Understand the nature
and purposes of research
in the creative media
industries.
In the following essay I will be discussing
the advantages and disadvantages of a range of research techniques used in the
media industry. To achieve this I will in detail talk about Types of research,
methods and sources of research, and purposes of research whilst using sources
to explain my points.
There are different types of research to
collect data, these include Primary and secondary research in which primary is
done through methods such as observational research and interviews due to
primary research being done by the individual researcher and secondary research
being done by looking through other researchers work and collecting your data
through literature and internet research. The advantages of using primary
research to collect data is that you can rely on the information you have
collected as you have done the research yourself and you do not have to worry
about the information being false due to it not coming from a another source.
Although you do not have to rely on other peoples research, the disadvantages
of primary research is that it only ables you to work with one set of data,
whereas using secondary research you work with several sets of data for your
research as you can read other researchers work, McQueen and Knussen (2002, pp26) states “The scope of secondary data
will often exceed what the individual might achieve on their own”. This
shows that gathering secondary research will allow the individual to achieve
more than they would by themselves, as they would collect more data from
various sources.
The advantages of secondary research is the
data you collect could potentially be by a reliable source and be accurate
which you can use in your research especially when looking at audience research
on websites such as RAJAR and BARB which shows viewing figures for TV shows for
Audience research which is needed for shows to see how many/what type of people
are viewing, Also when using secondary research techniques the researcher has
the advantage of using more than one set of data due to them being able to look
at other peoples work, to create an overall conclusion to their research,
whereas the disadvantage of using secondary research is the sources you use
could possibly be out of date and could be wrong, Also the information you look
at could be biased and one-sided due to it being based on peoples opinions
therefore not on fact which could affect the research as it could be wrong.
The other two types of research is
qualitative and quantitive, Qualitative research is text-based research, such
as interviews and literature research by using books or the internet an example
of qualitative is the NRS (National Readership Survey) website that provides
researchers with the information about the ‘social grade’ which shows the type
of social class people are associated with concerning the job they have. The social grade can be read and used to see
what type of people are watching and is a form of secondary research. The
purpose of using qualitative research such as the NRS social grade is for Market
research, this type of research is to see how they can attract a certain
audience at a certain time in the week/day. Market research is also to see what
competition there is an example of this is prime time on a Saturday night
between ‘Xfactor’ and ‘Strictly come dancing ‘, Researchers compile statistics
over a period of time to see what is popular but not necessarily what is better.
Another method of collecting qualitative research is interviews due to the
interview being a face-to-face ‘conversation’ where the interviewer asks
relevant questions to the interviewee about the topic being researched
therefore it is qualitative and primary research. The advantages of qualitative
research is the researcher is able to get peoples opinions and go into more
detail an example of this is a quote by May.
T (2002, pp123) who states “the interviewer is freer to probe beyond the in a manner
which would be appear prejudicial to the aims of standardization and
comparability. Information about age, sex, occupation, type of household and so
on, can be asked in a standardized format. The interviewer, who can seek both
clarification and elaboration on the answers given, can then record qualitative
information about the topic.” This gives the information that using
research methods involving qualitative research has the advantage of the
researcher in gaining more elaboration on the information they have been given
such as on answers the interviewee has given. Another advantage of qualitative
research is that you are able to get a wide sample of peoples opinions for
example IMDB which provides people with reviews from the public on various
films, This could be useful to get a wide sample of opinions and see what
people like. The disadvantages of using qualitative research is there is a
probability that the person you are interviewing could give you false
information which could affect the research you are doing, Another disadvantage
of using qualitative research is when you have collected your results it will
be harder to evaluate as there is no numbers to put into charts and graphs. The
best way of obtaining statistics is to use surveys which are easy to present in
graphs.
Within qualitative research there are
several different methods of obtaining data. The first being interviews, The
advantages of using interviews is the interviewer can control the interview and
get the information they need for example if the interviewee goes off topic
then the interviewer can put the interview back on track, This is useful when
doing a structured interview when the interviewee starts to drift off topic or
when you want a specific answer, An example of an interviewer is Jeremy Paxman
who interviews politicians, Structured interviews tend to be more strict and
aggressive due to the interviewer wanting exact information these type of
interviews are used in job interviews and more formal interviews. Other forms
of interviews include semi-structured which give the interviewee more time to
develop on their answer and give their opinions but the interviewer still has
control over the interview, As May T
(2002, pp123) states “These types of interviews are said to allow people to
answer more on their own terms than the standardized interview permits”. An
example of an interviewer who uses semi-structured interviews is Louis Theroux
who allows his interviewees to expand on the questions he has given them. The
final type of interview is an un-structured this is where none of the questions
are pre-arranged before the interview; an advantage of this is the interviewee
would give a more personal response, as it is more conversational. A
disadvantage to this is the interviewer could potentially lose his pace and ask
the wrong question which could lead to the interviewee to not answering and be
time consuming. Quantitative research is numerical based researched such as
statistics. An advantage is you get straight
answers and facts from surveys; a disadvantage is you can’t develop the
information you get or get peoples opinions.
Production research is to look at risk
assessments to see if there is any risk involved, call sheets to see who can be
filmed, and reces (Look at a place before filming). This is to see if it is
possible to film at a location with the correct people and equipment.
Bibliography
May. T (2002) Social research. Open University Press, Buckingham
McQueen and Knussen (2002) Research methods for social science, an
introduction. Prentice Hall. London.
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