Daniella

Vincent

Unit 3: Research Techniques

Research Techniques for the Creative Media Industries

Aim: The aim of this assignment is for the me to demonstrate an understanding of skills in
research relevant to creative media production and also to understand research relevant to
creative media production.

Types of Research
Quantitative Research: Quantitative research is about asking people for their opinions in a
structured way so that you can produce hard facts and statistics to guide you. To get reliable
statistical results, its important to survey people in fairly large numbers and to make sure
you get reliable data to work with.
Examples:
Programme Ratings: Programme Ratings are gathered to show how programmes are
performing. The figures for programmes are constantly being assessed, thus meaning if the
ratings are bad, a show may be in jeopardy, but if the show is doing well and the ratings are
high/good then the programme will have more episodes or seasons added to it. For
example, on the site DigitalSpy, it gives the information of whether the programme has
gone up in ratings or down in ratings, and also the impact that it will have on the show:

Daniella Vincent

Unit 3: Research Techniques

Hits on a Site: A hit on a site is each time a visitor views a page on your website. Every
image in a page is a separate file. When a visitor looks at a page (a page view), they may see
numerous images, graphics, pictures etc. and generate multiple hits for the website. For
example, on the site, statstool, it gives the statistics of any website that you type into it,
for this example I have used YouTube of which the site then gives the information:

Box Office Figures: Box office business can be measured in terms of the number of tickets
sold or the amount of money raised by ticket sales (revenue). The projection and analysis of
these earnings is very important for the creative industries and often a source of interest for
fans. This is mostly kept an eye on in the Hollywood movie industry. In the example below,
the website, boxofficemojo gives the statistics and figures of movies both new and old,
and give a lot of in-depth information on each one and how well it is doing/has done at the
box office:

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Unit 3: Research Techniques

Sales of CDs and DVDs: DVD and CD sales are useful because researches can see what
customers are interested in. With this information, people can see what is popular now, or
in the past. Unfortunately, there is not many sites that round up statistics and information
on a large basis about the sales of CDs and DVDs as the sales of physicals copies arent as
wide now as they once were, but some websites do give the highest grossing sales of that
year such as the website the-numbers, as they give this information on the highest
grossing DVD sales of 2016:

Daniella Vincent

Unit 3: Research Techniques

As for the sales of CDs, Amazon does their own best-selling CDs on their website as you can
see below:

Readership Circulation Figures: For print media, the two main measures of audience are
readership and circulation. Circulation relates to the number of copies circulated to the
public. Readership is the number of readers - either of a specific issue of the publication, or
over a certain time period, such as 3 months. Circulation is measured from sales figures, but
readership is measured from surveys of the population. An example of where to find these
figures, is the nrs website:

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Unit 3: Research Techniques

Qualitative Research: Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to

gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. Qualitative
Research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the
problem.
Examples
Film Reviews: A film review is a popular way for people/critics to assess a films overall quality and
determine whether or not they think the film is worth recommending to others, whether it is online
or in a published article. Film reviews give personal reactions and evaluations of a film, as well as an
analysis of the films formal techniques and content. Websites like IMbD, Rotten Tomatoes and
YouTube are the usually places where most film reviews are done in present times. An example of a
website where film reviews are usually written by people is Rotten Tomatoes, in the example below,
you can see a film critic discuss their view on Captain America: Civil War in brief as the headlining
review for the movie, and you can also see that the user can also give their review of the movies as
well:

Daniella Vincent

Unit 3: Research Techniques

This screenshot shows the section of the website where all of the critics reviews are:

Game Reviews: Game reviews are very similar to movie reviews in that, instead of it being a
film that is reviewed, the critic reviews a certain game. In my opinion, as I use this method
to find game reviews the most, I think that YouTube is the best website that has video game
reviewing content on it. With the review being YouTube, there is a range of videos detailing
in-depth analysis of various games. With this, it means that the reviewers can show off
gameplay from the game and other things within their video to really intrigue their viewer
and give their review in the best way possible. As an example, here is a review of the game
DmC Devil May Cry:

Daniella Vincent

Unit 3: Research Techniques

Daniella Vincent

Unit 3: Research Techniques

Fanzine Websites: A fanzine is a nonprofessional/nonofficial publication that is produced by

the fans that have a certain interest in something, this is viewed by people who share the
same interest, it allows them to discuss this certain interest and post about said interest.
The most popular ones are sport and music genre fanzines. A fanzine website that I visit
often is the Visual Kei singer Gackts fansite, it provides all the latest news and updates on
the singer:

Discussion: Forum website are usually the normal place for discussions to take place online
about certain topics. Forum websites I visit regularly are the JBA Community Forum and
the Stardust Crusaders subreddit on Reddit.com. Both of these discussion websites are
about the manga series JoJos Bizarre Adventure and provide all the latest news people
have found and all kinds of posts from other fans within the community. Here is a
screenshot from each of the discussion boards:

Daniella Vincent

Unit 3: Research Techniques

Daniella Vincent

Unit 3: Research Techniques

Methods and Sources of Research

Primary Research: Primary Research is information that you gather yourself. Primary data is
the most reliable, trustworthy and accurate forms of information as you are 100% sure
where the information came from. As it is the most reliable source of information it is also
the most expensive as it takes a lot of time to collect, store and analyse the information
yourself.






