20. Research Methods

There are four dominate methods when researching to gain further knowledge. These are, primary, secondary, qualitative, and quantitative.


Primary
Primary research is research you conduct yourself. You gather individual results. An example of this type of research is a questionnaire. You can specific knowledge on what you are focusing on because you create the information you want to gain due to the questions you ask, they're very specific. However, they take up a lot of time and people aren't always fully honest when answering these resulting in false information gained. This could also be more expensive due to it only being a smaller sample and collecting a smaller amount of results.


Secondary
This research is when you use the knowledge and research others have found out to support yourself. For example, looking at websites and other sources to research. The research is already completed. An advantage is the low costs, searching the web is cheap. However, unlike using questionnaires, the information isn't specific and you may not find what you want. When using the web it is also hard to establish whats true and correct information as anyone can put anything on the web, even if it may be false, you would then use this as your research and it would be incorrect. It's essential when using this method you ensure the information is correct.


Qualitative
This is where you conduct in depth research on a focus group that have strong views and a wide range of knowledge on the subject. For example, when looking at music, have a wide view on a set genre, Eg. indie fans that may be very keen on the genre, regularly reading magazines and going to gigs and festivals. These will create a lot of data because they have a lot of knowledge on the set subject and you can gain a wide understanding. However, the fans will be bias towards their own set genre and the information may not be fully correct. Although, this method does not measure the data, it only categories so is not useful when mesauring.


Quantitative
This is more about the number of people asked rather than a small group. This is where a larger group of people are asked to fill in a questionnaire to gain a wide view of the subject area. For example, 150 people are asked to fill in a questionnaire in a public place. This will result in a vast area and hit people with different personalities and interests, limiting the amount of bias results, gaining better results of the area. However, due to the amount of people asked, they're limited and numerical limiting the explanations given.

What research will I use in my task?
After looking at the four research methods I have concluded that I will use mostly secondary. This is due to not having funds to research other ways, as the web is cheap and easy to access the majority of the time. The web also has a wide range of different types of research including videos and texts I can analyse. However, I will have to be careful with the reliability of my research. Although, YouTube and video sites are a good source to find thousands of videos to analyse to create a wide knowledge base for me to start with on my own video. Due to the amount of time I have also, this limits the type of research I can complete.