THE NATU

RE AND

PURPO

SES OF RESEARCH

IN THE CREAT

IVE MEDIA

INDUSTRIES

L E A H WA T T S

METHODS OF RESEARCH –PRIMARY Primary market research is original research conducted by you to

collect data specifically for your current objective.

• Focus groups have been used to change the ending of films and TV programmes. For example in the TV show ER. The pilot show was to feature Nurse Carol Hathaway committing a suicide via a drug overdose. However the focus group liked her character and were intrigued by the relationship between her and Dr. Doug Ross. As a result of this Carol miraculously recovered and became one of the shows best known heroin's. Focus groups have their pros and cons. A pro would be that respondents can answer and build on each others responses therefore improving on the richness of the data that is being gathered. However a con would be that a focus groups results may not fully represent the opinion of the larger target population.

METHODS OF RESEARCH –PRIMARY • An aspiring game developer would carry out a survey to find out key

information based on the targeted demographic for their game. A researcher may do this by going on Google survey form to post social media websites. An advantage of this is that the researcher is able to get a variety of information from people all over the world of different genders and ages. However, surveys also have their drawbacks as surveys with close-ended questions may have a lower validity rate than other question types.

• Participation in internet forums is also a type of primary research. This is used in the media industry as media producers may create a internet forum themselves for anyone to comment on. This example as the same advantages and disadvantages as the above examples.

METHODS OF RESEARCH - SECONDARYSecondary research is research that is already compiled and available through many forms of media including the internet and newspapers. A

benefit of secondary research is that it is easy to access, therefore there is less cost involved. However a drawback of secondary research is that

the research may not be specific to the researchers needs.• An example of secondary research is the website www.BARB.co.uk. This

website displays audience ratings of TV programs. A benefit of this website is that it is very straight forward and accessible as it takes very little time to see the information that you need. However a disadvantage is that the researcher doesn’t actually get any opinions or in depth feedback of what people actually like about the TV programs.

• Other examples of secondary research include RAJAR, which shows audience ratings for radio stations on their website and the official GAME charts that follows what video games have sold the most. Both of these examples both are easily accessible, however both have a clear lack of in-depth opinions as both the websites just display quantitative data.

TYPES OF RESEARCH – QUANTITATIVEQuantitative data is based on measureable facts like numbers and statistics

• One type of quantitative research would be program ratings. These can be found on websites such as BARB.co.uk. An advantage of looking into program ratings is that media producers can see what TV shows are popular and what aren’t. However, a disadvantage of program ratings is that the research isn’t in depth as the media producer doesn’t get any opinions, just numbers and statistics.

• Another type of quantitative data is how many hits a website gets. An advantage of this information is that media producers can see what websites are successful and which aren’t. But, a disadvantage of this research is that the producers won’t get to ask the website users why they like the website therefore the research isn’t very in depth.

• A third type of quantitative research is in questionnaires and surveys when the questions are close ended. An advantage of this is that personal bias can be avoided due to close ended questions. However, preset answers will not necessarily reflect how people really feel about a subject and in some cases, people will just chose the closest answer.

TYPES OF RESEARCH – QUALITATIVE Qualitative data is understanding non measureable data such as opinions,

attitudes and preferences. • An example of qualitative data is the IMDB user reviews. This allows anyone to write a

review on a TV programme or film that they have watched. A benefit of this allows producers to gain an in-depth understanding of what people specifically liked and disliked about the media they watched. However, the problem with this that the amount of reviews that are displayed only account for a small number of the population therefore not giving a true representation of the audience.

• Another example of qualitative data would be focus groups. Focus groups have been used to change the ending of films and TV programmes. For example in the TV show ER. An advantage of this is that it creates openness and encourages people to expand on their responses. However a disadvantage is that it is less easy to generalise because fewer people are generally studied meaning it is not possible to generalise results to that of the population.

• A third type of qualitative data is reading peoples thoughts on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. This example has the same advantages and disadvantages as above.

DATA GATHERING AGENCIESData gathering agencies collect information about the media

industry and publish them on their websites.• RAJAR stands for Radio Joint Audience Research and is the

official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK. It is jointly owned by the BBC and the RadioCentre on behalf of the commercial sector. There are currently approximately 310 individual stations on the survey and results are published every quarter. In the second quarter of 2014 RAJAR annoyed that 48.1 million adults or 89.8% of the adult (15+) UK population tuned into their selected radio stations each week and that on average a listener tunes into 21.4 hours of radio per week. This report is very useful for radio producers as it shows what age group listens to the radio the most and how they listen to it; this report showed that DAB radio is the most popular listening device, accounting for 65% of all digital hours.

DATA GATHERING AGENCIES • Broadcasters Audience Research Board is an organisation

that compiles audience measurement and television ratings in the UK. It was created in 1981 to replace a previous whereby ITV ratings were compiled by JICTAR, whilst the BBC did their own research. Broadcasters Audience Research Board have their own website (www.barb.co.uk) , that displays weekly and monthly viewers tables. For example the most watched TV programme on the week commencing 31st August was The X Factor on Saturday night. This information is useful to creators of TV as it shows what kind of TV programmes are popular, therefore they may decide to create another one. This information is also useful to ITV who show The X Factor on their channel as it shows that the public enjoy watching the show and will therefore continue watching every week.

AUDIENCE RESEARCH• Audience profiling is finding out the profile of your audience

before hand so that you can put across your message to the right people in the most effective way to produce the best result. It might include details like age, sex, educational qualification, work experience, financial background, field of work, interests, mood, orientation, bias, food habits, religious background, psysique, health condition

• Demographics are the measureable characteristics of media consumers such as age, gender, race, education and income level.

• Geodemographics is the study of people based on where they live.• Demographics would be useful when dealing with audience data as

you can label the audience and specifically target them so it directly appeals to them and not the whole population.

AUDIENCE RESEARCHPsychographics is the study and classification of people

according to their attitudes, aspirations and other psychological criteria.

• Demographics and Psychographics can be used together as demographics help you understand who buys your product, while psychographics helps you understand why they buy. Demographics are things that can be observed from the outside, such as age and race while psychographics are internal attributes or attitudes

MARKET RESEARCHMarket research is what media companies do because they are

interested in the market that their products will have to survive in. This involves looking at what competition has to offer and comparing similar media products already in the

market to see what the commercial opportunities are. Where as audience research is using a wide manner of statistical

information on what the audience likes and dislikes and what sells it to them.

• The main point of carrying out market research is to maximise the developer’s profits in the creation of the game idea. Market research is also important to reduce the risk of the game failing once produced.

PRODUCTION RESEARCHProduction research is the preparation of making the product for example finding out who is the best suppliers for quality and price.

This differs from market research as this is when companies are interested in the market that their products will survive in.

• An organisation may want to know their competitors suppliers, so that they can see how much they charge and the type of quality. This will be so the organisation can either use the same supplier or find a better one.

• Production research helps to provide content and plan the production process. To perform production research the media producer will employ researchers to gather the suitable information for the area they are looking for e.g. the best suppliers or locations. 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.