The Nature and Purposes of Research in the Creative Media Industries
Primary Research
Primary Research is the act of gaining data for the first time and being the original source of data. In definition it is 'a methodology used by researchers to collect data directly, rather than depending on data collected from previously done research. Technically, they 'own' the data. Primary research is solely carried out to address a certain problem, which requires in-depth analysis.'
I have previously collected data in various ways such as interviews and also small surveys, for my documentary I created a survey on SurveyMonkey which ask various questions to people within the LGBT Community. I also took part in some interviews with the people that were in my Documentary and they could personally answer all of the questions. The type of questions used were:
- Are you a part of the LGBT Community?
- Do you believe you were born that way? Or was it a decision?
- How do you feel about all of the new terminology?
Within the media industry it is more likely for primary research to be involved within a documentary or news source in terms of factual programming as it's a type of research that can be more specified and local, for example if a documentary crew are making a documentary about the local area they are going to need some local opinions in order to gain a more legitimate view of that area. A good example of a programme that does this is 'Countryfile' as often they will go and get the opinions from the locals before providing some expert opinions as most viewers would want to see the locals own opinions more as in some aspects it's more real.
In terms of Fictional Programming there is still a lot of primary research that is required, test screenings for Steven Spielberg's E.T actually had a very different ending, according to denofgeek.com 'But the story goes that in one cut of the film that was tested, E.T. died, rather than popping into his spaceship to go home. You won't be surprised to hear that the test audience in question did not warm to this ending at all', this shows how production companies often screen the movies to audiences beforehand to see whether their decisions for the movie are well liked or whether they would cause the movie to flop, through this the producers of E.T changed the ending to E.T leaving in a spaceship, this had a far better audience reception. This as well as production research such as Location Recces that play a huge part in formulating the films as they provide productions with locations to shoot in, production researchers would need to find various locations that fit the movie and collect various details such as whether the location has a power supply, the address and contact details whilst also communicating with the person/people responsible for the location and also Talent Releases which are used as a way of working out what actors are available for shoots so that the production company can find the most viable person and they will also, through this gain confirmation that the talent are given their permission to be filmed/photographed.
| Article title: | Primary Research- Definition, Examples, Methods and Purpose | QuestionPro |
| Website title: | QuestionPro |
| URL: | https://www.questionpro.com/blog/primary-research/ |
Article title: | What are the advantages and disadvantages of primary research? - Quora |
| Website title: | Quora.com |
| URL: | https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-primary-research |
| Article title: | BBC One - Countryfile |
| Website title: | BBC |
| URL: | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t0bv |
| Article title: | SurveyMonkey: The World’s Most Popular Free Online Survey Tool |
| Website title: | Surveymonkey.com |
| URL: | https://www.surveymonkey.com/ |
| Article title: | 51 films, and how they were affected by test screenings |
| Website title: | Den of Geek |
| URL: | https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/test-screenings/32412/51-films-and-how-they-were-affected-by-test-screenings |
Secondary Research
Secondary Research is the act of using data that has already been collected and gaining it from other sources. In definition 'method that involves using already existing data. Existing data is summarized and collated to increase the overall effectiveness of research.' As my topic within the documentary was fairly vague so a lot of the research was based on certain opinions and views. I found a list of terminology that allowed me to understand certain areas of the LGBT Community, I also found a brief history of the LGBT Community and found out ways that it all began and all of the progress it has made since it began.
Movies around history will rely heavily on secondary research, large historical blockbusters such as 'Dunkirk' and 'Saving Private Ryan' are based on factual/historical events that are set in stone, sometimes these films won't follow the events completely as it's difficult but it's still very necessary to be somewhat accurate, the production companies will probably go to information archives and various history information sources to get the right information that they need. Saving Private Ryan is still considered a really historically accurate film by many film review websites.
| Article title: | Secondary Research- Definition, Methods and Examples. | QuestionPro |
| Website title: | QuestionPro |
| URL: | https://www.questionpro.com/blog/secondary-research/ |
| Article title: | Saving Private Ryan |
| Website title: | Historical Accuracy of WWII Films |
| URL: | https://worldwariifilms.weebly.com/saving-private-ryan.html |
Which is more effective?
There are many differences in ways of indicating which research is more beneficial, when collecting data through primary research you’re in control of what’s collected so you know that the data is valid and you ask the information that you feel you need, that is also the disadvantage to primary research as it means you may have a certain bias meaning the information will be gathered and selected but in a way that it favors one opinion.
Secondary evidence on the other hand is usually easier to collect as all of the information is already there, the issue is that you don’t necessarily know if the sources you’re using have the most accurate information so if you then used that data you’d be inaccurate. For my documentary I found it more practical to receive primary data as I could get people’s opinions rather than statistics, the LGBT Community is highly build on various people’s opinions rather than statistics so gaining secondary evidence was a difficulty as many websites had completely different information.
Overall there is no way of deciding which form of research is the most effective as it's dependent on the context of the production, some media forms may benefit from mainly primary research whereas others will rely on secondary research they both play a key part in the media industry and how it functions though.
