The Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Research Methods
There are two types of research. Primary and secondary. A lot of different methods come underneath these. Quantitative and qualitative research are both primary types of research and have a lot of sub categories also . Some examples of primary data include; Surveys, Questionnaires, Interviews and Focus Groups. Some examples of secondary research include; observing archived information, reading articles written by someone else and watching documentaries.
When carrying out research, if care and persistence is used, there can be a lot of advantages. Primary research has a lot more advantages than secondary research, this is because primary research is carried out first hand and any data that is collected is likely to be more accurate.
Questionnaires are a really good way to gather primary data and are used a lot in the media industry for carrying out audience research. Some advantages of using questionnaires include being able to obtain a potentially large amount of information in a relatively small amount of time as you are able to dispatch the same questionnaire to an amount of people and gather their answers at the same time as oppose to carrying out separate interviews with individual people.
Some disadvantages of using questionnaires are that they can lack validity because the researcher is asking a small amount of people a small amount of questions and using this as a base to represent a nation in some cases. Another example of a disadvantage when using questionnaires is that you can never tell if the answers are truthful or if the person taking the questionnaire was influenced by peers opinions.
I used questionnaires during the audience research for my cider advert, this helped me to determine what other ciders my target audience were likely to drink, what hobbies they enjoy, and what careers they are in. An advantage of having this information meant I was able to create a detailed, accurate audience profile. I know that the information was given on the questionnaires was accurate because the questions were answered by the people themselves, and I didn't have guess what the target audience would feel, and think. Because I only distributed the questionnaire out to 20 people, the findings, while accurate, don't represent a large group of people. This is a disadvantage because I want to aim my advert at a larger group of people, but I on;y have the opinions of 20.
Another good method of primary research is interviews. This is useful when writing a report, or article, or if you want to find out information from someone. Much like with questionnaires, an advantage of an interview is the fact that you get information first hand from the person you want it from. For example, when I was working with my client for Hecks cider, I asked him what sort of people already visit the farm shop, and who he was hoping to reach with the advert. He told me what i needed to know, and I knew I could trust this information because it was coming from the client himself, as opposed to someone else telling me what he had said he wanted, which might have lead to miscommunication, or me guessing what he wanted which could have lead to an unhappy client. Using the method of interviews is good if you need to find out first hand information from one of two people, but if you need information from a large group of people, it has the disadvantage of being very time consuming, and tedious. If i were to have interviewed 20 people one-by-one instead of handing out questionnaires that could all be filled in, and handed back to me at the same time, it would have taken hours, and would have been a waste of time considering that there are faster ways that this information can be collected. Another disadvantage of interviews, especially when it comes to people reviewing a product you've made, is that the interviewee could be bias in their opinion on things because they are talking with you face-to-face. For example, if I were to interview people regarding the first draft of the cider advert i made to see how it went down with the target audience, they are very likely to say that they enjoyed it, and it made them want to buy the cider to my face, but might be thinking another thing in their head. Instead of using interviews for this kind of research, it's better to conduct a focus group where a group of people talk about their feelings towards a product in a group, on their own, and are filmed so that the producer can look back at the footage and have a good grip on what the target audience like, and don't like about the product. Another good way to collect information like this is to distribute surveys that the target audience can fill out anonymously.
All research has it's pros, and cons, it's just a case of finding the right research for the job in hand.
When carrying out secondary research like watching a documentary or scanning archives, you are going over research that someone else has done before you. This can have its advantages. For example, it is very cost and time effective. The research has already been done and figures are already there in front of you. When I was carrying out the market research for my cider advert, I found the prices of competitors cider online. These prices had already been put there by the supermarkets that were selling the cider, all I had to do was look it up. While supermarket websites are legitimate, and trust worthy, if I had found this information on a blog, or a website like wikipedia, I would have had to check that the figures were right before adding them to my notes. Online searches have the advantage of legitimate websites that are easy to find, and have data that is reliable, but other websites can harbour facts that have been made up, you have to be careful of these sites when researching because it might cost a lot of time, and money to correct any mistakes due to using the wrong websites.
