Unit 3 Task 1

In this task I will be showing my understanding of the different types of research methods.

Part A

Qualitative research Qualitative research is all about opinions. To gather qualitative research you need to first establish what topic you want to research, If you want to research about what films to watch you would need to look on film blogs to try and gather opinions on a film which will then give you qualitative research. Qualitative research is non statistical and is usually heavily based on peoples opinions. But unlike primary research, which has surveys and questionnaires qualitative research is more game reviews, discussion and things like attitudes to media products. Qualitative research is more deeper and in depth than Quantitative and is designed to unpick peoples thought process. If you’re getting someone’s opinion through a survey you’re only getting very tailored answers, which are usually very short and unspecific. Whereas if you use qualitative research and decide to interview the person you can access their thought process more and gage more of an idea of what they’re thinking about and what their opinion is.

Quantitative researchQuantitative research is considered to be more factual as it uses statistics in some aspects to gather results to support a point they’re making. Quantitative research contains large data that is generally more credible and can be used to prove a point. For example if a company have begun making a new tv show they may air a pilot episode and then look at the viewing figures to see if it is worth continuing the programme. This would be considered quantitative research.

Part B

Primary research

Internet definition-Experiments, investigations, or tests carried out to acquire data first-hand, rather than being gathered from published sources.

My understanding- Research that is carried out through learning peoples opinions on the subject e.g. a questionnaire or survey.

Throughout part B I will be referring back to Unit 31 Social Action where I covered primary and secondary research in detail.

Interview techniquesInterview techniques are crucial when conducting primary research; you have to make sure you tailor your interview depending on the person. For example if I was making a documentary about football and I wanted to speak to football fans of all different ages I would interview a 70 year old football fan different to how I would interview a 15 year old football fan. People have different stories to tell

and to get the most out of that you have make sure you use the right techniques to get the best possible responses.

Types of questionsWhen interviewing someone or sending them questions to answer, you need to ask questions that are relevant to what you're researching. On Unit 31 task 2 I asked Winsford library about their campaign to get children reading more, here is what I found. ) I Facebook messaged Winsford Library to ask them if it would be ok to ask them a few questions about the campaign. They replied telling me that they could help me.

I then went on to ask them two key questions I wanted to know about the event. Have you noticed a change in the number of people taking books out since

the event? What impact has the campaign had on the library?

Winsford library then replied on the 26.09.14 giving me a detailed reply about what has changed in the library since the campaign. They told me that on the day of the campaign they had over 100 extra visitors and most of those took out books, which are due back within three weeks. The library is therefore assuming than there will be an extra 50+ visits over that time frame. Of those 50+ the library expect many will also take books out that time as well meaning more

books and more books., so they believe this event will have an impact on the future and get people into a routine of visiting the library. However Winsford Library maintains that they cant say without a doubt what precise impact the campaign has had, as the library receives 400 to 500 visits per day and any event even an successful one, may be drowned out by other factors e.g the weather. So they have assumed some quantitative improvements but it is hard for them to say precisely how much.

They however did say that the impact has other impacts, for example it was a fun morning and so people will walk away thinking of the library as a happy and vibrant place. The staff working on that day will also be improved by that as well.

The reply finished by telling me that there are qualitative impacts as well but they’re really hard to measure at this moment in time. However, they do know that if they don’t do events like that, reach out to schools etc, then the impact will not be a positive one and if they do do events then the impact is positive. One event may not make a massive difference but it’s all cumulative.

So after that reply I can now assess that although the campaign was a success, there is still more work to be done to get people reading more often. The campaign is well and truly on-going but that campaign is a good place to start.

I also did a questionnaire about the Donna Louise Trust and the awareness surrounding them.

I asked three simple questions just to try and get a general view of peoples thoughts on Donna Louise Trust. My three questions were:

Are you male or female? Do you know what the Donna Louise Trust is? Would you get involved or have been involved in volunteering for them?

Please see my weebly to access the rest of this research under ‘Task 2 Unit 31’http://beccathomasxx.weebly.com/unit-31-social-action.html

Secondary research

Internet definition- Secondary research (also known as desk research) involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research rather than primary research, where data is collected from, for example, research subjects or experiments.

My understanding- Secondary research is research you acquire through looking at books or a newspaper, secondary is usually factual.

Like primary research I covered secondary research in Unit 31 Task2 and here is what I found out.

