Nature and purpose of research
in creative media
Alex Smith
Types of Research
Qualitative
Quantitative
• Based on opinions given (film
reviews, games reviews and
discussions)
• The aim is to inform people about
other viewers perspective on the
media. This can be used by a
creative media company, to help
promote their films etc
• E.g. IMdb gives potential viewers
their account of the movie via a
review. This could be useful in
creative media, as a film producer
could take on board the opinions
of these reviews, if they had a
new idea for a new film.
•
•
•
Research that is made up of numbers/figures
(program ratings, CD sales and film sales
figures)
Can be used by media companies to show
the popularity of a certain programme or T.V
channel at a specific time and date and also,
the most appropriate time to broadcast
something
E.g. B.A.R.B record the amount of viewers
that tuned into a specific television
program/channel. This could be useful for
broadcasters, as they could use the ratings
from B.A.R.B to select a suitable time for a
programme. For example, if MTV are creating
a new programme, they could use the
information from B.A.R.B to determine what
day and time to show it.
Methods of Research - Primary
•
•
•
•
This method is specific to your needs as the data that is being collected doesn’t already
exist. This means that a creative media company can find out information specific to
them e.g. out of 100 people, how many preferred a certain ITV drama to a BBC drama.
This is known as a survey. As Primary research is first-hand, it doesn’t require published
sources to be carried out
Other methods of research are; focus groups (a group of random or specific individuals
discussing an idea/product) and active participation in an internet forum (an online
discussion about a specific topic). An e.g. of a focus group is 6-10 people discussing the
pros and cons of a new idea for a video game. This would give a games designer a direct
opinion from their target audience. An e.g. of a forum is an active participation in an
online discussion about a recent video game’s graphics. If you are a games designer,
then posting a question in an active forum could allow you to gather information about
your target audiences specific needs. However, peoples opinions may differ, which
could be hard to please everybody.
The advantages of using primary research to collect data are; accuracy (specific to what
information you are trying to gather), they are recent (information that is being
collected is up-to-date and therefore more reliable) and addresses your target issues
(find data that is specific to your needs)
A disadvantage is that finding out information face to face, could mean that it could be
difficult to please everybody. Linking back to the previous example, if a games designer
was part of an active forum, if they only received 5 replies, then they all could have
different aspirations of that game.
Methods of Research - secondary
•
•
•
Secondary research already exists and can be found via the internet, books and
newspapers and is also known as ‘desk research’. Three types of secondary
research are; finding information on social media websites, such as Twitter (from
other people’s posts on recent news, information within a newspaper (reading up
from the recent news from the media companies point of view) and television
(information that has been given in advertising)
An advantage of using secondary research, is that it is cost effective. This means
that creative media firms will not have to invest a lot of money into this research
as the data already exists and can be found from other sources. A disadvantage of
using secondary research is that the data is not as relevant. This could potentially
mean that the specific information that you are seeking, is hard to find or maybe
doesn’t exist.
If I was a director and I was gathering information for an up-coming documentary
on English Football, then I could gather information about Football, from books,
either from relevant experts or past players etc etc. This could be a reliable source
of information, as the book has been through many stages to be published.
Audience Research
Audience research is any communication research that is conducted on specific audience
segments to gather information about their attitudes, knowledge, interests or preferences on a
specific topic. For e.g. the British Audience Research Board record how many individuals watch a
certain programme/television channel at a specific time. If ‘Emmerdale’ were introducing a new
character to their soap opera, the broadcasters could then check that the target audience that is
suitable for that new character, are viewing the programme at that time. They can do this by
checking the B.A.R.B ratings from a certain period of time and record an average amount of
relevant viewers. This will help ‘Emmerdale’ to achieve greater audience figures, as they are
meeting audience demands.
This is the viewing
figures of ITV1 from
September 14th. A
broadcaster could
use these figures to
see if they have
improved on the
viewing figures from
the previous week.
Data Gathering Agencies
• Data gathering agencies such as B.A.R.B collect information about
television programmes and channels. Also, B.A.R.B can be used to make
sure that the programme is targeting the suitable target audience. For e.g.
they record how many viewers tuned into a certain television program or
channel at any one time. Creative media companies could use this data to
see whether the story line that are producing, is achieving estimated
viewers etc. Other data gathering agencies, such as RAJAR, record the
amount of people tune into a radio station at any one time, for e.g. on
average, people tuned into their selected radio station for 21.5 hours per
week. This could be useful to a creative media company, as they can find
out the age of the listener, which could then be used to ensure that the
station is airing relevant song. Capital FM for example is mainly based at
11-25 years of age, as they play songs that are up to date in the UK top 40
charts. As capital focuses mainly on its target audience, the radio station is
popular, which is important for the station to retain fans.
Market Research
Market research is the collecting of valuable information to help you find out if there
is a market for your proposed product or service. The information gathered from
market research helps budding entrepreneurs make wise and profitable business
decisions. A games designer could use market research to find out information about
games that fall into the same category, for e.g. if you were designing a new 1st and 3rd
person shooter game, then to carry out market research, you could compare your new
idea to the likes of ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Medal of Honor’ franchises. This could help you
find out the market for this genre of game, and whether there would be a demand for
another game in this market.
Demographic Research
Demographic research is statistics on characteristics of a specific area or population,
such as; age, gender, ethnicity. This allows people to find out information on a mass
scale rather than a small scale, for e.g. the image below, is a demographic research on
the estimated prices of households in comparison to the actual prices from the 2010
census. As you can see this is a mass scale research, as it is the whole of the US.
Psychographics is very opinion based, as one the aims is to find out aspirations of
people, i.e. where they would like to be in 5 years, what they would like to do for a
career. E.g. the new “Foster’s Radler” is a lighter, more refreshing lager with a lemon
taste. Also, it has a volume of 2% and can therefore be consumed in the afternoon,
and not affect travelling etc. The target audience therefore is between 30-50 years.
Psychographics Research
• Psychographics is the study and classification of people
according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other
psychological criteria, especially in market research.
E.g. outgoing, nature lovers are more likely to view
programmes such as ‘Autumn Watch’ as the
programme relates to their hobbies. Also
Psychographics can be used to find out how much
disposable income someone aspires to earn in the
future, which could be targeted by companies such as
‘Sky’, to invest in their product.
• An advantage of this research is that different people
think differently and psychographic research could
create an end product that suits everybody’s needs.