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Quantitative research is gaining a large amount of information in order to legitimize an idea or concept. In definition 'Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations.'
It’s essentially the ‘Quantity’ of data. For my Documentary I used quantitative research when finding out how many people in my surveys were within the LGBT Community and used it to create a scatter graph which allowed me to see what the proportion was between whether people were or weren’t in the LGBT Community.
In the media industry quantitative research is a very useful form of research, many news sources rely on quantitative data as they have to get data from a variety of sources so that it is validated and reliable, within my documentary I gathered information onto different graphs so that I could see the disparity between what my audience may know and what they may not know. Film review websites use this kind of research very often rottentomatoes.com collect various critic and audience reviews for movies and collate that data into an overall rating that potential viewers may see and judge whether they want to see that movie, it's also incredibly useful for the filmmakers as they can then see if their film is doing better or worse than they expected. They can also differentiate between what the critics are saying and how the audience feels, for example 'Detective Pikachu' received a critic score of 66% whereas it's audience score was much higher at 82% which tells the production company that the audiences really enjoyed the films.
Qualitative research is slightly more in-depth information than quantitative research, it’s researching through definitions, meanings, concepts, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and description of things. It’s essentially the ‘quality’ of data, meaning there is more to say why a thing is a certain way, going back to the Detective Pikachu Review another review source The Guardian, they provide a more in-depth perspective and it says why the film is a good film and what it could do better which would give the production company more of an outlook in what key factors they got right and what exactly they didn't do right.
For my Documentary I used a lot of this type of data, for example I found examples of the definition of specific terminology within the LGBT Community such as ‘Asexual’ which is someone that is not attracted to someone in a sexual manner.
Qualitative research and Quantitative research are both beneficial as they can clarify what is actually happening. Qualitative research is good for finding out what certain things mean and how they work whereas Quantitative research is good for finding out what statistically is happening, both play different roles and will be used differently depending on what kind of information the user needs. They essentially play an equal role in terms of what they research. For mine I relied a lot more on Qualitative research as I needed definitions to be able to communicate effectively in interviews but quantitative research that I collected was beneficial. The main comparison that can be made about these two research techniques is the way that the data can be observed, Quantitative Data is a much easier form of research to see data for as all of the data can be collected and placed onto a pie chart whereas when looking through Qualitative data you would need to scan through each entry to gain an understanding of your results which takes far longer. This small pie chart below for example is quite easy for almost anyone to grasp as you can quickly see that adventure movies are the highest grossing as they take up a majority of the circle.
Another example of this would be during the production of my television advert when I had to ask my potential audience about their thoughts and opinions on my advert:
This provided a lot of insight into whether my advert was effective in marketing itself to a certain audience and how people felt initially about the advert.
Data Gathering Agencies
The Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) was a data gathering agency created by BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising), ITV, Sky and UKTV to provide the industry standard television audience measurement service for broadcasters and the advertising industry. They basically govern what can be televised or advertised and they create a list of things that producers and television channels need to follow. Below is a recent statistical graph showing the most viewed television programmes through Computer, Tablet and Mobile Phones.
Secondary evidence on the other hand is usually easier to collect as all of the information is already there, the issue is that you don’t necessarily know if the sources you’re using have the most accurate information so if you then used that data you’d be inaccurate. For my documentary I found it more practical to receive primary data as I could get people’s opinions rather than statistics, the LGBT Community is highly build on various people’s opinions rather than statistics so gaining secondary evidence was a difficulty as many websites had completely different information.
Overall there is no way of deciding which form of research is the most effective as it's dependent on the context of the production, some media forms may benefit from mainly primary research whereas others will rely on secondary research they both play a key part in the media industry and how it functions though.
| Article title: | ToxPlanet |
| Website title: | Toxplanet.com |
| URL: | https://www.toxplanet.com/primary-vs-secondary-research-the-pros-and-cons.html |
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Quantitative research is gaining a large amount of information in order to legitimize an idea or concept. In definition 'Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations.'
It’s essentially the ‘Quantity’ of data. For my Documentary I used quantitative research when finding out how many people in my surveys were within the LGBT Community and used it to create a scatter graph which allowed me to see what the proportion was between whether people were or weren’t in the LGBT Community.
In the media industry quantitative research is a very useful form of research, many news sources rely on quantitative data as they have to get data from a variety of sources so that it is validated and reliable, within my documentary I gathered information onto different graphs so that I could see the disparity between what my audience may know and what they may not know. Film review websites use this kind of research very often rottentomatoes.com collect various critic and audience reviews for movies and collate that data into an overall rating that potential viewers may see and judge whether they want to see that movie, it's also incredibly useful for the filmmakers as they can then see if their film is doing better or worse than they expected. They can also differentiate between what the critics are saying and how the audience feels, for example 'Detective Pikachu' received a critic score of 66% whereas it's audience score was much higher at 82% which tells the production company that the audiences really enjoyed the films.
Qualitative research is slightly more in-depth information than quantitative research, it’s researching through definitions, meanings, concepts, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and description of things. It’s essentially the ‘quality’ of data, meaning there is more to say why a thing is a certain way, going back to the Detective Pikachu Review another review source The Guardian, they provide a more in-depth perspective and it says why the film is a good film and what it could do better which would give the production company more of an outlook in what key factors they got right and what exactly they didn't do right.
For my Documentary I used a lot of this type of data, for example I found examples of the definition of specific terminology within the LGBT Community such as ‘Asexual’ which is someone that is not attracted to someone in a sexual manner.
Qualitative research and Quantitative research are both beneficial as they can clarify what is actually happening. Qualitative research is good for finding out what certain things mean and how they work whereas Quantitative research is good for finding out what statistically is happening, both play different roles and will be used differently depending on what kind of information the user needs. They essentially play an equal role in terms of what they research. For mine I relied a lot more on Qualitative research as I needed definitions to be able to communicate effectively in interviews but quantitative research that I collected was beneficial. The main comparison that can be made about these two research techniques is the way that the data can be observed, Quantitative Data is a much easier form of research to see data for as all of the data can be collected and placed onto a pie chart whereas when looking through Qualitative data you would need to scan through each entry to gain an understanding of your results which takes far longer. This small pie chart below for example is quite easy for almost anyone to grasp as you can quickly see that adventure movies are the highest grossing as they take up a majority of the circle.
Another example of this would be during the production of my television advert when I had to ask my potential audience about their thoughts and opinions on my advert:
This provided a lot of insight into whether my advert was effective in marketing itself to a certain audience and how people felt initially about the advert.
| Author | Susan DeFranzo |
| Article title: | Difference between qualitative and quantitative research. |
| Website title: | Snap Surveys Blog |
| URL: | https://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/qualitative-vs-quantitative-research/ |
| Article title: | Quantitative Research: Definition, Methods, Types and Examples | QuestionPro |
| Website title: | QuestionPro |
| URL: | https://www.questionpro.com/blog/quantitative-research/ |
| Article title: | What Is Qualitative Research? |
| Website title: | ThoughtCo |
| URL: | https://www.thoughtco.com/qualitative-research-methods-3026555 |
Data Gathering Agencies
The Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) was a data gathering agency created by BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising), ITV, Sky and UKTV to provide the industry standard television audience measurement service for broadcasters and the advertising industry. They basically govern what can be televised or advertised and they create a list of things that producers and television channels need to follow. Below is a recent statistical graph showing the most viewed television programmes through Computer, Tablet and Mobile Phones.
Above shows the IMDB listings and information about the movie 'Bumblebee' as you can see it provides and overview of everything a potential movie go-er may need before viewing the film such as trailers, reviews, what categories the film sits in and various other pieces of data.
| Article title: | BARB | Broadcasters Audience Research Board |
| Website title: | Barb.co.uk |
| URL: | https://www.barb.co.uk/ |
| Article title: | Ratings and Reviews for New Movies and TV Shows - IMDb |
| Website title: | IMDb |
| URL: | https://www.imdb.com/ |
| Article title: | IPA | The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising |
| Website title: | Ipa.co.uk |
| URL: | https://ipa.co.uk/ |
| Article title: | What '80s Movie Characters Should 'Bumblebee' Go on Adventure With? from IMDb on the Scene - Interviews (2017-) |
| Website title: | IMDb |
| URL: | https://www.imdb.com/videoplayer/vi2697902617 |
Audience, Market and Production Research
Audience and Market research is using data to see what kind of audience demographic you’ll be broadcasting to you can indicate if there’s any competition with your production what the consumer attitudes are and any other data needed for the audience. For my documentary production I didn’t really do a lot of audience and market research as I didn’t feel a need for it, I knew that I wanted my audience to be people that aren’t in the LGBT Community that want to be more informed about what it’s all about. On the other hand in my advertisement production audience research was a crucial factor, when pitching my re-branding idea I had to conduct Audience and Market research to gauge where exactly my demographics would need to be placed and I could then understand what kind of advert my demographics may be interested in. Test screenings are another effective feature of research within this area as productions can show an audience the current cut or concept of a film and then see the reactions, it's effective for giving the production some insight into how audiences will respond to their product.
Production Research is research based around the actual production, this can include researching finances to create a useful budget, and researching places to get technological equipment in essence it’s all research to help inform you and your production about what things you’ll need to know before starting. For my production I didn’t necessarily need to budget and the equipment was provided by the college, I did have to scout the location though and see whether it was viable to do my production which basically meant that it was a large public space that was fairly quiet so audio could be easily recorded.
| Author | marleylong |
| Article title: | Audience, Market and Production Research |
| Website title: | Slideshare.net |
| URL: | https://www.slideshare.net/marleylong/audience-27055236 |
| Article title: | Audience vs. Market Research: A Critical Distinction for Cultural Organizations - Colleen Dilenschneider |
| Website title: | Colleen Dilenschneider |
| URL: | https://www.colleendilen.com/2016/06/08/audience-vs-market-research-a-critical-distinction-for-cultural-organizations |
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