uses media preferences as was for media coursework in college

1. Unit 3
Research Techniques For The
Creative Media Industries
Assignment 1
Katie Aspin

2. Introduction
What is research?
Research is a way to find things out, by looking
through books,
on the internet or even asking someone who knows
about the subject you are researching.
What is research for?
All types of creative media need careful planning to be
successful, you need to know your audience, your
market and the purpose of the product. Research in
media helps a production team to understand these
area’s.

3. Types Of Research
 Quantitative is a type of research based on hard
facts and figures. Examples of this type of
research are: program/channel ratings-. 5 USA +1
the top programme for the week was Law And
Order on Tuesday at 4:16pm with 51,000 viewers.
But in the week 5 USA had more viewers than 5
USA+1 with 1,652,000 to 228,000 viewers for the
week November 26th to December 2nd.
http://www.barb.co.uk

4.  Qualitative research is opposite to Quantitative as
it is based on opinions, attitudes and reviews
rather thank hard facts and figures. An example
of this can be rise of the guardians it has a mixed
set of reviews from critics and movie goers alike
while twilight breaking dawn part 2 mixed results
but closer towards the good side. On the over all
ranking from www.rottentomatoes.com rise of the
guardians has a better viewer satisfaction than
twilight breaking dawn part 2.

6. Methods and Sources of
Research
 Primary research – Primary research is where
you go out into a community (online or local) and
interview the public or hand out
questionnaires, surveys. Then analyse the data
into graphs. Examples: Could include getting a
focus group of people at the ages the product is
based at e.g. teens/adults/children/elderly letting
them look, use and get them to fill in a
questionnaire to do with the product. E.g. do you
like the product? Is it easy to use?
 Once you have Collected the answers put them
into a chart showing your results.
(http://freeonlinesurveys.com)
 You can also back up your results by using

7.  Secondary researchis using information that has
already been gathered by someone previous, and
inputting it into your own research.
 Example: documentaries, are based on
secondary research, as well as primary research.
In the documentary Egypt's Golden Empire the
production team uses archeological facts as well
as examples. When they talk about mummifying
they show an example/artifact, (the mummy and
organ jars) and they use archeological facts (what
they read off the walls of the tombs and from the
book of the dead after they learned the
language), and scientific facts (from ct scans and
x-rays they have preformed).

8. Purpose of Research
 Audience Research – is about collecting and
analysing information about a target audience for
a particular product depending on the type of
market. To have a successful media product, its
important to aim for the right audience or your
project will falter.
 With the competition for getting a share in the
audience becoming even more fierce knowing
your target audience is is becoming
increasingly more important. So it its critical that
you carry this research out.

9.  Market research – is about collecting and
analysing information about the particular
product’s market. It involves looking at
competitors products and seeing how they are
doing in the market.
 Producers often undertake this research into
great detail because they are interested in what
the market looks like, who are their main
competitors and what the competing products are
like. They are also interested in the economical
factors and the potential revenue earned by a
specific product.

10.  Production research – is about collecting and
analysing information and content for the
production of the media product. It can be very
complex so this type of research needs to be
comprehensive, it involves finding suitable
equipment and facilities as well as a suitably
trained crew, personnel and talent. Finding all this
is one thing but you need it to be within the
budget you have been given. The pictures depict
a film crew, facilities and a casting audition for an
agency.

11. Conclusion
 In conclusion research in the media industry is
important, because it can help production teams
make their programme flourish.
 Research in media industry comes in two different
types :
 Qualitative andQuantitive
 Which is then split into two different methods:
 Primary and Secondary
 And then three different purposes:
 Audience, Market and Production
 All of these if done correctly will help a media
project flourish in the right market.