Production Research

Production Research

Production research is the collection and analysis of information for then content and production of a media product.

Production Research is used after audience and market research has been decided on, production research is needed too provide content and gather material to allow the company to develop the new product, research the commercial viability of actually making the product  also check out suitable recording and production locations. As well as to investigate the technology and personnel available and thoroughly research and plan production and post production stages to ensure that it all runs as smoothly as possible.

Production research also includes advertising and where it might be placed to gain the best possible reaction from the audience. It will help to gain information on income and outgoing costs.

Advantages and disadvantages of production research

The advantages include the gain of knowledge of how much everything is going to cost and where to get all the main resources from. It will help to avoid copyright infringement to prevent buyers from being confused.

Disadvantages include unreliable sources like with market research and unreliable people and suppliers which can affect the deadline date.

Market Research

Market Research 

Market research is a type of a research technique that allows you to find information of what's in the market and whats popular in the media etc.. For example if you were to start a new magazine you'd need to use market research into finding which magazines are popular and unpopular, what type of magazines are out in the market at the moment. For example celebrity gossip magazines are popular so if you were to make a new one it would have lots of competition which might be difficult to sell. The same would be for men's fitness magazines there's plenty in the market at the minute so creating one of the same genre would not be a good idea. 

Their's a term used 'Gap in the market' which is quite self explanatory really, the market has opening for an idea or for example a magazine/radio show etc.. 

Audience Research

Audience Research

Audience Research is the collection and analysis of information about the target audience for a particular media product or sector of the media industry.

The profile of the target audience, their preferences and buying patterns are important considerations for any media producer. A lot of time, effort and resource is put into research to better understand  audiences.
  
A number of classifications are used to describe media audience.

DEMOGRAPHICS - A way a of describing a group of people accoding to factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, occupation, social class and sexual orientation. 

GEODEMOGRAPHICS - A way of describing a group of people based on where they live, sometimes organised according to postcode.

PSYCHOGRAPHICS - A way of describing a group of people based on their attitudes, opinions and lifestyle.

Types of Audience Research

Surveys

Focus groups

Observations

Questionnaires

Quantitative Research

Quantitative Research 

  There are many different uses for this type of research; it could be used to figure out demographics for patients. It could be used to gather information about what laws are working and why. Criminals could have their crimes compared to one another based on the information given and perhaps the type of criminal that they are.

Advantages: 

Quantitative data is statistics driven and can provide a lot of information. One of the advantages of this type of research is that it is easier to compile the data onto a chart or graph because of the numbers that are made available (Word press, 2011). Another advantage of quantitative research is that the research can be conducted on a large scale and gives a lot more information as far as value and statistics.

Disadvantages: 

One of the disadvantages of quantitative research is that it is more costly than using qualitative research. Even though it comes with advantages because of the larger scale of research, it may not be necessary for the type of research that needs to be done. Another disadvantage of quantitative research is that numbers change often. So if research is conducted on a statistical level then it would have to be conducted much more frequently to help balance out the consistent changing of numbers.

When it comes to quantitative research we can use primary and secondary methods.

Here is a example of quantitative research:

This was taken from the NRS (National Readership Survey) a company which measures newspaper reading for example see's how an people read

a certain newspaper. To them this is primary research because the are using their own techniques into getting this information (Quantitative Research). If i needed to find this sort of information and decided to use it, it would be secondary research.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research 

Qualitative research is peoples opinions and views about why hey buy products, why they like radio etc.. You can gather this from primary and secondary methods, for example to use primary research you can use focus groups. When asking questions about something you can use open or closed questions, closed questions being either a yes or no and closed questions being explained and giving an opinion. Qualitative information can give you a very informative answer and allow you too go deep into you research and know what customers would like to see and do.

The advantages of qualitative research are that we are able to discover the “why” behind certain behaviors; this is because instead of analyzing numbers, we are able to use language and behavior of the people we are asking. Another advantage of qualitative research is that there is a great deal of flexibility involved. For instance, if a focus group is taking place and the person decides they would like to add a question or explore a certain idea further, they can have the course of the focus group changed. This is because unlike an online survey, the client is able to watch the focus group as it happens.These types of research studies can move quickly on short timelines.The quantitative research method gives an opportunity for measurement and analyzing of data. It also precise since the researcher can evaluate the independent and dependent variables in detail. Another advantage of quantitative research is that it is applicable in hypothesis testing of experiments.The disadvantages of qualitative research include; ignorance of study content and the research must be conducted on a huge portion of the people.


Last week as a class, me and the other students went to the cinema to see Need For Speed, i think this could be a great example of qualitative research because we could find out who liked and didn't like the film and get some answers using this method. So first all of if we used primary methods to get the answers we want, we can conduct a focus group which will allow us to have a general chat about the film and get answers to questions. If we wanted to go into more depth and get a more wide range of feedback we could use secondary methods. Secondary methods will include getting information for example film websites, guardian film reviews and twitter. This is good because most of the research will be done for us but we will have good feedback off many other different people will be great for our research.

  
This is the Metacritic website which gives you a range of reviews and ratings will you can use for your qualitative research and also your quantitative research as well.  

Secondary Research

Secondary Research 

Secondary research is the most common research method employed in the industry today. It involves processing data that has already been collected by another party. With this form, researchers will consult previous studies and findings such as reports, press articles and previous market research projects in order to come to a conclusion. The relatively low expense in comparison to primary research is the main advantage of this research as no new research needs to be commissioned. However, its main disadvantage is that the data used in the analysis may be out-dated and therefore return inaccurate results. Furthermore, previous studies may not have targeted the exact issue that the current research requires.

Secondary research (or desk research) gathers existing information through available sources. Secondary research examples include:

• information on the internet
• existing market research results
• existing data from your own stock lists and customer database
• information from agencies such as industry bodies, government agencies, libraries and local councils.

Advantages of using secondary data are that it already exists, so it saves time.It is often cheaper than doing primary research and it may allow you access to data you could not otherwise get. Disadvantages are that in some cases, it is very expensive (scanner data, e.g.) You may have less control over how the data was collected also there may be biases in the data that you don't know about. Its answers may not exactly fit your research questions. 

and it may be obsolete data.

Primary Research

Primary Research

Primary research consists of a collection of original primary data collected by the researcher. It is often undertaken after the researcher has gained some insight into the issue by reviewing secondary research or by analyzing previously collected primary data. It can be accomplished through various methods, including questionnaires and telephone interviews in market research, or experiments and direct observations in the physical sciences, amongst others. 

There are many ways of collecting primary research here are some examples: surveys, interviews, observations, and ethnographic research. Surveys can be through telephone, mail, etc. 

Advantages to Primary Research: You can research exactly what you want, how you want, and don't have to rely on other peoples work also you can interpret the results how you want, and don't need to rely on other peoples interpretations. The research will be accurate for the current time / place / situation you are studying. Disadvantages are that it can take a lot of time and cost a lot of money to conduct primary research also you might not always have the necessary things to conduct it, e.g. samples etc.



An example of a media questionnaire: