documentary research

What is research?

There are three different purposes of research: market research, audience research and production research.

Market research is about looking at your rival products and thinking about how to make your product better than your rival's or possibly work alongside them if it could be beneficial. It is also the process of finding out how you will distribute your product to your target audience and how much it will cost. This can be done by looking at reviews that consumers have written about your rivals product/s, figuring out where their audience think they're going right or wrong and using the information to help you make your product better than their's.

Audience research is finding out about your target audience in more detail, e.g. finding out their interests and opinions to help you make your product more favorable for them. This can be done with surveys, questionnaires, interviews and focus groups.

Production research is figuring out everything you will need and how much it will cost/how you will get it, how you will get it to your target audience, making sure your product is viable; basically finding out any kind of practical research that you will need to know before you make your product. This can be done by looking at how similar products have been distributed and made, how much it cost the company to do so and how much money they made from it to get a general idea of how much money you will spend and make with your product.

Primary and secondary

Primary and secondary are two different methods and sources of research.

Primary research is when you research something yourself, e.g. interviews, questionnaires, polls, etc. If the information has been found out by only you then it is primary.

Secondary research is when you use someone else's research to help your own. It can be any of the types of primary research listed above but the difference that makes it secondary research would be that you haven't found the research yourself and it is someone else's and not your own.

Qualitative and Quantative Research

Quantitative and qualitative are two different types of research.

Qualitative data requires written answers on what people may think of a game and if they like or dislike the game or just several features in the game. They could think that improvements could be made to some parts of a game or they dislike like the sound effects in a game. Qualitative data can be found from resources such as questionnaires, focus groups, interviews and reviews. The data could include written or spoken views, written notes or written work intended to be put into a magazine or newspaper. Examples of qualitative data can be found on the internet where there would be a number of reviews on games and films describing how good it is. The review website game spot gives the popular game “GTA 4” a good description (below) and says that it is has a “superb character driven story,” which would be qualitative data. The website also has a bad review on a game called “Duke Nukem Forever” it says that it is “fails to be shocking, sexy, or funny,” which is also qualitative data.

Quantitative data is numerical, recorded as numbers and figures on things like how many people play the game or what percent of users dislike the game. Quantitative data can be found by creating questionnaires, interviews and focus groups and then converting the results into figures. The figures can include percentages, fractions and averages. Examples of quantitative data include game ratings, sales figures, website hits and online player’s figures and can be found in most books, newspapers and magazines directed at gaming. The review website gives popular game “GTA 4” a ten out of ten rating which is an example of qualitative statistics that would be useful to researchers so they can tell the client that it was a success. The website also gives “Duke Nukem Forever” a rating of 3 which means that they dislike the game and they state it in Quantitative format.


Why is research important?

Media companies use research to improve the quality of their media product by researching their rivals and figuring out how they can make their product better than their's (market research), researching their target audience and finding out how they can make their product as suitable as possible for them (audience research) and researching what they will need to make and distribute their product so they can be completely prepared and organised (production research). They use research to make sure their product is appealing to their consumer by using questionnaires, interviews, reviews, focus groups etc. to find out more about them. Media companies also use research to increase their chances of making a good profit from their media product by finding out what they will need, how much it will all cost and estimating how much money they could make from it.

Data gathering agencies

BARB

Since 1981, we at the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) have been delivering the official viewing figures for UK television audiences. We commission research companies Ipsos,MORI, Kantar Media and RSMB to collect data that represent the viewing behavior of the UK’s 26 million TV households.


BARB viewing data offer clients, such as broadcasters and advertisers, a minute-by-minute breakdown of viewing at regional and national levels. This information is vital for assessing how programs, channels or advertising campaigns have performed and provides the basis for airtime advertising trading.

Purposes of research

There are two main types of research done in the media industry, these two are Market research and Production research

Market research is the action or activity of gathering information about consumers needs and preferences in order to compete with other products within that market.

Production research is related to the production itself.

Here are some examples of what should be researched;

Audience data

This is about finding out who would watch the documentary once it has been released for public viewing. since it would be about cancer it would mainly be aimed at people who has had cancer affect their life rather than someone who has never experienced it before.

Audience Awareness

This is simply whether users know about the release of the documentary. This would show how well the documentary has been advertised around in areas such as online and on T.V.

Production research

Production research is essential. Production research helps to provide content, research commercial viability and plan the post production process. To perform production research the developer or producer will employ trained researchers to gather the suitable information for the area they are looking for e.g. financial or locations. Production research also includes advertising and where it might be placed to gain the best possible reaction from the audience. It will help to gain information on income and outgoing costs.

Income – The Company can gain income by hosting publicity stunts, sponsorship and merchandise. Celebrities can help to advertise products globally as they are well known in many parts of the world to get the advertising more wide spread.

Outcome – The costs include the price to advertise and the distribution among appropriate media.

Advertising

Advertising is a very important part of production research process because by gives producers and developers knowledge of the most effective ways to advertise their new idea. The different types of advertising include T.V, Radio, Internet and Newspaper and are targeted toward the different audiences.

Content
Researching the content includes finding out things to do with personnel, finance, suppliers, facilities and locations. The client would hire researchers to find suitable results for all of the above categories.

Personnel

The researchers would increase the client’s chances of finding a potential suitable work force to produce the product. They would look for the workers in many ways but the main places they would look are online on websites, social networking sites and looking for work web sites. Some websites are available for employers to put up adverts that advertise they are looking for personnel to come and work with them. Some people looking for work will put it up on social networking sites like Face book and Twitter. Free lancers would put a profile on a looking for work site like freelancer.co.uk so researchers can find them on there and offer them to do work. The free lancers would post a portfolio of their work and state what their strengths are in.

secondary research

My secondary research below is some research into the subject i am basing my documentary on.


Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a type of blood cancer that starts from young white blood cells called granulocytes or monocytes in the bone marrow. Adults and children can get it but it is most often diagnosed in older people. Chemotherapy is the main treatment, you might also have a bone marrow or stem cell transplant.

Risks and causes

Smoking

Smoking cigarettes can increase your risk of developing acute myeloid leukaemia. There is benzene in cigarette smoke and this is likely to be a significant cause.

The risk of AML increases with the more cigarettes you smoke daily and the number of years you smoke.

Being overweight

Very overweight people (with a body mass index of 30 or above) have a slightly higher risk of AML than people who are not overweight.

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/acute-myeloid-leukaemia-aml

primary research

For my primary research i conducted a survey using a website called SurveyMoney. it consisted of 5 questions each one asking about the subject i was going to make my documentary on. Here are the results.

Survey Moneky: https://www.surveymonkey.com




The above question shows that now many people know what AML is so this documentary could show them some benefits.



The question above shows that AML is not as common as people might think and some people may not know the problems when you know someone suffering from it.



The question above shows that some people do know the effects of chemotherapy and that means i wont need to go into too much detail about it.



The results above shows that some people would be interested to see something based on this subject.



The results above shows that here are people that would like to know the effects of treatment but there are some people that don't care.

production research

For my location i will be using the kitchen in my house. This is because i am thinking of the idea for a home interview rather than an interview anywhere else. I will already have permission for using this location since it is on my private land.


Since i will be interviewing my mum for the documentary i have approached her and gained her permission for me to use video footage of the interview for the documentary. This was hard to obtain because of how much of a sensitive subject this is for her and it was very hard on her to do this interview.


For equipment i will be using a camera, tri-pod and a microphone. All of these will be set up accordingly to get the best quality film and sound for the documentary.


Since we aren't filming in public and that we are breaking no OfCom rules we do not have to worry about this going against the codes.