Researchby Natalie Evans

research in industryThere are many reasons why research is needed in the media industry, to see what is popular and what's not, to see trends in the industry to see what might be coming back into fashion and what is staying out of fashion which will help the company work on their product. this can be used for almost everything as well, whether it be games or clothing, it can be used to measure what is popular and what is not. in media cases, it can show what type of adverts are watched through more, what TV shows are attracting the most attention, and this can provide us with a basis of ideas that we can pitch to create a new item. And to find this you have to conduct research, which will have to be reliable.

primary dataThere's are many different types of research in media. One type is primary research, primary research is information that didn't exist until you've provided it. One way of conducting primary research is through a self done questionnaire. You have to go and interview others, asking them questions to get data, that you can then work with. A specific example of conducting primary research in the media industry would be to print out a questionnaire and then sending that questionnaire to peopleThis would be useful in ways that you have control over the data, you know it hasn’t been edited and its raw, you may also need extra data from it in the future that you didn’t realize.The advantages are that a Researcher can focus on both qualitative and quantitative issues, Addresses specific research issues as the researcher controls the search design to fit their need and it will also provide Great control; not only does primary research enable the marketer to focus on specific subjects, it also enables the researcher to have a higher control over how the information is collected.The Disadvantages are that compared to secondary research, primary data can be expensive to collect, and it can become even more expensive such as printing questionnaires, and other equipment, It takes longer to undertake primary research than to acquire secondary data, By the time the research is complete it may be out of date and it tends to have a low response rate.

SecondarySecondary data is data given to you or data that you’ve collected from somewhere else, some other person somewhere has already done the research for you and all you have to simply do is look that research up.Secondary data both internally like sale records, marketing activity, cost information, customer feedback, distributor reports and feedback and externally by journals, books, magazines, newspapers, library's, and on the internetA specific example of conducting secondary research in the media industry would be looking online for information regarding a topic such as domestic abuse and getting the facts from charities.Advantages are that its easy to access and find, its low class, provide an answer for the research question and disadvantages are that the research might not to be a high quallity, it might not fit the needs, it might in incomplete, changed or out of date.

examples and data gathering agenciesSecondary data has to come from somewhere and that somewhere has to be a reliable source of information. there are certain companies that are highly reliable for the things that they provide and these all class as data gathering agencies, its there job to provide us with reliable statistics that are fairly up to date, such as they might produce one every 3-4 months. To themselves, what they collect is primary data, but then to other companies provide us with secondary data. this all helps in the process and classes as examples of the two different types of data that is collected. here are three examples of companies that are involved:The National Readership Survey provides the most valued audience research in use for print and digital advertising in Britain. The survey covers over 250 of Britain’s major newspapers and magazines, showing the size and nature of the audiences they have. In a changing digital media age, NRS PADD was introduced in September 2012 to provide a unique measure of combined print and online audiences as well as an offline one that is sent to people in the post. The Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) provides official viewing figures for UK television audiences. BARB viewing data give broadcasters, advertisers and other interested parties a minute by minute breakdown of viewing at national levels. This information is vital in assessing how programs, channels or adverts that have performed and provides a basis on what time would be best to air a certain advertisement or program. To do this, a carefully selected group of homes is watched on what programs they view. Each home represents, on average, about 5,000 houses with TV in the UK. To account for the constantly changing UK population profile and TV environment – and because some of the information needed is not contained in the Census data in every chosen household, all television viewing is monitored automatically by special metering equipment installed by Kantar Media. Included in this process is viewing of recorded programs that are watched within seven days of the original broadcast; meaning it can access what you record if it is a Sky TV, what you watch on catch up and IPlayers as well.The ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations)is the industry body for media measurement. There work is to boost how many items are in the marketing. the data that they collect is used by a wide range of decision makers in industry to influence the product that is made and advertised.They provide representatives in figure form for advertisers, media agencies, media owners and trade bodies. They represent the differing interests of the media industry and meet regularly provide up to date data about what is going on in the markets to make sure that more businesses succeed

How are they usefulThey’re extremely useful when it comes to data collecting for companies because it keeps the money that companies make from being waited on produces that aren’t going to sell because its either not a trend yet or has gone out of trend so that there choice of audience will actually buy the product so that the company can continue being successful, this is the way it is with everything. even TV shows. people find out what the most popular TV shows and then proceed to make TV shows following the theme of the current popular TV shows that are going.such as Doctor who and Torchwood. in doctor who a place called ‘Torchwood’ was mentioned, and then it became a frequently appearing company in the television show, so what the BBC did was make a spin off TV show based around the people in Torchwood, using characters that disappared from the TV Show doctor who after they were finished with there rolls there to only continue them in torchwood such as a favorite, Captain Jack Harness

Quantitative and qualitative research

when collecting data there are two kinds of results that you are able to producequalitative, this means that they come with descriptions and it can only be observed when collected, not actually measured and places into a graph examples of this are, Colors, textures, smells, and tastes.and quantitate which means it has to do with numbers and this data can be measured. this has many more items that can be used as an example like, Length, height, weight, speed, time, cost, members and agesif I were to collect quality data in the survey, I would leave a box, in which that would be able to write there descriptions of what I am asking them to describe, which would be the whole point of the questions but if I were to do it for the quantitate I would probably do it by tick boxes, as they would be the most appropriate way of asking for the information, so that then I wouldn't have to deal with the matter of options that would cause anomalies

