The nature and purposes of research in the creative media industries

Primary research/ Self – generated research

Primary research is new research that has been carried out in order to answer issues or questions. The different ways this can be carried out are with; questionnaires, surveys, group or individual interviews. This form of research is maybe one of the hardest as it’s hard to get the questions answered by the public; however it is the most up to date method. This is then able to make the project a lot more accurate to the target audience it is being aimed at and that it is going to have the correct content for the target audience.

In my project for my primary research I had created an online survey, which I then sent out via email to a few different recipients.

With the information that I had gathered back I was then able to correctly find out what other people would expect to find in a well-made photography documentary and whether my predicted target audience was what I was hoping for. I much prefer primary research over secondary research as this is able to give me more accurate answers, so I can get the little details correct and specific.

Secondary research

Secondary research is old research that has information that has been previously researched by other people. This has then been made available to the public towards their other research projects. Although this form of research is most likely the easiest, it may also be the most inaccurate; this would be because it isn’t always kept up to date.

In my project for my secondary research I search only at previously made photography documentaries. This helped as I was able to see what made a successful and unsuccessful documentary.

Embed video 1; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrpZndUZ81A

Embed video 2; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEy25SFjg7M

While watching these I was able to understand how to keep the viewers’ attention to the screen. This would be done with catchy or moving music, images or video footage that is kept moving and busy. I used the World Wide Web to help search for different results for the photography topic as well as using film archives.

Quantitative research

Quantitative research is the type of information has been based on a measurable process, within quantities. This is able to be done by looking at; programme ratings, readership circulation figures, hits on a website, box office figures and also sales of CDs and DVDs. For my quantitative research I had looked at some of the hits on the website these types of documentaries.

I was able to see the difference, if it was a reasonably well known photographer more people would stop to watch. However if the short documentary was made by someone who is more less known then the views would still be rather low.

I had also looked on the IMDb website, at the most popular genre documentaries. And as you can see that on this list in third place is a documentary about a photographer named Sebastiao. This documentary ‘The Salt of the Earth’ has a rating of 8.4 out of a possible 10 after being released in 2014. The box office opening weekend made the documentary $44,900 (USA). After I found this out I knew what I wanted to do the documentary on. Photography, all about myself and my passion for the art.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is when the information that is being recorded is towards the descriptive side of things, and is then made slightly more difficult to measure. These can all be done with the use of; film reviews, fanzine websites, attitudes to media productions, responses to different news coverage, responses to advertising campaigns and various discussions that are on that one topic.

Looking at the same documentary on the IMDb website, for ‘The Salt of the Earth’ all of the reviews and many more there were all positive at how stunning and moving it was. And the reviews where from people who are all around the world, showing how well a good documentary can do once published.

Data gathering agencies

An example of this would be Broadcasters Audience Research Board (BARB); this is a company that will measure the audience viewing figures, and is now owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BSkyB and the IPA. When I was looking on their website at the viewing figures ratings, the documentaries are already doing reasonably well with the position of third place.

After I had searched up the different types of media research agencies I had then found that there are many of them, and they are all different in their own way. They all take on new and different forms of research to help other non-profit and profit organisations.

Another example here would be the Radio Audience Research Ltd (RAJAR); this is the type of organisation is able to measure the radio audiences that are within the UK. They are also owned by both the BBC and the Radio Centre.

Audience and market research

For my audience and market research I had looked at the demographics, this is where my documentary would be able to appeal to the ages of people anywhere from 25 and upwards. I felt that this age range was a good choice to strive for as this age tends to appreciate photography more than what the younger generation of people do. It would also then appeal to both the males and females that could be working in any working profession.

The research that is done in the media industry is similar to what I have done, however it will be even more in depth. In the media they will have to toughly go through the target audience in order to find out what the correct content will be. This type of research can be really important as this will either make or break the production of the programme or film.  

Production research

My production research consisted of my pre-production paper work. This had consisted with the content, placement in media, finance, costs, technological resources, personnel and locations.

For my locations I had to make sure that I had the correct times and dates, to ensure that I was going to get the locations owner to allow me to film during these times. Because I was able to do this all correctly I was able to get all of the paper work for this done fast and efficiently so I was able to get on with the project.

I had then created a synopsis to cover briefly cover what the project documentary was going to be about, so that the audience are fully aware of what to expect.

The research that is done for this within the media industries for this is just the same as mine. Without the relevant information that is needed for this research the production would not be able to go ahead. The planning that is needed for any production, whether it is in the media or not, is highly critical. The media industries will make sure that they have gone over all of the paper work that is needed to make sure that the production is as smooth as possible.


Bibliography

1. http://www.imdb.com/genre/documentary
2. http://btecmediaen1.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/D.%20Assignment%203%3A%20Factual%20Programming
3. www.surveymonkey.com
4. https://www.youtube.com/?hl=en-GB&gl=GB
5. http://www.barb.co.uk/resources/barb-facts/faq
6. https://www.youtube.com/