Qualitative Research
Qualitative Research creates data based on opinions, views
and preferences. This research method is used to find out what individual
people and groups think, feel and their opinion of a certain media product. To
collect the data that is needed individual interviews are conducted and focus
groups are set up to collect opinions, preferences and views.
This form of research is highly important within the media
industry. Individual interviews and focus groups are both a type of primary research,
as it involves collecting the data you need directly from the individuals
yourself. An example of Qualitative Research would be if you wanted to collect
primary research about a certain film, you could stand outside the cinema and
ask the people who had viewed the film to fill out questionnaires. This would
give you the data which you need, however the data would only be short answers
and people may not take the questionnaire seriously, they may rush the answers.
The best way to collect Qualitative Research would be to produce a focus group,
as you would be able to speak to the individuals for a longer amount of time
and ask more in depth questions.
Primary research is a great way of collecting the data that
you need, however secondary research is another technique of collecting data.
This involves using someone else’s previous research they have designed for
others to use as secondary research. An example of this would be instead of
standing outside a cinema with a questionnaire you could get the data from a
film review website and collect the data from there. However this form of
research isn’t very reliable because anyone could easily lie online or make a
fake profile, or the film producers could pay the site to add more positive
comments about their films, in this way the media can be easily manipulated.
Below is an example of secondary research, individuals opinions and views on the film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Below is an example of secondary research, individuals opinions and views on the film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier.