on yourself without the help of the internet by doing surveys, interviews, focus groups and so on and this is where you collect primary research.
Primary Research:
Primary research is data and information that you collect yourself and analyze and not just something you saw in a website or a textbook and used. So it is personal to you.
Types of primary research include:
The positives of this research are that the information you collect is specific to the topic or product that you need data on, also you could trust that the information you are collecting is reliable as you yourself is collecting the information instead of someone else that you may or may not know Another bonus of primary research is that the information that you collect is new and fresh therefore it increases the reliability of the data and makes your information up-to-date.
However, the negatives of conducting primary research are that sometimes going out and collecting this information can be extremely time consuming and at times may be very expensive (for example, paying people to be included in your focus group). Additionally, the information collected may not be accurate as some calculations made could be incorrect or the wrong people are asked/interviewed which could ruin the whole idea of the research data being reliable.
Primary research is really important in creative media production because it gives you fresh and new data which is needed to appeal to the audience and viewers since if the data collected was out of date then it would not appeal to the audience and therefore they would not buy it and the product will not be successful. Equally, primary research is crucial to have because it provides specific answers and data to what you need which is not always available (for example, the information you need must be from people ages 10-12 about their favourite cake which may not easily be found or trusted and so primary research makes it so much easier and reliable to get the information you need) .
Primary research is data and information that you collect yourself and analyze and not just something you saw in a website or a textbook and used. So it is personal to you.
Types of primary research include:
- Doing surveys
- Interviewing people
- Focus groups
- Questionnaires
The positives of this research are that the information you collect is specific to the topic or product that you need data on, also you could trust that the information you are collecting is reliable as you yourself is collecting the information instead of someone else that you may or may not know Another bonus of primary research is that the information that you collect is new and fresh therefore it increases the reliability of the data and makes your information up-to-date.
However, the negatives of conducting primary research are that sometimes going out and collecting this information can be extremely time consuming and at times may be very expensive (for example, paying people to be included in your focus group). Additionally, the information collected may not be accurate as some calculations made could be incorrect or the wrong people are asked/interviewed which could ruin the whole idea of the research data being reliable.
Primary research is really important in creative media production because it gives you fresh and new data which is needed to appeal to the audience and viewers since if the data collected was out of date then it would not appeal to the audience and therefore they would not buy it and the product will not be successful. Equally, primary research is crucial to have because it provides specific answers and data to what you need which is not always available (for example, the information you need must be from people ages 10-12 about their favourite cake which may not easily be found or trusted and so primary research makes it so much easier and reliable to get the information you need) .
Secondary Research:
Secondary is very easy to do with modern technology. Secondary research is information collected already that you use. In other words already gathered information by someone or something else.
Secondary research could include:
The negatives of secondary research are that the information gathered may not be trustworthy or reliable and especially in the internet where there may be loads of false or contradictory information, also the information collected before hand could be correct and honest but could be outdated and not useful and many do not pay much attention which could potentially ruin the research.
Secondary research is really important to complete because it could be helpful or reassuring and making sure that the primary research is correct. Alongside, secondary information could be very important as it saves so much time and money which helps as any product getting produced would not need the money and time to be spent on just the research.
Secondary is very easy to do with modern technology. Secondary research is information collected already that you use. In other words already gathered information by someone or something else.
Secondary research could include:
- Textbooks
- magazines
- articles
- websites
The negatives of secondary research are that the information gathered may not be trustworthy or reliable and especially in the internet where there may be loads of false or contradictory information, also the information collected before hand could be correct and honest but could be outdated and not useful and many do not pay much attention which could potentially ruin the research.
Secondary research is really important to complete because it could be helpful or reassuring and making sure that the primary research is correct. Alongside, secondary information could be very important as it saves so much time and money which helps as any product getting produced would not need the money and time to be spent on just the research.
Evaluation:
The research you choose to complete is dependent on what you intend to do. For example, if researching a music video then you might want to use primary research and make a survey and send it out to many people to find out their opinion on the video, this would be useful as it would be a quick and inexpensive way to gather trusted information.
This is because this research would help you to understand the project including the codes and conventions and the needs of the audience (according to Blumler and Katz). For a music video, most audiences are looking for something modern and up to date and at the same time entertaining and because a music video’s purpose is to entertain and promote the song and at the same time appeal to the targeted audience and therefore, up to date.
However, if I was researching an advert for a company. I would use secondary research such as articles.
This is because an advert has a very different purpose to a music video. An advert needs to appeal to a specific audience to make them buy or do something. This means that it needs a positive reception (Stuart Hall) or people would ignore it. An advert needs to appeal to not just a certain age but a certain type of person eg using psychometrics.
The research you choose to complete is dependent on what you intend to do. For example, if researching a music video then you might want to use primary research and make a survey and send it out to many people to find out their opinion on the video, this would be useful as it would be a quick and inexpensive way to gather trusted information.
This is because this research would help you to understand the project including the codes and conventions and the needs of the audience (according to Blumler and Katz). For a music video, most audiences are looking for something modern and up to date and at the same time entertaining and because a music video’s purpose is to entertain and promote the song and at the same time appeal to the targeted audience and therefore, up to date.
However, if I was researching an advert for a company. I would use secondary research such as articles.
This is because an advert has a very different purpose to a music video. An advert needs to appeal to a specific audience to make them buy or do something. This means that it needs a positive reception (Stuart Hall) or people would ignore it. An advert needs to appeal to not just a certain age but a certain type of person eg using psychometrics.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, both types of researches are equally important and needed to complete accurate and reliable research. In general, most people prefer using secondary research because of how easy it is to complete and how inexpensive it is compared to how long and expensive primary research can be. Personally, I don’t think that one is more important than the other, they both have pros and cons and should both be considered to be used in research.
In conclusion, both types of researches are equally important and needed to complete accurate and reliable research. In general, most people prefer using secondary research because of how easy it is to complete and how inexpensive it is compared to how long and expensive primary research can be. Personally, I don’t think that one is more important than the other, they both have pros and cons and should both be considered to be used in research.