Research Techniques :P

SECONDARY RESEARCH!

As well as primary research, I will be conducting secondary research; which is the analysis of existing product that my product will be competing with. The different forms of primary research include content and textual analysis of products from each of my different medium ideas, circulation figures, comparative analysis, magazine ratings and reviews and audience and market profiles.

Content and Textual Analysis is analyzing the content and text of a magazine, newspaper or film. This is because in order to figure what my content is going to be, I need to research into existing successful products.

The advantages of content and textual analysis is that it can help with the planning of an initial idea, as I need to know what topics are appropriate for my target audience and what they would enjoy to read or watch. The topics I have briefy thought about for my A2 project are based around wildlife photography; I don’t have much experience with. So using the content and textual analysis I can build my knowledge to make a successful working magazine or film.

However, there are disadvantages to do content and textual analysis; such as I would only be analyzing one genre of film or magazine. The problem with this is that in one specific genre there are many different takes from editors and directors. Another downside is that it very time consuming to try and get an actual picture of the magazine or film. This is because particular films or magazines can have endless amounts of analysis.

Despite the disadvantages I will be using this method of secondary research, but to overcome the disadvantages I will have to do couple for each genre.

Another form of secondary research would be Circulation Figures; this is when I would look on BARB to find the success rate of particular genres.

The advantages of this form of research are that I can mold my initial ideas around thriving magazines. It is also quick and easy to conduct as all of the figures are in one place and I don’t have to spend ages searching for the individual figures.

On the other hand the disadvantages of find circulation figure, is that they only tell me how many copies were bought it doesn’t tell me if the customers properly read and enjoyed the topics and genre of the magazine. This is the same for films and documentaries.

For my chosen idea I will be using this form of research because I want my product to be successful. I also believe that if I research the top rated products and find out why it has the highest circulation figures; I can then mimic certain features.

Comparative Analysis is comparing two products and analyzing them their similarities and differences and then completing a report and annotations on each.

Advantages of comparative analysis are that it is shorter than context and textual analysis, this means that researching an idea doesn’t take away from making and constructing the product. It is also a good method to use as it gives me a clear understanding of what should be included in a magazine, newspaper or supplement. As the two examples that I will use will give different takes on the same genre or topic; rather than just one this way I can use feature from both to attract a wider audience. The comparison of two different magazines, newspapers or supplements gives me an insight into what works and what doesn’t; so I know what areas to stay away from and areas to possibly include. The only disadvantage I could find for this form of secondary research was that variety within a particular genre is still limited. However, by using this form of research I am analyzing two existing product instead of one.

This would be a form of research that I would use.

Magazine, Newspaper and Film Reviews are another form of secondary research. This involves choosing existing products and reading the reviews, to later pick out the positive and negatives.

The advantages of this are that I can very quickly find out whether or not a target audience enjoyed it or not, I can also read the feedback that the audience gave. Most reviews have a scoring system, long and short reviews and wide range of opinions. This is great for me because people genuinely tend to be honest and speak their mind when they are just talking a computer screen with no one to hopefully influence their opinion.

The disadvantages of the reviews is that the target audience can sometimes use them to start arguments, this is not only time consuming but not actually useful for me to develop my ideas. This is because I’m looking for constructive criticisms and positives. I will be using this form of research for a small part of my project, as it is somewhat useful to attempt to find out what other people think of particular films and magazines that I enjoy.