Research methods New

Primary research is when someone does their own research. They research about a subject form starch. Examples of primary research would questionnaires, surveys and focus groups. This has many advantages such as you find out for yourself if the information is reliable or not because some information that you find on the internet might not be true. Media companies will do research to find out information from their customers and other members of the public. For example if the media production wants to make short clips and they want the views of the audience they can use primary research to get the views and the ideas of public. For example I can look at questionnaire about movies and TV shows and see what response people give such as how many people prefer horror than comedy.

 

Also look at what type of questions to ask such as open or closed question wheatear it’s better to have a scale response or leave it open to get their personal and detailed response. The disadvantage of an open question is that they might be in a rush and not right their honest opinion. The advantage with scale questioners is that you can narrow it down and see which one the public prefers the most.

 

Secondary research is when you carry out research using information that someone else has already found. Examples of secondary research would be getting information from the Internet, books and magazines. Using the Internet will have its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages would be that you could find lots of information because people can access from anywhere so there are lots of ideas that can be used without you having to do any work.

 

The disadvantages of using the Internet are that people can also upload false information on it so the information you get can be unreliable as well the information might not be up to date. Also using book has a disadvantage because most of the books are old so the information won’t be up to date because most of the work is done using the internet. Using secondary research has its advantages such as it takes less time to gather the research because you are just taking it from different sources such as internet and books. The disadvantages are some information might not be reliable or true.

 

Quantitative& Qualitative

 

Quantitative research is when research is carried out using facts and figures, which are then backed up by examples for the research. For example researching what type of shows and program people watch on TV. This is important because the research will be shown and then it will be backed up by fact so you know it’s true and reliable. Also figures will be used because if the media department wants to find out what percentage of people watch a certain show they will use quantitative research. The advantage of using Quantitative research is that you can get a wide range of answers and have them in percentages but the disadvantages of this is that it’s hard to narrow it down because of high percentage of answers you will get. For example quantitative research will be things like DVD sales figures, another example would be a report about the percentage of audience certain movies or TV shows.

 

Qualitative research is when research is carried out mostly using facts. This is when lots of words are used as well as examples to back up the research such as using books, articles and the Internet. So if the media production wants to find what type of shows the public prefer they can research that using book and magazines without using figures and statistics. For example researching about a subject using mostly facts and words rather than figures percentages.

 

Media companies measures audiences using a number of different methods. For example they will check the sales figure of DVDs to see how many people purchased which film. Also they will check the rating of movies and TV shows to see if people prefer it and what they would rate it. Also they measure the audience by checking the subscription. This is if the person really likes the video and he/she subscripts to the company.  Also they can check the figures such as how many cinema tickets were sold for a certain movie. The companies that check the audiences are listed below:

 RAJAR

This website gives you information and statistics about the latest releases. Also it informs you about what percentage of the world listens to radio. It’s also given you up to date news about the latest about music. The users can also download the RAJAR app for the phone. This can be useful because most of the people have phones and it will be easier for them to do their research on the phone and they will have their phone with them everywhere they go.

 

BARB

This website gives you lots of information about the media world and what shows are viewed the most. Also it shows the top 30 shows weekly and monthly. Also the public can subscribe to the website. The website also has news that is up to date and gives you information about celebrities and TV shows, the news is called BARB Bulletin.

OFCOM

This website gives you news about the latest TV companies and awards new TV companies’ licence to run their channels. Also they give you advice about TV and how to complaint about TV and radio such as billing and charges. Also there is a section on the website that allows you ask OFFCOM for any advice. They also have price comparison section where it helps you find the best deal s with phone and broadband. It also gives you guidance and tools such as templates and videos about phones and broadband.

 

BBC

The BBC gives you a range of information such as it gives you up to date information about sport, TV, politics, lifestyle, weather and radio. It lets you know what is going on in the world such as the latest celebrities gossips. BBC have their own I Player which lets you watch live TV and catch up any programs that you might have missed. The websites has a search box which people can use to find out information or watch any programs they might have missed.

 

NRS (National readership survey)

This website provides its users up to date information on the number of people who like and enjoy reading certain magazines and newspapers. The website is easy to use because the layout is simple and the information on it is organised and easy to read. Also another positive feature about this website is that the users can choose the file format which you want to open it with, this is for the links which are on the website, file formats like word or PowerPoint.