Research is essential in the creative media industries, especially when wanting to create a production that is factually correct and accurate. There are plenty of research types and various different ways to conduct this research which will be furtherly explored in this essay.
The first kind of research is called 'Primary Research', This research entails gaining information from primary resources such as other people. You as the researcher, have to conduct the resaerch and gather the results yourself. Its a way of gaining fresh information more tailored to the media product you are making. This can be more helpful in some instances and is conducted by yourself personally so it is self generated and is described as' Techniques of original data collection or research direct from the target respondents.' from a website called 'Oxford Reference'.
This is an example of primary research that I have collected; this is a survey I have made to gain responses to whether or not people of the target audience for my screenplay would be interested in the idea of my screenplay. I did this by asking both quantitative and qualitative questions, to find out information about my respondents such as age and what kind of films they are usually interested in. I also took a section from my synopsis to give my respondents a flavour of what my screenplay is about.
A great example of primary research in films, is a test screening with an audience. This is a great way for film makers to know what others think of their film or television show, so they can make adjustments and improvements to their work. This also a great method because you are getting real feedback from real people who reflect how your actual audience may be. A perfect example of this in the professional film and TV industry, is with the popular TV series 'Friends'. When shown the pilot episode, viewers thought it was 'not very entertaining, clever or original' an the characters were portrayed as 'smug, superficial and self-absorbed'. Overall the show originally scored 41 out of 100 (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/friends-anniversary). The show continued on for various seasons so producers and writers must have taken into consideration the bad reviews for it to be the success it is today.
Secondary research on the other hand, is research conducted and gathered by other people, meaning it is already existing. It comes in many forms such as: News articles, books, websites, TV shows and documentaries. A website called 'Formplus' described it as 'a common approach to a systematic investigation in which the researcher depends solely on existing data in the course of the research process.'
Secondary research I've had to conduct includes my Depict unit from last year; this unit heavily relied on secondary research. An example of this research I had to conduct was watching previously made Depicts to get inspiration for my own. I then wrote about my five favourites.
This is the link to my research post: https://erindunntvandfilm.blogspot.com/2019/10/depict-research.html
An example of how secondary research can be used is for historical purposes. This is important especially when making a movie because if you wanted to make a movie about a historical person or event, in most cases, you cannot speak to this person or people that experienced the event. Therefore, to make your film or TV show accurate, you will need to gather pre-existing research. An example of this in the media industry is: the film '1917', which is a film about the first world war and the soldiers involved. The writer of this film, Krysty Wilson claims that she 'spent a huge amount of time' reading personal accounts from the first world war whilst she was researching for the film. She also visited IWM (Imperial War Museum) London to review documents and visit First World War galleries, stating that 'to get this story right and to be believable and to pay tribute to the men who fought and died in that war, I needed to read all the first-hand accounts I could'. She also watched films and documentaries and read books. From carrying out all of this secondary research, Krysty knew that the film tribute that she wanted to make was all factually correct and realistic to the hardships that were faced in World War One.
Pros and Cons
Like everything, both primary and secondary research have their pros and cons. Sometimes primary is better than secondary and sometimes secondary is better than primary. For this report, I will look at it in a general aspect.
The pros of primary research, are that it is up-to-date information you are accessing since you are conducting it specifically for the project you are working on. It is also allows you to get more personalized responses and you know where all responses are coming from . It also has its disadvantages such as being more expensive and time consuming to carry out, analyze etc. Primary research can be time consuming because you have to actually physically gather the data from scratch. This could mean creating your own surveys and polls which would take time to create because they would have to be presentable and laid out to a professional standard. Conducting your own secondary research, also comes with its expenses. If you needed to interview a special individual or celebrity, you would have to pay them in order to get this interview. Price ranges can vary from celebrity to celebrity depending on their level of fame. Also, travelling to certain locations to interview them will end up costing you, as sometimes the celebrity may live in a different country to which it is you as the interviewers' responsibility to get to the venue.
Secondary research is better than primary research in this aspect because all of the material is already laid at for you and you don't have to actually spend time gathering it. However, there is a chance that since it was conducted by someone else, you don't know where they got their information from, therefore information could be incorrect or outdated if it is an old secondary source of information. Secondary is also cheaper and anybody with a device and internet access can conduct secondary research.
Overall, I think that secondary research is better in the long run because the research is more accessible and quicker to find along with also being cheaper. In some cases though, the best type of research depends on the type of project you are creating. If it is historical then secondary, but if it is about a current event or in general set in modern-day then primary may be better.
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research, is a type of research that is presented in numbers or figures. It is usually a result of research carried out to groups of people and presented in figures. As stated by scribbr.com 'Quantitative research is the process of collecting and analyzing numerical data. It can be used to find patterns and averages, make predictions, test causal relationships, and generalize results to wider populations'. Some examples of quantitative research, are: box office ratings, programme ratings etc. These are all things that require numerical results.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9H8DZDK
A good example of quantitative research in the creative media industry, would be box-office ratings for famous movies. For example, the data was collected that between its release in January 2018 and August 2018, 'Black Panther', produced by Marvel studios, grossed a total of $700,059,566 . This research was beneficial in terms of knowing how successful the movie was, which would help future Marvel movies and is also a great example of quantitative research. (https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2992866817/)
Qualitative Research
Qualitive Research, is the name given to a type of research that requires a more personalized and specific answer. This type of research is not limited to numbers and/or 'yes' and 'no' answers. Also stated from scribblr.com, 'Qualitative research involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data (e.g., text, video, or audio) to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences. It can be used to gather in-depth insights into a problem or generate new ideas for research. Some examples of Qualitative research, are: Film reviews, Game reviews, responses to advertising campaigns etc.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9H8DZDK
A good example of qualitative research from the professional media industry, is the website 'IMDB'. This website includes movie and television reviews written by normal people and is a great example of qualitative research because this is feedback received from real people on media products which would then help the producers for future movies and also other audience members who are wondering whether they should watch the film or not.
Data Gathering Agencies
A 'Data Gathering Agency', is an agency that records data on media consumption. Examples of the data collected by these agencies are the most popular shows in a certain period of time,
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