The Nature and Purposes of Research
In this report, i will be looking at the different types of research that researchers use on a day to day basis. I will analyse them and also give some examples of the specific research type.
Primary and qualitative
Primary research is research that you’ve conducted yourself e.g. surveys, questionnaires, telephone interviews. For example, you have to use your own resources, time and money to make questionnaires that will further your research. Using a questionnaire allows you to examine and write the information yourself, so you can understand it much better. If you had taken the information from e.g. a website that somebody else had written, the information would have be written by the point of view that the person had written. If you go out and get the information yourself, then it’s been written from your point of view and you can get a better understanding.
Further more, gathering the research yourself means you are fully aware of how accurate the information that you've gathered is. For example, the FSA (Food Standards Agency) created a huge campaign to raise the awareness of the public of their 'Traffic Light' campaign. This campaign included three 10-second adverts, a poster to go on the side of buses, another posters containing six sheets and press advertisement.
This image shows a quick summary of the FSA's findings. The FSA conducted this type of research because its allowed them to conduct their research on a much bigger scale. If they'd handed out surveys and questionniares, they'd only be reaching a certain target audience as the questions they've made might only appeal to specific audiences. However, because they've used a less common way of advertising, they can collect their data based on the opinions of any number of people who may have wondered past and saw one of their advertisements. There is still a disadvantage with using this type of research, because the FSA haven't actually collected information from people they themselves have seen face to face. As a result of this, they will have little to no idea of the certain people's demographics as any number of the people could have become offended by e.g. the nature in which the FSA's television adverts have been made. Because of this, the FSA cannot predict the accuracy of the information that's been given to them because they have no idea if their way of advertising has in any way hurt/offended the target(s), because they feel segregated/left out due to their particular race, age or gender.
This type of research doesn't really work towards qualitative research either as this requires the researchers to ask specific questions like how and why, and using images on the side of a bus and releasing posters doesn't really give off the information that the FSA need. A better way for them to obtain this particular type of information would be to conduct interviews towards the audience, asking them e.g. if they'd seen the television adverts, and if so what kind of effect did it have on them. Or the FSA could write up and hand out surveys on whether people had seen their advertisements, and to give out examples of which ones they'd seen in particular. This type of research would allow the FSA to isolate a particular audience, and then they'd be able to collate information based around answers given by that particular audience. Using posters and television adverts gives the FSA information on various different groups of people, whilst using other methods such as questionniares and interview can help the FSA to isolate and focus on a specific audience.
Secondary and quantitative
Secondary research is a type of research where you take research that somebody else has already conducted and you use it as your own e.g. somebody's review of a film or someone's else bar charts. Secondary research is much easier to get hold of then primary research because it requires less effort and is easier to find.
However, gathering secondary research is very different to gathering primary research. Secondary research sees the researcher spend less effort on trying to find the information, as most chances are the information is already avaliable and the researcher can just take/quote certain parts of it to use as their own. Secondary research is more numerical than primary research, and it relies heavily on numbers and statistics to get the information across. Also, because you are taking information from a secondary source, it's difficult to know whether the information is 100% accurate or not, and there's no real of sourcing the information back to where it originally came from to find out whether it's been copied from another place. For example, a researcher wanted to find out the annual Census in 1999, 2000 and 2007.
As you can see, the information for this particular piece of research has been set out into a table containing mainly numbers and figures (this is known as quantitative research). This type of research is quite effective because it's shows the researcher the actual figures and statistics that they've collected, unlike with qualitative research that only shows the information in words. A researcher can therefore rely on quantitative research more because it shows the actual information in the same way it was collected, and is much more reliable towards the researcher. Subsequently, if you then take somebody else's researcher, in this case somebody else's table then it'll be very difficult for you to be able to prove where you got the information from and even be able to prove if you understand the information displayed. In this scenario, it's much better to use primary research because that way you'll understand the information better, and you'll be able to prove that the work is yours and that it hasn't bee plaguiarised.
Bibliography
Hart, Andrew. Understanding The Media. London [u.a.]: Routledge, 1991. Print.
Businesscasestudies.co.uk,. 'Primary And Secondary Research - Market Research And Consumer Protection - Food Standards Agency | Food Standards Agency Case Studies And Information | Business Case Studies'. N.p., 2015. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.
Owl.english.purdue.edu,. 'Purdue OWL'. N.p., 2015. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.
Staff, Entrepreneur. 'Secondary Market Research'. Entrepreneur. N.p., 2015. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.