Audience researchAudience profiling allows media businesses to narrow down there audience to find there target audience. Before you are able to actually produce you have to have a target audience so they can get the best results and the prophet from the audience, it is the most relevant audience that the product will be shown too.There are many factors that you’re able to judge by when it comes to a product. Such as age, gender, religion, race, sexuality, education, occupation, annual income, disposable income, current lifestyle, desired lifestyle, media interests, buying habits', and loyalty to a certain brand.

Using Demographics is a very common and traditional way to work out your target audience. What demographics are, are statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it. or It could be a particular sector of a population.The purpose of this chart is to narrow down the search for the best target audience and it does this by breaking the population down into six different groups, each person is then labeled with a letter code which applies to them the most through there income and there job.

Another way is Psychographics. They’re very similar but instead of working around the money and jobs, it works around a persons behavior and the patterns that they work in. such as an extrovert who spends a lot of there times at party's would have a different set of needs and set of purchases and interests of someone introverted who would spend more time hidden away who's highly dependent on a sense of security. Though demographs are popular, psychographs are even more popular as they provide a more detailed propose to who the target audience, causing it to become more relevant to the subject at hand

Geodemography includes the application of geodemographic classifications for business, social research and public policy but has a parallel history in academic research seeking to understand the processes by which settlements (notably, cities) evolve and neighborhoods are formed. It links the sciences of demography, the study of human population dynamics, geography, the study of the locational and spatial variation of both physical and human phenomena on Earth, and also sociology. In short, geodemography is the art and science of profiling people based on where they live. The link with the media industry is then that geodemograhpics studies the way people use media throughout the world.-

Market researchAudience research is, for example, if you were filming a programme or a film you would want to find out who watches the programme, the percentage of gender, ages groups, cultures and more. Market research is gathering research on the market that programme or film will be in. This is a way of seeking out the competition so your programme or film is suited for your audience at the time. To put it in a simpler form, audience research is about who is going to buy your product, while market research is the people who already make similar products that you’ll have to beat if you want to be successful on the market.An organization will want to know about its competitors on its market not only for reasons of selling the product but for legal reasons. It needs to know its competitors so that its products aren‘t exactly the same in every way so that the company that has been making the product longer is able to sue them for money over copyright but also so its idea can be better than those on the market while still fitting the product idea so that it’s more likely to be bought like, simple things such as - in things like gaming and animation- graphics, if you have two very similar ideas, but ones game has better graphics, the buyers are going to want it to be more visually pleasing, as well as platform, people are statistically more likely to buy games for Xbox then PS4.

Market research con.Market research is gathered from different sources to help with a specific production process. This can be primary or secondary research and this information is gathered to make a film or a TV programme. The difference is what it can be used for, you’re more likely to use market research for games because it is more market based, while TV shows and Films get money for it being viewed.They’re going to need to find out the competition about other films and TV shows so they don’t end up with things such as plot repetition, character stealing etc. because there are a ton of different shows out there all with different plots, and its hard these days to think up a truly original plotline because there's so many things out there that’s already been done – look at all the different remakes of Sherlock Holmes. You have things like the older ‘classic Sherlock’ movies, the actually original books, then the BBC version – a modern London setting, then the American version – a modern American setting with a female john Watson, then the newer film versions where its set back when the books were actually written etc. and each of them have to be different or you’re going to be getting sued for copyright breaching. And that’s what you have to be careful with when it comes to films and TV shows, how many batman remakes are there? Hundreds, they’re all bad but there's a ton of them because its batman, the superhero everyone's heard of, even if he is massively overrated. You’ve also got to be careful on what type of film or TV shows you’re going to make because if its going to be based off of something you need to find the right thing. Like, one of my favourite series is an anime series Attack On Titan, which is based off of a manga, that has been running for just over 6 years now – and its only just reached the same amount of hyperactivity about it (as it is currently coming out in English) That the TV show The Walking Dead did when they released the first few episodes of the TV show. The differences is where the TV shows come from. One America, an English speaking country, and one Japanese, a non-English speaking country, and considering most people in todays world know English – obviously the one in English that more people are able to understand is going to do better

production RESEARCHProduction research is researching how something is going to be made. It’s all the behind the scenes work that comes first, such as finding cast, crew, cost, location. Etc. it is getting contact numbers for people, not actually filming it but booking dates for things such as filming, booking when do to do interviews, cameras and studios. It is also researching how much time you’re doing to need to film everything, record any songs if it has some music in it. It is what is required to physically make a product regardless of the kind of product.The organization will have to consider all of these subjects before actually producing any kind of product because when producing something you’re given a budget and you have to make sure that when making something, you’re within the budget, as if you go over and the product isn’t complete, or you’re missing a piece of equipment, cast or crew member then the product can not be completed.