What is research

I now understand when to use which method and technique, and what their strengths and limitations are. The methods are:

• primary research — this is original research that you have sourced and gathered yourself through techniques such as:
• interviews (face-to-face or by telephone)
• questionnaires
• focus groups
• photography
• filming
• recording and other forms of observation

information obtained will be presented in a variety of forms both verbal and graphical

• secondary research — this is pre-existing information that other people or organisations have gathered and which you make use of; it might be:
• ratings
• circulation figures
• audience and market profiles
• information about events, places and people

techniques include:

• identifying and trawling through likely sources (reports, books, videos, magazines, audiotapes and discs, CD-Roms) in libraries, archives, or on the internet
• identifying and following-up leads sifting, collating and storing the information obtained

• quantitative research — this is measurable data and information (such as programme ratings, or hits on a website); both primary and secondary research techniques can be used to gather this type of information; an additional primary research technique for obtaining quantitative data is content analysis, which uses ways of quantifying data that are specific to certain media (such as the space given to the same story in different newspapers, measured in ‘column centimetres’)
• qualitative research — this is information about opinions, views or the feelings of individuals and groups (such as the way people respond to a new advertising campaign, or their feelings about an event); both primary and secondary research techniques can be used to gather this type of information.