Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is about opinions and more complex replies than yes/no, like: "I liked this because of this." or "My favorite is this." instead of making them choose from preset answers. The most common use is people commenting on YouTube videos.

The advantages of Qualitative research are:

• It gives More detailed answers than yes/no.

The disadvantages of Qualitative research are:

• Large amounts of information are too varied to properly understand and display compared to numbers.

This research is useful for:

• Finding peoples opinions on your products.
• Unexpected responses outside of yes and no.

An example of this research is:

A games company wants to know what people thought of their game, you go find the results and say a lot thought the game was great but a few thought the graphics could be better.

Visualization of Qualitative

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is based on closed answers (yes/no answers) represented in numbers (30 people bought the game), fractions (3/4 recommended the game) and percentages (90% of people enjoyed the game). The most common use are people wanting to know how many views they get on YouTube or how many tweets on Twitter.

The advantages of Quantitative research are:

• You can understand lots of information easier.
• You can find out what a lot of people like.

The disadvantages of Quantitative research are:

• You can not get more information than yes/no or multiple choice answers based on the questions.

This research is useful for:

• Representing large quantities of data like sales or demographics.

An example of this is:

A games company wants to know how many games they sold, you find the results and say that you sold 5 million copies.

Visualization of quantitative research

Secondary Research

Secondary research is using research that has already been made, like surveys and questionnaires (after they have been filled), books, the internet, libraries and other sources. Like primary research, secondary can also come in quantitative and qualitative versions.
There are companies like B.A.R.B who are a primary research company who sell secondary research to those who want it.

The advantages of Secondary research are:

• The information is already there.
• Cheaper than primary research.
• You can choose which of the information you want.
• It is quick and easy to obtain.

The disadvantages of Secondary research are:

• You are limited to the research that is there.
• It might not be as accurate as collecting the information yourself and might be bias.

This research is useful for:

• Finding out what has previously been successful and what hasn't.
• Finding patterns in what people like and dislike.

Example of usage of secondary research:

• A TV company using a research site like the Broadcasters Audience Research Board (B.A.R.B) to compare the popularity of their shows vs other companies' shows.

Example of a book, a secondary research example

Primary Research

Primary Research is the collecting of original information, usually in the form of interviews, experiments, surveys, questionnaires and other forms. The research can come as quantitative research (numbers, percentages, fractions) or qualitative search (wide opinions, not just yes/no answers)

The advantages of Primary research are:

• They are more accurate as you gather it yourself.
• You get the information you want.
• You can get either qualitative research, quantitative research or some of both depending on how you do the research.

The disadvantages of Primary research are:

• Time consuming.
• Expensive.
• Not everyone takes it seriously/answers at all.

This research can be useful for:

• Finding out if people like your products.
• Finding out how many people buy your products.

Example of usage of Primary research:

• A game company finding out how popular their game is with the testing group before releasing it.

Example of a media questionnaire.

Intro

For this assignment I have applied for a job as a researcher with a local media company.  As part of the selection process they have asked me to produce a blog for them on the nature and purposes of research for creative media production.

The types of research will be:

• Primary Research
• Secondary Research
• Quantitative Research
• Qualitative Research