In this report, i will be looking at the different types of research that researchers use on a day to day basis. I will analyse them and also give some examples of the specific research type.
Primary and qualitative
Primary research is research that you’ve conducted yourself e.g. surveys, questionnaires, telephone interviews. For example, you have to use your own resources, time and money to make questionnaires that will further your research. Using a questionnaire allows you to examine and write the information yourself, so you can understand it much better. If you had taken the information from e.g. a website that somebody else had written, the information would have be written by the point of view that the person had written. If you go out and get the information yourself, then it’s been written from your point of view and you can get a better understanding.
Further more, gathering the research yourself means you are fully aware of how accurate the information that you've gathered is. For example, the FSA (Food Standards Agency) created a huge campaign to raise the awareness of the public of their 'Traffic Light' campaign. This campaign included three 10-second adverts, a poster to go on the side of buses, another posters containing six sheets and press advertisement.
This image shows a quick summary of the FSA's findings. The FSA conducted this type of research because its allowed them to conduct their research on a much bigger scale. If they'd handed out surveys and questionniares, they'd only be reaching a certain target audience as the questions they've made might only appeal to specific audiences. However, because they've used a less common way of advertising, they can collect their data based on the opinions of any number of people who may have wondered past and saw one of their advertisements. There is still a disadvantage with using this type of research, because the FSA haven't actually collected information from people they themselves have seen face to face. As a result of this, they will have little to no idea of the certain people's demographics as any number of the people could have become offended by e.g. the nature in which the FSA's television adverts have been made. Because of this, the FSA cannot predict the accuracy of the information that's been given to them because they have no idea if their way of advertising has in any way hurt/offended the target(s), because they feel segregated/left out due to their particular race, age or gender.
This type of research doesn't really work towards qualitative research either as this requires the researchers to ask specific questions like how and why, and using images on the side of a bus and releasing posters doesn't really give off the information that the FSA need. A better way for them to obtain this particular type of information would be to conduct interviews towards the audience, asking them e.g. if they'd seen the television adverts, and if so what kind of effect did it have on them. Or the FSA could write up and hand out surveys on whether people had seen their advertisements, and to give out examples of which ones they'd seen in particular. This type of research would allow the FSA to isolate a particular audience, and then they'd be able to collate information based around answers given by that particular audience. Using posters and television adverts gives the FSA information on various different groups of people, whilst using other methods such as questionniares and interview can help the FSA to isolate and focus on a specific audience.
Secondary and quantitative
Secondary research is a type of research where you take research that somebody else has already conducted and you use it as your own e.g. somebody's review of a film or someone's else bar charts. Secondary research is much easier to get hold of then primary research because it requires less effort and is easier to find.
However, gathering secondary research is very different to gathering primary research. Secondary research sees the researcher spend less effort on trying to find the information, as most chances are the information is already avaliable and the researcher can just take/quote certain parts of it to use as their own. Secondary research is more numerical than primary research, and it relies heavily on numbers and statistics to get the information across. Also, because you are taking information from a secondary source, it's difficult to know whether the information is 100% accurate or not, and there's no real of sourcing the information back to where it originally came from to find out whether it's been copied from another place. For example, a researcher wanted to find out the annual Census in 1999, 2000 and 2007.
As you can see, the information for this particular piece of research has been set out into a table containing mainly numbers and figures (this is known as quantitative research). This type of research is quite effective because it's shows the researcher the actual figures and statistics that they've collected, unlike with qualitative research that only shows the information in words. A researcher can therefore rely on quantitative research more because it shows the actual information in the same way it was collected, and is much more reliable towards the researcher. Subsequently, if you then take somebody else's researcher, in this case somebody else's table then it'll be very difficult for you to be able to prove where you got the information from and even be able to prove if you understand the information displayed. In this scenario, it's much better to use primary research because that way you'll understand the information better, and you'll be able to prove that the work is yours and that it hasn't bee plaguiarised.
Bibliography
Hart, Andrew. Understanding The Media. London [u.a.]: Routledge, 1991. Print.
Businesscasestudies.co.uk,. 'Primary And Secondary Research - Market Research And Consumer Protection - Food Standards Agency | Food Standards Agency Case Studies And Information | Business Case Studies'. N.p., 2015. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.
Owl.english.purdue.edu,. 'Purdue OWL'. N.p., 2015. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.
Staff, Entrepreneur. 'Secondary Market Research'. Entrepreneur. N.p., 2015. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.