Primary Research

Primary Research

Primary research is a technique used in order to gain first hand information about a subject e.g. Interviews, Questionnaires, Observations, Surveys and Focus groups.

Observations are important because they allow a researcher to gather information first hand by witnessing or observing an event. An advantage of observation can be observing something first hand which allows a researcher to take immediate notes that are reliable, as they have been observed e.g. observing a driving lesson. Disadvantages of observations could be problems such as viewing problems (Blocked site/you could miss something important) and hearing problems (Could get a low volume of sound/loud volume interruption) also access to the event of situations to observe.

Interviews are another very important resource, because you can control the interview by giving questions and receiving answers that you would want. There are three types of interviews Structured/Semi-structured/Unstructured.

Structured interviews are a listed set of questions that are straightforward questions and could be simple. Structured interviews are also approached aggressively and straight to the point e.g. Jeremy Paxman uses structured questions and approaches aggressively making the interviewee feel uncomfortable and under pressure, this would make them feel unconfident with there answers.

Semi structured interviews are also good for collecting opinions and information e.g. Louis Theroux uses semi structured Questions, to get a more opinionated answers. A semi structured question is set as a structured question but because of the out come and response of the answer it can be expanded into a new set of questions depended on the interviewer which would need to think of a set of questions on the spot.

Unstructured interviews are basically random questions that could be of public interest e.g. “What is your favourite film” Vox pop a quick and short interview where the interviewee is approached on the street.

An interview can also make it easy to gather knowledge of the subject. Interviews can also have various disadvantages such as e.g. the interviewer could ask unimportant questions/could receive odd answers (not interesting answers)/could get interrupted during the interview.

Surveys are questionnaires that are structured closed questions.  The reason why is because surveys provide facts and figures. Surveys and questionnaires also give a straightforward question and can be open and closed questions but more likely closed. The advantages of surveys can be easy and quick and you can get the information that is needed. Disadvantages of surveys, you can’t get too much detailed information (limited).

Secondary Research

Secondary Research

Secondary research is a method of analysing information from prewritten information e.g. Books,/websites/articles/images and other pre-written documents.

Advantages

Books are a very important and valuable resource for secondary research. Books provide facts and a good amount of knowledge; the most important point about books is that they go into a large amount of detail. They also provide the right information that is needed and can be reliable. You will find that most books are written by people who are specialised in their chosen subjects.  Books are easy to access and there is no charge to enter a Library.

Using the Internet to find websites can be quick and easy to gather information. The access is quick and the results are instant. Websites also give reasonable amounts of information, such as Google Schalor. Google Schalor will help people search the specific articles and citations from eBooks.

Disadvantages

The disadvantages of books are; that they are time consuming, you also may not be able to find the correct information you are searching for. Certain books can also be difficult to locate. Using books could also be quite aggravating just by losing the page that you were reading and might be possible to lose the book. Many books that you find in the Library can be out of date. This can cause a problem due to changes, such as technology and policies.

Disadvantages of the internet/websites can be; that the information that you have received from websites could be false information e.g. Wikipedia can provide faults information, because anyone can change it at anytime. A numerous amount of websites could also be irrelevant to the subject that you are researching. The information that you research can also be false. Attempting to gather information from the Internet could lead to you getting distracted by pop-ups/YouTube/Facebook.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is referred as text-based information, and is more detailed. Qualitative research can also be referred as a reviewed journal with original research (primary research).

Qualitative research contains more such as observations, field notes and semi-structured interviews and open Questions.

Observation research & Field Notes

Observation research is observing the event, and gathering information by watching people’s behavior, what they look like, and how things work, you would use this method for a field trip. There’s two ways of observing, not being apart of the activity more of a witness. The other ways of observing is being part and experiencing the activity to gather information. Field notes are gathered data that can be used for further use.

Interviews

Interviews can provide qualitative research by using open questions such as, gathering a large amount of detailed information to elaborate further. Evidence from an interview can also give primary research to make the research first hand. Focus groups also provide a good amount of information that can be detailed; focus groups can give personal details such as age and gender and would be more open with answering the questions.