Another advantage is being able to collect second hand data that is years old with ease by searching archives. Archives are often well ordered, and reliable. Sometimes going back to basics is the best way to ensure accurate results when it comes to secondary research. This day in age, it is more than easy to carry out an online search, and draw information from a blog. There is no way of knowing where the information on these blogs are coming from unless it is sourced. The information on online blogs might even have come from other blogs. Using archives can ensure that the information being given is correct. A disadvantage to this technique, though, is that there is so much information to go through. Even though archives are well organised, they are extensive, and can take a long time to go through in order to find the information that you want. Also, because archive data is kept for such a long time, it can sometimes be outdated when you come to quote it. For example, finding out what the most popular cider of 1999 was would not be relevant to the information I need to know now, in 2015, regarding popular cider brands, and competitors.
Another disadvantage of secondary research can be that the data that you are collecting from a documentary or written text etc. may not have been collected for the same reason that you are collecting it. This can cause a mismatch in results.
While carrying out research for behind the scenes of music videos, I found that observing videos as secondary research was more helpful and easier than trying to find articles online because behind the scenes music videos and music documentaries often include the facts, thoughts and opinions of the actual artists/directors involved in the videos, whereas written articles, or online blogs wont have. This video is part of a series of behind the scenes videos released by Taylor Swift explaining what is going on during the making of the music video. If i were to write a report on the making of this video, I would be safe in the knowledge that all my information is factual, and correct because, although the research was secondary, the information came from the artist herself. When I have to determine my target audience and their wants and needs for making a music video I will use primary research like questionnaires and interviews as I feel that they are a lot more reliable than going on what someone else has researched. This is because the data I will be collecting will be first hand and up to date as opposed to something that could have been fabricated a long time ago.
TaylorSwiftVEVO. 2014. Taylor Swift Shake It Off Outtakes Video #7 - The Band, The Fans and The Extras. (Online) (Accessed 11th June 2015) Available From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8h0tZy0HqA
When carrying out research, if care and persistence is used, there can be a lot of advantages. Primary research has a lot more advantages than secondary research, this is because primary research is carried out first hand and any data that is collected is likely to be more accurate.
Questionnaires are a really good way to gather primary data and are used a lot in the media industry for carrying out audience research. Some advantages of using questionnaires include being able to obtain a potentially large amount of information in a relatively small amount of time as you are able to dispatch the same questionnaire to an amount of people and gather their answers at the same time as oppose to carrying out separate interviews with individual people.
Some disadvantages of using questionnaires are that they can lack validity because the researcher is asking a small amount of people a small amount of questions and using this as a base to represent a nation in some cases. Another example of a disadvantage when using questionnaires is that you can never tell if the answers are truthful or if the person taking the questionnaire was influenced by peers opinions.
I used questionnaires during the audience research for my cider advert, this helped me to determine what other ciders my target audience were likely to drink, what hobbies they enjoy, and what careers they are in. An advantage of having this information meant I was able to create a detailed, accurate audience profile. I know that the information was given on the questionnaires was accurate because the questions were answered by the people themselves, and I didn't have guess what the target audience would feel, and think. Because I only distributed the questionnaire out to 20 people, the findings, while accurate, don't represent a large group of people. This is a disadvantage because I want to aim my advert at a larger group of people, but I on;y have the opinions of 20.