Winsford Library campaign to get children reading

In September Winsford Library announced their support for Good Morning Britain’s ‘Just Read’ campaign. This campaign was set up to encourage parents and carers to spend just 10 minutes a day reading with their child. The campaign has been set up due to the one in four children leaving primary school at age 11 not able to read well. This could have a detrimental affect of the next generation if we do not act now. It is predicted by 2025 that their will be a reading crisis in Britain and a generation will be left behind and unable to function in society. Good Morning Britain have taken to a number of platforms to get the message out there that people need to be reading to their children including, an opinion poll on their website which says “Will you Take 10 minutes to read each day?” This will give the campaign a good indication of British publics feelings towards this campaign.

Good Morning Britain have also launched a hashtag ‘Take10’ which will get the word out on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram about this campaign and encourage them to take part. The campaign also saw on Saturday 13th September 2014 Winsford library and libraries across the country give away 50 copies of the best selling children’s book Diary of a Wimpy kid to local children who may not even own one book. The campaign is being supported by national charity The Reading Agency and children’s published Puffin. To get their campaign even better known the ‘Just Read’ campaign enlisted the help of Sir Terry Wogan and Geri Halliwell to get involved and promote the campaign. David Walliams also visited a primary school to encourage children to read more and get help at school.

Thanks to the campaign by Libraries across the country including Winsford, Good Morning Britain were able to break a Guinness World Record with over 250 parents and their children reading for take10 minutes. Thanks to the ‘Just Read’ campaign more people have become aware of reading and how important it is. Winsford Library estimated on their Facebook page that nearly ninety children came in and all enjoyed what was on offer.

The Donna Louise Trust

The Donna Louise Children’s Hospice trust has been a registered charity since 1999. It was set up as a response to the need of a children’s hospice service for Staffordshire and Cheshire. The charity is named after a local young girl called Donna Louise Hackney who died from a life threatening condition age 16.

The timeline of The Donna Louise Trust

1999- Donna Louise Trust became a registered charity.

2002- A community nursing team was established to provide care for children and their families in their own homes.

August 2003- The hospice building was finished and fully- equipped.

August 4th 2003- The Hospice opened its doors to families.

The Donna Louise Trust also has patrons like The Lord Stafford DL and Robbie Williams. This gives the charity more publicity and further means they can raise more money to keeps its hospice going. The hospice also has a number of celebrity champions including Jo Brand, Jonathon Wilkes, Nick Hancock, Rachel Shenton, Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor and Rory Delap. These celebrities try to visit the hospice whenever they can and put a smile on poorly children’s faces.

Please see my weebly to access the rest of this research under ‘Task 2 Unit 31’http://beccathomasxx.weebly.com/unit-31-social-action.html

Part C

Audience research

In Task 2 Unit 31 I did a questionnaire that I would consider to be good audience research. http://beccathomasxx.weebly.com/unit-31-social-action.html

I also covered audience research in unit 8 task 4 which you can find on my weebly. http://beccathomasxx.weebly.com/unit-8-understanding-tv-and-film.html

Production research

http://beccathomasxx.weebly.com/unit-1-pre-production.html Unit 1 Task 1a covers my research on a production.

Market research

http://beccathomasxx.weebly.com/unit-31-social-action.html Unit 31 task 1 part 1 and 2 both cover aspects of market research.

Bibliography

Qualitative and Quantitative research http://www.snapsurveys.com/qualitative-quantitative-research/ 30/04/15 Author: Snap Surveys

Primary researchhttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/primary-research.html -4/05/15 Author: Business dictionary

Secondary researchhttps://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=secondary%20research%20definition 7/05/15 Author: Google search

Secondary research

Winsford library

“Winsford library supports national campaign to get children reading”.

Author: Winsford library – 25.09.14

http://www.yourwestcheshire.co.uk/NewsArticle/%7B003D3FE3-018A-4FC8-BC10-7838F35196B0%7D

“Take 10minutes and Just Read to your child!”

Author: ITV (Good Morning Britain)- 25.09.14

http://www.itv.com/goodmorningbritain/just-read/take10-minutes-and-just-read-to-your-child

“Just Read”

Author: ITV (Good Morning Britain)-25.09.14

http://www.itv.com/goodmorningbritain/just-read

Donna Louise Trust

“Our Organisation”

Author: The Donna Louise Trust

http://www.donnalouisetrust.org/who-we-are/our-organisation

What we do for our families

Author: The Donna Louise Trust

http://www.donnalouisetrust.org/families/what-we-do

How your money helps

Author: The Donna Louise Trust

http://www.donnalouisetrust.org/what-you-can-do/how-your-money-helps

How to get involved

Author: The Donna Louise Trust

http://www.donnalouisetrust.org/what-you-can-do/individuals

Events

Author: The Donna Louise Trust

http://www.donnalouisetrust.org/whats-on?view=events

Primary research

Winsford library

https://www.facebook.com/messages/WinsfordLibrary

An answer from Winsford Library to my questions. -26.09.14