Content Analysis

Content analysis, is used widely in the media industry. Content analysis is analyzing the text data (fiction/factual), moving images such as T.V program's/Films, posters.                       
Content analyzing is mainly used for adverts, content analysis is used by companies to advertise their products to gain more sales. Companies use this for research to simplify information for the viewers to make their point across and making it eye catching. An example of using content analyzing, Braking down the techniques of what  they've used, including screen shots such as shoulder shots, close ups, wide shots. They also use voice overs

Quantitative Research

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research is gathering information of statistical data that includes numbers. These include surveys and questionnaires, which show a chart/graph of gathered information of the most popular subject. Quantitative research is useful for finding out what people prefer, marketing and targeting audiences.

Quantitative research also gathers hard facts of information. Quantitative research measures the research by counting the opinions, using percentages.

Here are a couple of methods of quantitative research; Questionnaires, which include closed questions and answers such as yes/no, this is good for straight answers and opinions. The advantages of questionnaires are that you can import the opinions into percentages of people’s interest’s preferences. Questionnaires are also easy to make, and it is easy to import the data into a graph or chart.

As part of my factual documentary assignment, I shall be using quantitative research to gather statistics on people’s interests along with the UK viewing figure based on history documentaries.

In order to gather the statistics, it would be beneficial for the researcher to create a questionnaire that will have a multiple-choice questions relating to history programs. Once this is complete you can then gather the statistics you can then put the data in a graph to show the popularity, you can use Microsoft Excel to create the graph.

Quantitative research can be used for targeting audiences, by finding out people’s preferences and interests. To gather information of viewing figures you can use websites such as B.A.R.B. BARB is good for finding out target audiences preferred programs.

Presentation Slides

Presentation Slides

Documentary Research Presentation

Panorama Investigation

Panorama the Syrian Conflict Analysis

The documentary is a ‘Expository Documentary’. In this documentary it displays what affects the Syrian civil war has caused in its homeland. Jurying the documentary the presenters have presented the documentary by including;

• ·      Voice overs
• ·      Close ups
• ·      Graphic scenes
• ·      Moving images
• ·      Interviews/Interviewee’s opinions
• ·      Over shoulder shots
• ·      Shows the Doctor’s opinions of the event

Through the documentary it is displayed by the doctor’s journey through the war on Syria. The introduction is used in the documentary to hook the viewer’s attention by displaying curious and graphic scenes and informing the viewer of a short note of the tragic story to quickly inform what the documentary is roughly about.

In the documentary shows the struggle of Syria, which includes the low amount of supplies that the Syrian civilians need. These include medicine/treatment, food/drink and shelter.
The documentary also informs and displays the tragic stories of the people of Syria. The stories that the doctor mainly comes across, includes families lost/died juring the war.

The documentary displays a first hand view of the war, by showing real graphic footage of the war.
By using footage of the war makes the documentary more interesting, so you can get a first hand knowledge of what is really happening in Syria.


Comparison of the Audience 

The Audience of 'Panorama':

• Age rating from 14-55
• NRS ( National Socialist Grade Scale) C2 (Skilled working class) - B (Middle Class).
• Religion - There would be a certain part of the Audience that do have a religion. This would include any religion, because they can relate to some of the episodes of the programme. A certain amount of episodes can have certain parts of religion in them involving the subject of the episode.
• The size of the audience is estimated to be up to 3.6 million viewers. The original size of the audience is estimated to be 2.6 million.
  
• Pacific interests - The pacific interests that viewers might in a catorgory are; History, Travelling/Geography, Documentaries, News of the world (events that are happening across the world) and a pacific fascination of the subject of the episode and stories.
• Gender - The gender of the audience could be an average of 55% of females that watch this programme and 45% males. The programme would be aimed at in my opinion, both genders but I think it depends on what episode the subject is.

Codes & Conventions

Codes & Conventions

For the start of this assignment learned the different types of techniques for 'Codes & Conventions'.

