Research Techniques

Understanding different types and methods of research

To undertake successful research, you need to have a good understanding of the main types of research and the methods used.

Starting with the methods – there are two main methods of finding out information they are:

Primary

Secondary

These methods will produce information that can be split into two types of information.

Quantitative

Qualitative

RESEARCH METHODS IN PRACTICE

For the methods that we have looked at there are good and bad points

Primary	Primary research is new which means no one has created work like yours before.
	A negative of primary research could be that there is more than one answer to the research making it unreliable
Secondary	Secondary research could be used from someone else and it might not be original.
	Secondary research is quicker to find and it has been done for you

RELIABILITY OF INFORMATION

The Internet is an amazing source of information; you can literally find anything you want! However – it should be handled with care!

Below are some websites – have a look through. Some are real, some are fake.

Can you identify which is which?

Website address	Real or fake	Reason
http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/people-places/the-great-scottish-haggis-hunt-begins-1-3212977	FAKE	The image isn’t focused and you can’t search for Haggis.
http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/	FAKE	This article is fake because there isn’t such things as tree octopus’ and the layout isn’t professional.
http://www.hants.gov.uk/	Unavailable
http://www.thedogisland.com	Fake	The opening paragraph seems too good to be true
http://www.buydehydratedwater.com/	Fake	Can’t get dehydrated water and it could be a scam
http://www.dhmo.org/	Fake	Doesn’t look real and there is no contact information.
http://www.hampshire.police.uk/internet	Real	Police website

Why spend money on research?

Media products are expensive to produce

Need to make sure that it will attract the right audience

To make sure the audience reacts to it in the right way

To ensure the product can be completed in the required time

To produce product within budget

RAJAR TASK

The radio station with the largest amount of listeners is BBC Radio 2 with 15,298,000

210,000 people listen to Capital South Coast

The average amount of time someone listens to Spirit FM is 6.7 hours

MAGAZINE QUESTIONAIRE: 

What interests you within the college? 

What do you think the future holds for you? 

What type of music do you listen to?

How often do you listen to music? 

Where do you shop for clothes or accessories? 

What cafe do you like the most in the college? 

Does the library interest you? 

Do you watch or play any sports at all? if so what are they? 

How often do you go shopping? 

Do you read any magazines or newspapers? 

What is a focus group? 

According to http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/focus-group.html a focus group is a "small group of people usually between 4-15 people brought together with a moderator to focus on a specific product or topic" 

My Career Path!

To work in the radio industry.

Radio Presenter or producer

For me to be able to work in the radio industry I will have to:

·      Have excellent presentation and performance skills

·      To generate my own original ideas and to think creatively about communicating them to audiences

·      Understand how to use your voice effectively for radio

·      Learn how to use radio equipment and to operate different radio studios

·      Engaging with different audiences

·      Meet tight deadlines and react quickly whilst under pressure

 

Would start out working for a local radio station, using determination to work my way up towards the bigger radio  industries like Capital or the BBC.

Tuesday 1st November
RAJAR- It stands for Radio Joint Audience Research and it is the official body which is in charge of measuring radio audiences throughout the UK. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and the radio centre on behalf of the commercial.

NRS- It stands for National Readership Survey and it was first established in 1956 and now it provides the most authoritative/ valued mass audience research used for print and digital advertising trading throughout Britain. The survey itself covers over 250 of the UK's most popular news brands and magazines- showing the size and nature of the audiences they have achieved.

ABC- It stands for Audit Bureau of Circulations and it is the industry for the body for media measurement. Their data is used for many decision makers:
Media owners
Media agencies
Advertisers
Rights owners
Investors
Management

BARB- It stands for Broadcasters Audience Research Board, it was set up in 1981 to provide the industry regular television audience measurement service for many broadcasters and the advertising industry. BARB is owned by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BSkyB and the IPA.


Audiences- An individual or collective group of people. 
Old media (TV, print, radio) which used to have high audience numbers. 
Without an audience there would be no media, media organisations produce media texts to make some profit. 
The mass media is becoming more competitive than ever in order to attract a wider range of audiences. 

Fragmented audience: 
The division of audiences into smaller groups due to the variety of media outlets.
more people now view the hard copy of a newspaper along with viewing it online. 
How do they make money? 
Free apps always have adverts unless you pay to remove the adds
Niche audience: much smaller but very influential, the audience is small. 

Demographics: 
Quantitive data- easy to gather and gives a quick analysis, it also categorises people. 
Gender- age - family - class - nation - ethnicity - education - religion 
Group A- lawyers, doctors, professors
Group B- Teachers, Middle management, fairly well paid professionals
Group C1- Junior management, bank clerks, Nurses, white collar professionals
Group C2- Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, blue collar professionals
Group D- Drivers, manual workers 
Group E- Students, unemployed, pensioners. 
Types:
Resigned- rigid and strict- they like safety and familiarity.
Struggler- disorganised with few skills- Jeremy Kyle
Mainstreamer- Conventional and conformist- part of the masses- these are the mass audiences.
Aspirer- materialistic- they place importance on image.
Succeeder- strong and goal orientated- luxury, high end.
Explorer- energetic- young- students- adventurous.
Reformer- they are free from restriction- higher educated.