Another good method of primary research is interviews. This is useful when writing a report, or article, or if you want to find out information from someone. Much like with questionnaires, an advantage of an interview is the fact that you get information first hand from the person you want it from. For example, when I was working with my client for Hecks cider, I asked him what sort of people already visit the farm shop, and who he was hoping to reach with the advert. He told me what i needed to know, and I knew I could trust this information because it was coming from the client himself, as opposed to someone else telling me what he had said he wanted, which might have lead to miscommunication, or me guessing what he wanted which could have lead to an unhappy client. Using the method of interviews is good if you need to find out first hand information from one of two people, but if you need information from a large group of people, it has the disadvantage of being very time consuming, and tedious. If i were to have interviewed 20 people one-by-one instead of handing out questionnaires that could all be filled in, and handed back to me at the same time, it would have taken hours, and would have been a waste of time considering that there are faster ways that this information can be collected. Another disadvantage of interviews, especially when it comes to people reviewing a product you've made, is that the interviewee could be bias in their opinion on things because they are talking with you face-to-face. For example, if I were to interview people regarding the first draft of the cider advert i made to see how it went down with the target audience, they are very likely to say that they enjoyed it, and it made them want to buy the cider to my face, but might be thinking another thing in their head. Instead of using interviews for this kind of research, it's better to conduct a focus group where a group of people talk about their feelings towards a product in a group, on their own, and are filmed so that the producer can look back at the footage and have a good grip on what the target audience like, and don't like about the product. Another good way to collect information like this is to distribute surveys that the target audience can fill out anonymously.
All research has it's pros, and cons, it's just a case of finding the right research for the job in hand.
When carrying out secondary research like watching a documentary or scanning archives, you are going over research that someone else has done before you. This can have its advantages. For example, it is very cost and time effective. The research has already been done and figures are already there in front of you. When I was carrying out the market research for my cider advert, I found the prices of competitors cider online. These prices had already been put there by the supermarkets that were selling the cider, all I had to do was look it up. While supermarket websites are legitimate, and trust worthy, if I had found this information on a blog, or a website like wikipedia, I would have had to check that the figures were right before adding them to my notes. Online searches have the advantage of legitimate websites that are easy to find, and have data that is reliable, but other websites can harbour facts that have been made up, you have to be careful of these sites when researching because it might cost a lot of time, and money to correct any mistakes due to using the wrong websites.
Another advantage is being able to collect second hand data that is years old with ease by searching archives. Archives are often well ordered, and reliable. Sometimes going back to basics is the best way to ensure accurate results when it comes to secondary research. This day in age, it is more than easy to carry out an online search, and draw information from a blog. There is no way of knowing where the information on these blogs are coming from unless it is sourced. The information on online blogs might even have come from other blogs. Using archives can ensure that the information being given is correct. A disadvantage to this technique, though, is that there is so much information to go through. Even though archives are well organised, they are extensive, and can take a long time to go through in order to find the information that you want. Also, because archive data is kept for such a long time, it can sometimes be outdated when you come to quote it. For example, finding out what the most popular cider of 1999 was would not be relevant to the information I need to know now, in 2015, regarding popular cider brands, and competitors.
Another disadvantage of secondary research can be that the data that you are collecting from a documentary or written text etc. may not have been collected for the same reason that you are collecting it. This can cause a mismatch in results.
While carrying out research for behind the scenes of music videos, I found that observing videos as secondary research was more helpful and easier than trying to find articles online because behind the scenes music videos and music documentaries often include the facts, thoughts and opinions of the actual artists/directors involved in the videos, whereas written articles, or online blogs wont have. This video is part of a series of behind the scenes videos released by Taylor Swift explaining what is going on during the making of the music video. If i were to write a report on the making of this video, I would be safe in the knowledge that all my information is factual, and correct because, although the research was secondary, the information came from the artist herself. When I have to determine my target audience and their wants and needs for making a music video I will use primary research like questionnaires and interviews as I feel that they are a lot more reliable than going on what someone else has researched. This is because the data I will be collecting will be first hand and up to date as opposed to something that could have been fabricated a long time ago.
TaylorSwiftVEVO. 2014. Taylor Swift Shake It Off Outtakes Video #7 - The Band, The Fans and The Extras. (Online) (Accessed 11th June 2015) Available From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8h0tZy0HqA
