Research techniques for creative media industries

Research in media production is used for many purposes such as to gather the necessary data for marketing, media production and other ventures within media production. There are different forms of research in the media industry, including primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative.

Quantitative Research: This involves the research of numbers and statistics in order to acquire reliable, accurate data. Quantitative research is most commonly used in physical media, such as magazines newspapers and brochures. Examples of this type of research in regards to the media industry could be box office figures, sales figures and the ratings that the products receive. One advantage of quantitative research in media is that it gives the researcher has a more objective view over the data gathered. The data gathered is also more detailed with a higher level of accuracy.One disadvantage of quantitative research is A large amount of the target audience needs to be studied and this may be impossible, and if possible, time consuming and costly. The chief purpose of this type of research may be ignored, not properly understood or even touched upon.

Box office figures: These show how many tickets were sold for a specific production over a particular period of time and as a result how much money was made.

Sales figures: These figures show how successful different products in the media are in terms of sales. Below shows the sales figures of the best-selling CD’s of the year on amazon (so far).

Programs’ Ratings: these are collected as a gauge to understand how program be performing’ and this done by gathering the audience’s opinion. These ratings are sifted

regularly to show the success of programs and determine how long the program will continue to be shown for. Qualitative Research: This enables the researcher to acquire a more in-depth response by examining the personal opinions and viewpoints of the audience. It is mostly used on the television in film and programme reviews whereby the audience express how they feel about the product and how it can be improved. Other examples of qualitative research include discussion forums and game reviews.

The design plan required for qualitative research would not be as strict as the design plan required for other types of research. The data contained in this type of research would be a lot more detailed, accurate and reliable.The research gathered using qualitative research may have a specific bias or objectivity. It is also quite time consuming for the people who are doing the research and can sometimes last for years at a time.

Film reviews: Film reviews are the most common way for critics to critique the movies they watch, whereby they comment on the quality of the movie and whether or not they would recommend it.

An example of a film review would be:

“Mean girls was a joy to watch and also really epitomized the basic white girl whilst also giving the character’s depth with many laugh out loud moments” 6.5/10

Discussion forums: Discussion forums are a well-used tool in media production. A way discussion forums are used in media is reviewing films, new and old. A forum that I visit on a frequent basis is the mugglenet.com official forum, cosforums.com. This forum is a method of harry potter fans getting new information and sharing news and opinions of their own.

Game reviews: Game reviews revolve around someone opinions on a game they have played, are playing or are going to play. The way the score a game is very dependent on the person and their personal preferences. Occasionally a reviewer may have a bias towards a certain style or type of game but this person will have their own opinion and interpretation of the game. There

has been an upsurge of game reviewers and lets-players appearing on the internet, most specifically, YouTube. There is a live broadcasting game network called Twitch

Secondary Research: Secondary research is research gathered that was collected by another party. It’s also referred to as “second hand” information as it’s passed through one other person’s hands. One problem with using secondary research is it may have been gathered quite a long time ago and therefore, the information gathered may be unsound. An example of nonvalid secondary research in media could be if someone took information about a film released in 2001, it would not be usable.

Primary Research:Primary research is information that has been freshly gathered to give specific answers and deal with specific issues. Primary research normally revolves around the use of questionnaires, surveys or interviews with individuals or small groups. This is also referred to first-hand information

Purposes of Research

Audience Research: Audience research is the act of carrying out research with the audience in order to find out what they like specifically and the reasons for why they like it so. Keeping the audience content and satisfied is vastly important as they are the people buying your products and giving you the money. Therefore, it is of vital importance to keep the quality of the products to the highest standards in order to ensure their needs and desires are met.

Market Research: Market Research is one of the most vital areas in media, altogether. Gathering the most relevant and correct information will allow the media industry to increase their target audience and strengthen relationships between the consumer and their preferred media type, genre and products.

My researchhttp://www.charitycommissionni.org.uk/charity-details/?regid=102797&subid=0https://www.facebook.com/parentsofolderchildrenwithautism/http://www.the-numbers.com/market/2016/top-grossing-movieshttp://www.cosforums.comhttps://www.amazon.com/best-sellers-music-albums/zgbs/music

Useful Sources:Guidance and Sources for use.:Websites:www.alertnet.org/aletnet.nsf – Reuters news agencywww.archive.org/ – an internet archive sitewww.bbcfootage.com – BBC film archiveswww.britmovie.co.uk – British movie archivewww.businessballs.com – a great business site with lots of information on research techniques, demographics, etcwww.gamasutra.com – a sister publication to the print magazine Game Developerwww.guardian.co.uk – The Guardian and The Observerwww.imdb.com – internet movie databasewww.monitor.bbc.co.uk – BBC Worldwide News Monitoringwww.rcuk.ac.uk/ – Research Councils UK sitewww.red3d.com/cwr/games – portal site with links to game research and technologywww.research.scea.com – Sony game researchwww.research-live.com/ – Research Magazine websiteEdexcel BTEC Level 3 Nationals specification in Creative Media Production 13– Issue 1 – January 2010 © Edexcel Limited 2009– www.skillset.org/careers/.

Further general information on work-related learning can be found at the following websites:www.aimhighersw.ac.uk/wbl.htm – work-based learning guidancewww.businesslink.gov.uk – local, regional business linkswww.nebpn.org – National Education and Business Partnership Networkwww.vocationallearning.org.uk – Learning and Skills Network

www.warwick.ac.uk/wie/cei – Centre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick – work experience and workplace learning frameworks.

Primary Sources  - (from original sources for project based work)Emails from client; crew; contacts list; journalism mentors where relevant; telephone logs; diary records; minutes; photo files; cutaway footage/screen grabs; scripts; production logs; production templates; appraisal & peer review records. Source websites. Quantitative & Qualitative Research findings where possible. 

Secondary Sources TextbooksBaylis P, Freedman A, Procter N et al – BTEC Level 3 National Creative Media Production, Student Book(Pearson, 2010) ISBN 978-1846906725Baylis P, Freedman A, Procter N et al – BTEC Level 3 National Creative Media Production, Teaching ResourcePack (Pearson, 2010) ISBN 978-1846907371Baylis P, Holmes P, Starkey G – BTEC National in Media Production (Heinemann Educational, 2007)ISBN 978-0435499198Abercrombie N, Long Hurst B – The Penguin Dictionary of Media Studies (Penguin, 2007)ISBN 978-0141014272Branson G, Stafford R – The Media Students Book (Rutledge, 2006), ISBN 978-0415371438Briggs A, Cobley P – The Media: An Introduction (Longman, 2002) ISBN 978-0582423466Clark V, Jones P, Malyszko B, Wharton D – Complete A-Z Media and Film Studies Handbook (Hodder Arnold,2007) ISBN 978-0340872659Gillespie M, Toynbee J– Analyzing Media Texts Issues in Cultural/Media Studies (Open University Press, 2006)ISBN 978-0335218868McDonald K – Film and Television Textual Analysis (Auteur, 2005) ISBN 978-1903663547O’Sullivan T Dutton B, Rayner P – Studying the Media: An Introduction (Hodder Arnold, 2003)