Qualitative research is very
important for a media institution, its research which primary research which allows
media institutions to gain an understanding of what the target audience is
thinking or feeling first hand. Aspect such as opinions, interests and
underlying reasons can be explored in qualitative research. This type of
research is extremely helpful to uncover new trends and discover problems, all
together a question can be explored in a lot of depth with qualitative research
and that is why media institutions find it very valuable when trying to find
what sells to the target audience. Ways Qualitative research is generally researched
is through focus groups, interviews, trials and leading questionnaires, these
questions can then be expanded upon if needed.
Qualitative research generally gives
more accurate results compared to quantative research which targets many, many
people for their opinion. Quantative research is mainly done with surveys,
polls, tick sheets etc. This type of research is done to get the opinion of a
larger population, which is then converted into statistic.
Media institution uses a mix of both
of these research methods to gain a better understanding of their target
audience.
Now we are going to look at three
different types of magazines which are niche, alternative and mainstream. These
magazines rely on feedback from their audience on reviews and these days’
online reviews too. The magazine can have surveys attached to it and the audience
can answer in their own words what they like about the magazine, what they want
to read about and what the magazine can do to make the reading experience better.
This is very valuable for media institutions as they can see specifically where
they can improve and using this knowledge they can improve their product.
Niche magazines are magazines which
target small groups of people, a specific type of audience. An example of a
niche magazine is ‘SciFiNow’ magazine, according to SciFiNow their target audience
are people who are into The SciFi genre, people invest early in the latest
technologies, have a fascination of the entertainment industry and are
hyperactive online. They also say that their target audience profile is 80%
males, 20% female, aged 20-45.
When researching of how to improve
their magazine they target these people in particular because they will give
the most accurate results and will not be bias as it will be their own opinion,
this magazine also has an online website, the website also helps a lot for
qualitative research as the audience is able to give their feedback on online
surveys and can also put forward their own ideas.
Alternative magazines are similar to
niche magazines but they tend to target larger audiences and are generally more
popular. An example of an alternative magazine is ‘Games master’, this magazine
targets video gamers of all console and platforms. This magazine has been
around for years and the editors know the value of qualitative research which
is why they always pursue in collecting as much information they can from their
audiences. By doing this they have improved and keep improving the magazine and
have a very happy audience.
Firmographic research explores the
information of the company and market in a lot of detail. The most common aspects
it explores are employee size, revenue size, industry, number of locations and
location headquarters. Firmographic research
looks into organizations and these categories to discover the values of trends
and distribution. This sort of research is a more recent method being used and
uses a more statistical and computerized approach. Firmographic research can
describe a lot about a person like background, age, ethnicity and social
status, using this research the media institutes can very accurately see
patterns in research and anomalies which they will try and improve.
Psychographic research studies the
target audience as an individual or sometimes a small group, in explores
aspects like interests, lifestyle, hobbies, personalities, attributes etc. this
type of research is valuable for media institutes as they can study their target
audience is great detail. More of a social research method, it allows them to have an idea of other possible
ways to reach out to them or perhaps find content which would also appeal to
them.
How might a media institution create and use target audience classifications. How effective is this form of research?
There are many different ways media
institutions target their target audience but there are different ways to
target different target audience. Different people come in contact with
different types of advertising and media, some groups of these people may come
in contact with specific media platform more than other. because of this media
institutes need to use I to their advantage, In the day and age we live in now,
social networking is exploding with popularity amongst many people but
especially younger individuals.
An example of this would be x-factor
which hash tags many words for example #xfactor, then on twitter people will
tweet about #xfactor and soon it catches fire and many people join into the
discussion. This is very effective marketing amongst young people, when
targeting older target audiences TV adverts and print media tend to be more
effective because they are not as tech savvy as younger generations.
Target audience classification is
there so that media products such games video games, movies, magazines etc. are
appropriate for the right age groups. An example of this is in gaming PEGI
system, different video games are for different audiences, if there is a game,
which has violence, sex and drugs it will not be suitable for younger less
mature audiences. Therefore the PEGI system regulates what can be bought and
what can be advertised.