Secondary Research: Secondary research is information gathered from a secondary source
such as: the internet, television, written articles or verbal conversations. When using
secondary data, it's important to realise that you're taking a risk as the source of the
information isn't as reliable as primary data. It is possible that the person that sourced the
data originally may have mistakenly left parts out when they were gathering, storing and
analysing the information for the first time. A good example of Secondary research is BARB
(broadcasters audience research board) this is a website that measures all views on TV and
showing ratings, this is useful for a lot of media companies because certain companies will
be able to find out the ratings for their shows and find ways to improve them.

Daniella Vincent

Unit 3: Research Techniques

Purposes of Research

Audience Research: Audience Research is the study of the consumers; finding out their
preferences, thoughts, behaviour and attitudes towards what youre presenting to them. Its
important to be aware of what your audience is thinking and feeling about your product and
company so you can improve and provide the best product you can.

Market Research: Market research is one of the most important departments within the
media industry. With effective use of information gathered by a certain department, the
media can expand their target audience for certain shows etc. and also improve existing
relationships between the customer and their favourite shows etc. The marketing
department generates data on the company's customers both individually and in groups.

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Unit 3: Research Techniques

My References:
http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/market-research/questionnaires-surveysand-focus-groups/what-is-quantitative-research
http://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-qualitative-researchand-quantitative-research/
http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ratings/
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_office
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/music/
http://www.nrs.co.uk/
https://www.rottentomatoes.com
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/captain_america_civil_war
https://www.youtube.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4NaBrFkiDo
http://ls57tiger.freepgs.com/jojo/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=24
https://www.reddit.com/r/StardustCrusaders
https://g-and-lovers.com/
http://www.barb.co.uk/
https://sites.google.com/site/mediaresearchunit1/add-a-gallery

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Unit 3: Research Techniques

Useful Sources
Guidance and Sources for use:
Websites:
www.alertnet.org/aletnet.nsf Reuters news agency
www.archive.org/ an internet archive site
www.bbcfootage.com BBC film archives
www.britmovie.co.uk British movie archive
www.businessballs.com a great business site with lots of information on research
techniques, demographics, etc.
www.gamasutra.com a sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer
www.guardian.co.uk The Guardian and The Observer
www.imdb.com internet movie database
www.monitor.bbc.co.uk BBC Worldwide News Monitoring
www.rcuk.ac.uk/ Research Councils UK site
www.red3d.com/cwr/games portal site with links to game research and technology
www.research.scea.com Sony game research
www.research-live.com/ Research Magazine website
Edexcel BTEC Level 3 Nationals specification in Creative Media Production 13
Issue 1 January 2010 Edexcel Limited 2009
www.skillset.org/careers/.

Further general information on work-related learning can be found at the following
websites:
www.aimhighersw.ac.uk/wbl.htm work-based learning guidance
www.businesslink.gov.uk local, regional business links
www.nebpn.org National Education and Business Partnership Network
www.vocationallearning.org.uk Learning and Skills Network
www.warwick.ac.uk/wie/cei Centre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick
work experience and workplace learning frameworks.

Primary Sources - (from original sources for project based work)
Emails from client; crew; contacts list; journalism mentors where relevant; telephone logs;
diary records; minutes; photo files; cutaway footage/screen grabs; scripts; production logs;
production templates; appraisal & peer review records. Source websites. Quantitative &
Qualitative Research findings where possible.

Secondary Sources
Textbooks
Baylis P, Freedman A, Procter N et al BTEC Level 3 National Creative Media Production,
Student Book
(Pearson, 2010) ISBN 978-1846906725
Baylis P, Freedman A, Procter N et al BTEC Level 3 National Creative Media Production,
Teaching Resource

Daniella Vincent

Unit 3: Research Techniques

Pack (Pearson, 2010) ISBN 978-1846907371

Baylis P, Holmes P, Starkey G BTEC National in Media Production (Heinemann Educational,
2007)
ISBN 978-0435499198
Abercrombie N, Long Hurst B The Penguin Dictionary of Media Studies (Penguin, 2007)
ISBN 978-0141014272
Branson G, Stafford R The Media Students Book (Rutledge, 2006), ISBN 978-0415371438
Briggs A, Cobley P The Media: An Introduction (Longman, 2002) ISBN 978-0582423466
Clark V, Jones P, Malyszko B, Wharton D Complete A-Z Media and Film Studies
Handbook (Hodder Arnold,
2007) ISBN 978-0340872659
Gillespie M, Toynbee J Analyzing Media Texts Issues in Cultural/Media Studies (Open
University Press, 2006)
ISBN 978-0335218868
McDonald K Film and Television Textual Analysis (Auteur, 2005) ISBN 978-1903663547
OSullivan T Dutton B, Rayner P Studying the Media: An Introduction (Hodder Arnold,
2003).