Research For Media Products

Research can be primary (done directly by the media company or someone hired by the media company for that specific product) or secondary (conclusions gathered from other previous research).

Primary Research Methods

• Online survey - an online questionnaire which can be sent to a large amount of people over the internet to gain lots of qualitative data and quantitative data depending on the questions used. Closed questions can gather lots of numerical data over what the target audience is interested on whereas open questions such as 'what are the key features you look for in an app?' allow for a more detailed insight into what the target audience will and will not like.

• Postal questionnaire - similar to an online survey with open and closed questions however there is a lower response rate as it is less easy to fill out and return to the researchers.

• Interviews - face to face questions asked to participants from the target audience o find out their beliefs, preferences and attitudes towards certain things that may need to be put into the media product. These allow for lots of useful data with criticisms to be made to improve the media product for the target audience. However, this allows only a small group of people to be targeted as they are expensive and time consuming.

• Focus groups - a small group of people from various parts of the target group (e.g. ethnicity, gender, age) are asked questions about their preferences to find out what needs to be included within the media product.

Secondary Research Methods

• Articles and books - successful media products can be reviewed within these articles to find out what the majority of a target audience prefer compared to what unsuccessful media products got wrong. They can also show how people's preferences have changed ver time and what people are currently interested in so that can be included within the media product.

• Financial figures - past financial figures for media products can be viewed to see where money is best invested in (e.g. lighting) for a successful advert

Example Questions

• What is an open and closed question? (4)
• Write an open question for the Children's Shoes brief to find out the key features that should be included in the advert. (3)
• Name a form of primary research and how it can be used to investigate the target audience's preferences. (3)
• Explain how you would use research to plan for the children's shoes brief to suit the target audience (include qualitative and quantitative, explanations of different types of research, the pros and cons of them and how they would help the planning of the media product. (10)