Media Research

 

Focus Groups
 

Advantages
 

With focus groups, you can collect very good qualitative data, which is used to go in-depth into the audience's opinions and beliefs towards a media product or campaign.

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Also, focus groups allow you to collect lots of complex data and topics, which are harder to collect otherwise. It makes the process a lot easier, and you can interact with the participants.

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Focus groups can be effective and low-cost and make it easier to collect data without having many problems. This saves lots of time. It is a lot better than doing face-to-face interviews.
 

Disadvantages 

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However, focus groups typically involve a small number of participants, and it is often around 6 to 12 people that participate. While they provide qualitative results, But that is just a few people's opinions and everybody's.

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When participating in a focus group, individuals may feel pressure to conform to social norms or provide socially acceptable responses. This can lead to social bias, where participants alter their answers to align with what they perceive as the group’s expectations or what they believe is appropriate. Also, they could produce random onions that they might not believe.

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Focus groups have a set time, usually lasting between one and two hours. This limited time may not allow participants to go in-depth into complex topics or express their thoughts in-depth. Some participants may feel rushed or unable to articulate their perspectives fully, potentially leading to undone or superficial insights.

 

Questionnaires 
 

Advantages 
 

Quantitative data is usually from questionnaires, and it is frequently produced, which enables analysis and numerical results. This makes it possible for researchers to spot patterns, trends, and correlations in the data that has been collected. Questionnaires are very helpful when collecting quantitative data, as they are statistical and can offer you insightful information about the correlations between variables.

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The accessibility of questionnaires in the production of media is one of their key benefits. Questionnaires remove geographical and physical restrictions by making them more accessible to participants from everywhere at any time, making it easier for people to participate regardless of their location or time zone.

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The simplified data analysis process is one of the major benefits of using questionnaires in media production. Because questionnaires are organised, it is simple to compile, organise, and statistically analyse the results, providing decision-makers in the media with useful information.

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Disadvantages

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Low response rates are a big drawback of questionnaires, despite their accessibility and simplicity. Despite the earlier discussion of the possibility of increased response rates, several variables might lead to poor participation, which can affect the accuracy and generalisation of the data gathered in media production.

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Respondent fatigue has become more prevalent at a time when people are constantly being pestered with surveys and information requests. Due to survey saturation, people may feel overburdened or simply uninterested in participating. As people choose to ignore or reject survey invitations, this tiredness may lead to reduced response rates.

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Another reason is response bias. The participants can choose the most followed opinion, which can lead them to submit a biased response or result. This kind of information can be found to be useless. But there are lots of techniques that can be used to improve the results by designing the questionnaire to sound and feel natural, so the participant doesn’t feel any offence towards them.

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Face-to-face interviews

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Advantages

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Face-to-face interviews can help us get an accurate screening, which means that it is unlikely that they will provide false information such as gender, age, or race. However, there is a way of doing this online and through mobile surveys, but the problem is that it could lead them to provide false information.

Interviews can also lead to high focus from the participant, which means no distractions from technology, which means that we can get as much information as possible. This is better than doing online interviews, as there is a higher chance of the participants getting distracted, which can lead to a lack of information.

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Furthermore, face-to-face interviews can easily capture body language and behaviours, but in online interviews, you might not be able to capture raw body language and behaviours. This isn’t good if you weren’t going to get body language results, but it can be great to get as much information as possible.

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Disadvantages

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However, cost is a major disadvantage for face-to-face interviews; they require you to hire staff and purchase equipment that will be used to record the interview. You can also carry out the interview by yourself; however, it is recommended to have staff do it as well as you, as it will bring more results faster.

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Also, if the interview is administered on paper, the data that has been collected will need to be entered manually or scanned. This can lead to the cost of the project being really high. Not just that, you will have to hire data entry staff to organise everything for you. As we know, you can always do it yourself; however, this can be bad as it can cost you lots of time that could have been used to improve the data.

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The quality of data collected by the interviewer can be a major factor when it comes to a face-to-face interview. Some interviewers might have the natural ability to collect very good results from participants.

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Cold calling (opinion websites like YouGov)

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Advantages

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With cold calling, you can reach new customers. With cold calling, you are able to convince a person to give opinions about a person or a topic, which means you are looking out for people by collecting their phone numbers, which can be collected manually or automated. However, I can take some persuasion and have a good sales pitch that can help you gather as much information as possible.

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With cold calling, you can also learn a new skill called sales. This will be great in the future if you want to sell information and convince the person you are calling to take it with respect. This skillset is great if you want to improve communicating with people, which overall can help you improve cold calling results.

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Cold calling can also bring results that can be used on opinion sites like “YouGov”. This kind of information can be displayed publicly, which makes it easier for other people to collect data using secondary research methods.

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Disadvantages

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Cold calling can make it annoying for some people; it can make your phone calls sound like you are trying to scam them, which isn’t great. Some people can also make it, so they will ignore your proposition and, overall, ignore you. Since these calls are not scheduled, it can make you call somebody at the wrong time, which can lead to you losing trust.

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Also, cold calling can be hard to get anybody to agree with you; most calls every day get rejected or not answered, which can make it less effective than using different research methods. It is vital that you master the skill of cold calling to make it easier for you to collect data.

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Overall, these research methods are used in different situations. It is great to try all of them regardless of the disadvantages. Sometimes it is hard to find the right research method, and that’s why you should try as many of them as possible.