Pimary Research

Primary research is research that you have gone out and gathered for you self. This is the best type of research you can do. This information is collected thorough many different ways. The 2 main ways are Questionnaires and Focus groups. You usually conduct this research after you have looked at Secondary research first. This is because secondary research may tell you what is already out there and what is poppuar but primary research can tell you what there should be more of and why.


There are many advantages and disadvantages for Primary Researcher. some of these could be:

Advantages - 

you can research exactly what you want, how you want, and don't have to rely on other peoples work. 

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 

It is tailored exactly to your needs 



Disadvantages - 

It may take a while for you to gather the appropriate data.

It costs a lot of money to conduct this type of research.

It is very time consuming, not just to gether the data but find people to get the data, and to sort through the data after you have it. All together it takes a lot of time.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is where someone gathers information that has been collected by someone else. This information can be found in many different things. it can be found on websites magasines and other media orientated things. This is a good way to

secondary research could be done in many different ways and could tell you many different things. for example on the metacritic website they give you data that has already been collected.

{Screenshot-from metacritic website- Showin the websites results on The Transcendence}
This gives the view'er other peoples views on the movie aswell as the views from the website critics.

{Screenshot-critics results}
This information is given to us and we have been told that this is the critics opinions on the movie and what they have rated it. But we have no way of knowing how true these results are.


This image is from the BARB website:

{Screenshot-BARB viewing summery-Total}

This website gives us information on what the TOP TV channels are and how many views they get. This website tells us that BBC1 have the best rating.
The advantages to this type of research is that it is cheap and very easy to do.
It also gives us the information we want very quickly.

But the disadvantages to Secondary research is that it isn't exactly accurate and can be influenced
It also can be out dated, therefore not have the correct information.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research is where someone is asked to gather in-depth information to do with peoples views and opinions. They use this method to gather opinions and in depth information. The questions they ask are open questions, this means the person answering can leave a detailed response. This is because they can get more in-depth and detailed information.This means the answers they get, although very varied there more detailed than a yes or no answer.

They use both Primary and secondary research methods to gather these results.

Primary Research: They will create a survey or a questionnaire, this may be a lengthy and costly process but the results they gather are all new and fresh ones. This means there results are more accurate. and not biased by any out side influences.

Secondary Research: This is research using existing information, that has been gathered by other people and other organisations. This information is found on websites or newspapers. most of media already have secondary research on or about them. The advantages of secondary research is that it doesn't cost anything and is very easy to find. However the information could be made to be biased by a website or news paper because they could have influences that control there result.

This is Meta critic. They are a website that gives secondary research. It would be secondary research because this website have gone out and gathered the information to give to us. This is a prime example of both primary and secondary research. This is because it tells us both:What the critics from the website thought but also what the opinions of other people.

It gives us qualitative information because it gives us the peoples opinions about the movie.

This helps us to know the opinions and views on what the public think. it also lets us know if the agree or disagree on the critics that have given there opinion on the film.

There is ways of gathering the information above through primary research. This would be done by standing out side the cinema where the film has been showed and interviewing people that have just watched it. We would then have more legitimate results and a higher chance of getting correct information because we asked the questions ourselves.

Quantitative Research

Quantitative Research is based on numbers, facts and figures. It is to do with different types of statistics. weather they be on a radio show or about the amount of sales something made.

Above, is a screen shot of the BARB website. This is showing the data recorded for TV. This is a prime example of quantitative research because it gives it real statistics and real viewing numbers.
This is very important being it gives information that is hard to gather. But it is very useful information because we can see clearly how many people are viewing each channel and what is more popular.

The same again bellow, This is showing the viewing figures on a range of different radio shows. This also shows us witch is more favorable and witch gets more listeners.

Market Research

Market Research is very valuable in the Media. This is because when launching a new products you must find out whats already out there before releasing a new one. This means they have to fine out what isn't there too. or what there isn't enough of.
for instance say if i was going to being out a new magazine and i didn't know what was already out there, first thing i would do is go and have a look. Do some research on whats already out there  before even trying to design my magazine. I would also look at the different types of magazine's and try and fine 'a gap in the market'. This would allow me to then start creating my product knowing there's not something exactly like it already out there.

To look and see what is already out there, you could do many different things. You could go shopping and visit many different supermarkets and corner shops to note down what type of magazines, or any other media product are popular and what isn't there but could be popular. This would be the primary side of things. Then you could go home and do some secondary research, this means you go home and go through the web to fine websites that have information about products that you are thinking of releasing.
But you also have to consider the Geo-graphics before creating a product too because if you make a magazine about surfing you have to check around the coast for these types of magazines, so be careful when doing any research.

Audience Research

Audience research is where a group or a company look at peoples information to find out more about them and gather specific information about that certain target audience.
there are 3 types of things they look at:

Psychographics: Psycographics is where you profile people according to there likes and dislikes, and put them into groups. These groups are not always right because someone could act like one group but do things like another.

Demographics: you take peoples bodily features and gather information on them, E.G. skin color, height, that sort of thing. you use this to put focus groups together to find out that different types of people like or dislike.

Geodemograpics: This is all to do with where people live, where there from, and the things in there area. this could help you find out what people of the same demogrphics and psycograhics like in different places and countries.

Production Research

Production research: what you do if a media company decides to launch a new product into a specific a

market. Basically you do audience research to find out a few things, then cross that with the market analysis
to see if there is a gab in the market for a specific product.
If i was to bring out a movie, some of the things i would need to find out is:

If the actors are free for the filming of the movie.
Check or venue's and other locations to shoot footage in.
Get the equipment (Props,Cameras,Lighting, E.C.T.).


This type of research is mainly for bringing our a new product into the world, for where there isn't one, and you use other types of research in this one to create an overall outcome.