Introduction to unit 3 assignment 1

Introduction to Unit 3 Assignment 1

In this assignment I will be researching, investigating and explaining the nature and purposes of research in the Creative Media Industry and also the techniques and methods used for researching and sources of research. Furthermore the type of methods I used in my introductory research on horror and romantic comedy. There are two methods of research; primary research and secondary research and there are also two types of research which the industries use and that is Quantitative research and Qualitative research. The creative media industry carry out the above researches for the following purposes of research: audience research, market research and production research, which I will be explaining in detail in my essay.

Research is important in the media industry because that’s how media producers know who their competitors are in the media industry, who is the target audience and also what’s the public’s opinion on a particular media product. The purpose of this research is for media producers to ensure that the media product that they want to develop hasn’t been already produced in the media industry by other media producers or companies. Based on the above criteria research is carried out during pre-production, this includes story boarding, audience research, location research, budget, equipment hire, audio, script, cast and crew hire.

Audiences are categorised through geodemographics, psychographics and demographics.

Geodemographics is a way of describing a group of people based on where they live and their postcode.
Psychographicsis also a way of describing a group of people based on their attitudes, opinions and lifestyle.
Demographics‘study of populations especially size, growth, density, distribution and the interpretation relating to these statistics.’ (Clark,2007, p.53).
Open questions allow the interviewee to answer and give their views and opinions.
Closed questions limit the time of answers that can be provided by the interviewee.

There are two methods of research and they are primary research and secondary research. 

 Primary research is research that is undertaken by individual first hand,for example it can involve giving out questionnaires to the public, interviewing them or running a focus group.

The advantage of primary research is asking the public an open question and getting them to speak, interviewing the public face to face; that way they get to see their face expressions and body language (direct contact), the researcher gets to collect detailed information from the public, the information is normally collected by the researcher themselves; that way the information is only available to them or their company and they can interpret the data. 

The disadvantage of primary research is that it can sometimes cost money to rent a room for the focus group and to buy equipment that can be used for interviewing the public. There could be lot of confusion on how the researcher portrays the question and how the public interprets it.

Secondary research is research that has already been prepared by someone else or an organization it already exists for example technical reports, newspaper articles and press releases. 

The advantage of secondary research is that it already exists which makes it easier for other people to do their own research and find out information, it saves time, there may be information in the data that you may not know about, it is cheaper to do and it allows you to access data’s that you could sometimes not otherwise get.

The disadvantage of secondary research is that the answers or information may not exactly fit the research questions and the researcher may not have any control on how the data was collected, not specific to the researcher’s needs, not timed, it not the public’s opinion, can’t be reliable and the information may not have been updated frequently to avoid any wrong answers or information.

There are two types of research these are quantitative research and qualitative research.

Quantitative research is numerical data that involves facts that can be measured and counted for example this includes box-ticking, table, chart and diagrams. Quantitative research is carried out by media producer so that they can check their audience ratings for example The X-Factor on ITV and The Voice on BBC these two realities TV shows both assess the amount of audience they receive.

The advantage of quantitative research is that it is based on measured facts that can be really easy to organise into charts or diagrams which can be easier to read. It has already been done, save time and money, media producers can carry out quantitative research if they wish not to carry out qualitative research (going around interviewing the public) and the result can sometimes be reliable because it is based on facts. 

The disadvantage of quantitative research is that is measurable facts and information that can be counted these means it needs to be updated frequently because the result will not be more reliable because numbers change, it doesn’t involves the publics' opinion, it’s limited information and understanding of the product.

In contrast to quantitative research, qualitative research is research based on the public’s opinion, their lifestyle and attitude rather than hard facts and figures. 

The advantage of qualitative research is that it provides more detail for the interviewer on what the public thinks based on their attitude, lifestyle and opinion. For example they get to see their facial expressions and body language. The public can base their opinion on their experiences and lifestyle which encourages them to open up more to the interviewer. Qualitative research is important to producers because they want to know what the public thinks of a particular media product that has already been produce and how many people like, dislike their product.

The disadvantage of qualitative research is that negative critique will discourage other people from watching that particular film or television programme; this can affect the further sale of the product which will affect the producer because it will be waste of money and time.