research techniques-secondary research

1.1

Secondary research uses methods such as:

•books

•news archive

•photo libraries

•World Wide Web

•internet forums

•circulation figures



In secondary research books are used to get detailed information of the topic or issue that is needed. The disadvantages of books is that it can be time consuming also sometimes it can give you too much information when you are just looking for one specific thing. A very good example is that dictionaries has very limited resources whereas Google you type in the word and it gives the correction straight away by saying 'did you mean' or 'showing results for'.

 This is a print screen showing what Google does when you miss spell a word.

Another solution for this is to go on to an online dictionary.

News archives now in our days you can now use computers to scroll through and find the information that you need but sometimes you can’t look at computers you have to go to places like library's depending on the circumstances. News archives are now very time consuming and sometimes you can’t get the right information you need. An example is British newspaper archive.

 http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk - This is the link to The British Newspaper Archive.

This is a screen shot of The British Newspaper Archive.

The British Newspaper Archive shows you millions of newspaper archive. The down side to this is that you can’t have that one specific thing you need there is too much information and sometimes not the right the information you need.

Photo library are used to supply photographs for specific use. Photo library can be often time consuming and limited evidence is found. In the 21st century they now use digital online to find what you are looking for which people usually use.

This is a web search of online photo library.

World Wide Web (WWW) commonly known as the web consists of global public web sites using the protocol of HTTP. The disadvantages of the web are that some websites give you false information and also the information may be not what you specifically ask for. The advantages of the web are that you can find out information that you didn’t even know.

Internet Forums is an online discussion where people can post their comments on a specific topic or issue. The disadvantages of using internet forums are that people can give you false information or they can give you information that you don’t necessarily need.  The advantages of this are that you can get other people’s opinions and knowledge of the things they know about the issue or topic and compare to your own knowledge.



Circulation figures are mostly used for the use of the amount of newspaper and magazines sold but not all as some are distrubuted for free.

This shows the curculation figures of newspaper distrubuted from 2000 to 2013 in the UK (United Kingdom).

research techniques-qualitative research

1.1Qualitative research ivestigates the how and the why not just the others 3W's ( where what when) it is a good way of producing various amounts of methods such as;
   

• observations
• field notes
• reflective journals
• structured interviews 
• semi structured interviews

Observations are good because they can reveal more information when you are directly there it also puts it in context so you understand the topic you are talking about. The disadvantages of observing are that you miss something, your vision is obscured, or you forget something. Structured observations are that the people of person know that they are being observed but don't know the exact reason why or what for. Unstructured observations are that the people or the person knows that they are being observed and know what for. The researcher is trying to discover an aspect of the topic that they don't know. The aim for unstructured is to observe in its full context.

In field notes the advantages is that you can describe what you are seeing in full detail straight away, but the down side is that if you spend to much time on one thing then you will miss something else. You also need to supply your self with enough detail that you don't end up guessing what you have observed this is why you need to practice writing notes. Another disadvantage about writing is that you only get one chance in doing it depending on your topic. As you know it is impossible to document everything you see so observing and writing isn't a really good option.

Reflective journals are something that you have documented, learnt, and seen over a period of time. Reflective journals gives you the ability to record events you have seen that gives you help in the future.

Structured interviews in qualitative research is usually best suited in focus groups studies this would be helpful to look for a difference between to or more things in order to answer a research question. Structured interviews allow the interviewee to freely, an example would be for an interviewer to ask a question and the interviewee unable or refuse to answer. The disadvantages of this is that the participants might not be honest and the information may not be true due to the change in the amount of questions that have been answer and the closed questions. The advantages of this are that it is reliable and a limited amount of detail is generated.

Semi structured interviews are open which allows the interviewer to bring up new topics or issues as a result of what the interviewee has said. The advantages of semi-structured interviews are that it producing a large amount of detail and sometimes the amount generated is reliable and really easy to analyze.

research techniques-primary research

1.1
Primary research.

Primary research is a mixture of research that helps you find out the specific areas of your topic but there are also disadvantages in using primary research. I am here to talk about the different techniques in using primary research.

Primary research consists of:

• Interviews
• Observations
• Focus groups 
• Questionnaires

Interviews
Interviews help you to get the interviewee’s opinion, facts and statistics. The interviewer can control the interview by using simple techniques like: closed questions, semi structured and structured conversations. Closed questions are often used when the interviewer wants a straight yes or no answer.

An example of these techniques is an interviewer called Jeremy Paxman he is a politician interviewer for the BBC news night. Jeremy Paxman is one of the best interviewer’s for the BBC. Jeremy uses an aggressive approach towards his interviewee’s by using closed questions in using this technique he doesn’t quit until he gets his answer (straight to the point). Jeremy is also very formal when conducting his interviews, an example of Jeremy’s aggressive approach is when he interviewed the BNP (British national party) he hits straight to the point with closed questions he had done lots of research an example was when he said “claims manifest” and used semi structured and structured conversation.

Louis Theroux is another example. In his interviews straight away he hits the interviewee with facts and statistics this is how you can tell he has done his research. Louis uses semi structured and structured conversations he lets the interviewee have their say but he also provokes a response out of the interviewee (provides oxygen). Other examples of interviewers are Michael Moore and market research people.

Observations

Observations give you the ability to witness the event. A very good example would be Louis Theroux he went to stay with this most hated family in America for a week, which he observed the family. The disadvantages of observing are:

• It could lead in you forgetting. 
• Your vision is obscured.
• Or there is too much information for you to remember. 

The advantages of observing are:

• It adds credibility.
• You can evaluate it your self.

 Focus groups

Focus groups gives you the ability to find out what people think about a company’s product or strategies. Focus groups helps to give improvements or just a mark out of ten. The disadvantages of focus groups is that people don’t give their honest opinion because other people have opposed to what you have said also it doesn’t give you much to go by not many facts and statistics and marks out of ten doesn’t help much.

Questionnaires

Questionnaire’s helps you to get the percentage of what people like and don’t like based around your topic this way you can control the audience in what questions have been asked. The disadvantage to this if that it only gives you a percentage not the facts or statistics, no how’s or whys.

And this is my view on what primary research is about.

Panorama Syrian conflict analysis

1.2

Review/analysis of syrian conflict

Panorama is a programme that does expository documentaries also journey documentaries. Today I will be writing an analysis based on the documentary we watched today which is Syrian conflict.  The documentary is about two British doctors who work at queen’s hospital in Essex who have volunteered to travel to Syria to help the civilians in their hospitals and also to check out their facilities. At the start of the documentary it is introduced with voiceovers using catchy lines, statistics and facts. There is also a moving montage surrounded by the key points. The first 2 minutes of the documentary needs to hook you in otherwise you will get bored and want to turn it off straight away.  When watching this documentary there was several traumatizing incidences in one hospital they talked about doctors that have been working 18 days straight with no rest, they have to live in the hospital giving blood to people that need it as there is none left and was given emotive music in the background as we was being told. These thing that are happening makes people think that the conflict in our country is nothing compared to the conflict in Syria, it makes our government sound great and we are lucky to be where we are now. The government targets people such as western journalists and foreign journalist and many have died in travelling to Syrian. When watching this documentary I have noticed that everything that is being talked about is emotional, emotional music is played in the background, this is used to guide us throughout the documentary. We believe that we are in the right and it’s all the governments fault but that might not necessarily be true we also havent  had a spepective from the governments side. Interviews have been taken place with a lot of mixed emotions anger, hatred and very much emotional for example: There was the napalm strike on a school killing 10 children and injuring several others, the name of the hospital could not be said as the Syrian government has been targeting the hospital facilities.

 Audience Profile

The audience for panorama would be ages 30-70 both male and female depending on the documentary. Ages 16-35 would watch panorama depending on their interests. An example of this would be the documentary on Syrian conflict which would not relate to my age group which is 16 it would relate to people who have interests in current affairs, multi cultured people, people in care professions, history teachers, and professors. Also depending on the social grade scale too.

Size of the Audience

This is the size of the audience since the 21st April 2013. Panorama was listed 16th on the board with an outstanding 5.14 million views out of the 30 programmes listed on the board. But compared to the amount of views produced on the 28th october 2012 which was 5.96 million panorama was 11th in the board out of the 30 enlisted. The reason for this i believe is that it was a story on a well know celebrity JIMMY SVAILE- WHAT THE BBC KN.  

comparing panorama to similar programmes.

Panorama is a TV series on the BBC focusing on current affairs. Panorama first aired in 1953 and it is also the worlds longest running public affairs television programme.

Dipatches is a TV series on channel 4 also focusing on current affairs like panorama.

As you can see panorama has got more views than dispatches.panorama was 16th on the viewing board with views of 5.14 million whereas dispatches was 7th on the viewing board with only 1.60 million.this shows that more people enjoy watching BBC1 than Channel 4.