Research Methods

What are they?

Research methods are different types of ways of finding out information - there are lots of different ways to find things out, and they all come under 4 different categories.

Primary Research 

Also called field research, primary research is the collection of data that does not already exist, for example - creating a questionnaire and distributing it is a form of primary research because it is has been made and carried out by the same person. 

Examples;

• 
  Email - an email is a direct way of collecting data, it is fast and easy to use, but the message can be lost and internet can be unreliable. 
• Survey - a survey will allow the investigator to collect data on a specific subject, it is quick and straight forward, however it can not always be reliable.
• Phone call - a phone call is a way of collecting data by phone, it is quick, simple and easy, however, reception is not always possible and phones can lose battery life. 

How can I use it? 

I can use primary research as a way to find out information what is best for my magazine, for example; I could create a survey on the best colour scheme to use or a focus group to help me decide on what people want to read in a music magazine in order to help me make it more appealing to the readers. 

Secondary Research 

Secondary research is a type of research that is someone else's findings. This means it was not created by you, however you have used it to collect data or add to data.

Examples;

• Search engines - this is like Google or Bing - you can search for data that you have not made, it is quick and easy, however it can crash and some websites may not work.
• Individual websites - these are websites made by others, for example - a blog. They are to the point and are often personal, however this means that the views will be biased as they are the owners and as a result can be unreliable.
• Books - these are good as they are reliable and last a long time, however books have a tendency to go outdated, therefore information and data can be wrong.

How can I use it?

I can use it to research design ideas. This means that I can use search engines to find out information on the way magazines are designed and how to construct them. Furthermore, I could buy some magazines and look at the layout of them to help decide which is the best for what I want and use them to give me ideas on what to put in my music magazine.

Quantitative Research

This research is for numerical data, it helps to identify patterns and trends in what has been researched, for example - looks at the trends in a questionnaire.

Examples;

• Survey/Focus group - this means that you can ask a certain question to a group of people and then analyse the data numerically to create graphs or charts. These are good because they can identify the trends and patterns, however only work best when a larger amount of data has been collected.

How can I use it?

This type of research will be useful because  I could ask a focus group to do a survey, such as asking them what music they like and then listing genres. I could then compile a graph to show which music is the most popular and then advertise and include it in my magazine, which would make it more appealing.

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is used to identify the quality of the exploratory research. This means that it is used to gain an understanding.

Examples;

• Interviews - this means that by interviewing numbers of people, you are gaining an insight into a topic - e.g by asking about pizza, could draw the conclusion of key points like too much cheese, cooking times and sauce ratio. These are good because they give information on the subject, however can be unstructured and confusing.

How can I use it?

I would prefer not to use this type of research method as much as the rest - this is due to the fact that I can draw conclusions from focus groups using other methods which makes more sense for what I need it for. However, it may be able to create more detailed conclusions rather than simple surveys, so this would be helpful as for focus groups as it would be easier rather than needing to interview singularly. This means that I would use it to identify the general quality of the research I collect.