• Voice over
• Interviews - Semi structured/Structured
• Cut aways
• Presenter(s)
• Sequence
• Open and closed
• Factual/non-factual
• Graphics
• Content Magazine style
• Informal/Formal Language
• Name Tags
• Lead Presenter/Secondary Presenter/Location Presenter
• Credits
• Background Music
• Opinions
• Video clips - factual/non-factual
• Camera position - Hand held/tripod
• Diagrams
• Evidence

Presenters

Lead presenter: The lead presenter opens the show by informing the audience of what topics the episode is going to cover. The lead presenter then pass it over to the secondary presenter that will review the topic. Once  the topic has been reviewed, the show then gets passed back to lead presenter to introduce a different topic. 

Secondary presenter: The secondary presenter is usually in a different location than the lead presenter.   

The secondary presenter is covered as a voice over throughout the documentary. The secondary presenter covers the topics by informing the audience what is happening in the event of the documentary.

Voice over: The voice over is used to inform the audience of what is happening in the scene of event.

Cut Aways: Cut aways are used to display different shots of suitable and linkable scenes for the viewing.

Graphics: Graphics are used to display a good scenery and to link with the topic.

Interviews: Interviews are used to portrait a viewing opinion and knowledge of the interviewee.

Informal & Formal Language: Informal and formal language is used to inform knowledge in a certain way of linking and communicating with the audience, depending on the genre of the documentary.

Name Tags: Name tags are to inform the audience of their personal who is being displayed, this includes their name and what they specialist in.

Camera position: Camera positioning is used for displaying the shots and scenes of the production.

Background Music: Background music is used to link and fill in the audio of the documentary and to give an effect for the audience.

Credits: Credits are used to give credit to the people who were responsible for the making of the certain film.

Diagrams: Diagrams are used to give a visual informing description of what idea the presenters are trying to get across to the audience.

I viewed the three following Documentaries;

• BBC- Click
• VICE
• BBC - Coast

BBC - Click

This documentary is a magazine styled show that displays all the topics that the show will cover.This documentary covers technology devices mainly next-gen devices. The program also has a lead presenter and a secondary presenter.

The documentary uses:

• Voice overs
• Cut aways
• Graphics
• Evidence
• Factual videos
• Structured interviews
• diagrams
• Open & Closed
• Name Tags
• Informal language
• Background music
• Credits

Vice - Documentaries

This documentary uses mainly evidence, including events and interviews. The documentary doesn't use any presentations, only follows up on the interviewee's. This documentary isn't a magazine style film, the documentary is more of a journey documentary which covers society issues or time and events.

This documentary uses:

• Evidence
• Voice overs
• Interviews - structured
• Cut aways
• Factual
• Graphics
• Name Tags
• Informal
• Credits

BBC Coast

The documentary is a factual documentary which uses factual information and objects to provide evidence for the documentary.  

                                                                                                              

This documentary uses geographic shots, which are shot from a helicopter that gives a birds eye view which can reflect with their subjected title.  This documentary also uses a magazine style show, which is used to introduce the topics that the documentary will cover. They use this to inform the audience of what topics the documentary is presenting, this is also used to grab the audiences attention by viewing topic that will interest them. 

This documentary uses:

• Lead Presenter
• Secondary Presenter
• Voice overs
• Cut aways
• Diagrams
• Name tags
• Background music
• Interviews - structured
• Demonstrations
• Evidence
• Open & Closed
• Factual
• Credits

This documentary uses a magazine style of presenting. The Documentary uses factual information and factual objects to provide a poof of evidence to make it factual. The documentary also uses demonstrations including reenactments.

The documentary uses reenactments to create an interesting feature to documentary and to demonstrate visually to the audience how and why the event was caused. They use a visual demonstration to turn it into a miniature film, which mainly makes the documentary more entertaining.

This documentary uses:

• Lead Presenter
• Cut aways
• Video clips - Factual/Evidence
• Interviews - Structured
• Demonstrations/Reonactments
• Factual Information
• Voice overs
• Graphics
• Background Music
• Introduction clip - signature to the documentary
• Name Tags
• Secondary Presenters
• Diagrams
• Open & Closed
• Credits