An example of this would be the
infamous Grand theft auto games, which many have said to be very explicit, very
violent and even, has gameplay where you torture a person. Because of it having
such extreme content, PEGI have rated it 18+, this means no one under 18 can
purchase the game.
The BBFC is the British board of film
classification; similar to PEGI they class films according to age so the it is
appropriate for the right viewers.
Here is a list of classifications which every feature film in the UK are classified by:
A recent film which was rated by the
BBFC is a film called Haunted; this is a horror film with BBFC insight saying
it contains scenes with strong violence, sexual violence, and gruesome images. Because
of this the BBFC classed it as 18 which mean only adults can buy and watch this
film in cinemas. Just in case Hollywood companies will often submit early rushes
of film footage to get a classification of the scene, with this they can ensure
that they will receive the right classification for their target audiences
In conclusion I would say that quantities
research is an extremely accurate at giving the media institute an idea of what
their audiences want and how to reach out to them. Also with the classification
systems I believe this actually helps media institute to target their audience specifically.
Quantative research is essential for
media institutions as it gives them the opinion of their audience as if they
are critics rather than an audience. With the results they gain they can
improve their product a lot more, plus they can hear what ideas the audience have
and what they would like to see, this is valuable for later projects as well as
changing certain products to be improved.
The reason why it is so effective is
because of how much information can be collected from the audience, not just
yes and no answers but in fact they are able to receive highly in depth answers
which will answer the questions asked and then expand on that question and even
lead into other areas. Plus they are speaking their own mind which is not
biased or one sided meaning this in accurate to an individual level
.
RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research)
and BARB (broadcaster’s audience research board) are two of the UK’s largest
production company. According to RAJAR they are ‘the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK. It
is jointly owned by the BBC and the RadioCentre on behalf of the commercial
sector.’
BARB is very similar to RAJAR but
they are the official body which are in charge of television viewing figures in
the UK. Their job is to count how many people are watching TV in the UK, what
they are watching and the collect all the data and tally them each week.
Here is a screen shot showing the latest tally of UK TV channels:
The value of this research to media
institution is already very easy to see, using the research collected by BARB
and RAJAR. Many media institutions will use the research collected by these
companies to their advantage, one situation would be if a TV series is dropping
viewers, BARB will have information which could answer why it is dropping in views.
Sometimes it could be for reasons such as a new show on a different channel or
a massive sports event such as world cup matches which more people are likely to
watch. With this information from barb media institutions can tactically get
around these problems. This also allows media institutions to see whether further
investment to the TV or radio show is worth investing in, this sort of
quantative research is very valuable to media institutions.
Quantative research is generally
easy to gather and analyse as its straight forward answers and can be looked at
in a statistical way. This is in a format where anyone can understand and can
be shown very easily, problems and advantages are shown in an extremely simple fashion.
Compared to qualitative research this is very fast, very broad and very easy to
understand but it lacks the quality.
Quantative research does not have the
richness is data that qualitative research can get; I believe that a mix of
both methods are needed for media institutions to get the most out of their
research.
Conclusion
For these institutes research can
hold a lot it stake and the right research is priceless. They must also can
what the audience has to heart, unlike other products where you get the
customer to buy, here you have to change yourself in order to make the customer
want to buy which means that their opinion in most important. I believe that a
mix of both methods is needed for media institutions to get the most out of
their research. This is because with both methods being used can complement
each other and much more data can be found out rather than just having one by
itself.
Why have the pros and cons of research method when you can use two and
cancel out all the cons and just have the advantages? The most successful media
institutions know this and value both methods to gain the best results.
Bibliography
Bibliography
http://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-qualitative-research-and-quantitative-research/
date: 03/06/2014
http://www.rajar.co.uk/date: 03/06/2014
date: 04/06/2014
0 comments:
Post a Comment