Research questions re draft

1: One of the two main types of research is market research; this is research where people are asked about the product and its place within the current market. An example of this is the companies of Coke or Pepsi. Coke were losing money as their product "Diet Coke" would usually be aimed at women, meaning that they were slightly alienating the male gender. So coke emulated Pepsi as they have "Diet Pepsi" which is not aimed at a particular gender, whereas "Pepsi Max" is aimed at the male gender. So Coke came out with "Coke Zero" which was aimed at the male gender, this was done after the feedback they got from the market research they conducted.

The other type of research used is Production research; this is research conducted during the production research. The research concerns the equipment, skills and knowledge necessary to make sure a product is made. For example, in my own experience, I created a Lucozade Sport commercial, while in production for this I found how to use the editing programme "Final Cut Pro" and also where to find the equipment needed in order to create my own Lucozade Sport advert.

2: BARB- Broadcasting Audience Research Board Their job is to collect data for television ratings and report the findings to different TV channels. BARB put a device into people's televisions to check and report what they watch and how long the TV is watched for. A problem with this though is that BARB cannot detect whether households are actually watching TV or if they are doing other things while the TV is on. There are a speculated 5,100 homes with BARB devices plugged into their TV and about 53,000 interviews about what people watch on TV. However there are billions of people in the UK, so you have the scale up the figures to get national viewing figures, which can provoke thought on how valid these results are.

NRS- National Readership Survey Their job is to provide audience research for UK publishing companies and newspapers and magazines. Many British magazines and newspapers use NRS to see how many people read their product. The NRS do over 35,000 interviews a year. An example of this is the information they provide to the sun newspaper, it shows that a majority of their readers are D class on S.O.C and their average readers are 3.5 million a day. A problem with the NRS statistics is that it only shows sales, it doesn't show how many people for example; read the newspaper if someone else has bought it.

ABC- Audit Bureau Of Circulation The ABC is the industry body for media measurement. They are implemented in order they manage and uphold standards which the media industry needs. The offer an audit and compliance service, which is done to make sure that the different companies within the industry, meet the agreed standards. They also offer companies a variety of different ways of showing their brands, for example digital ad print media does this. The ABC main aim is to advertise and show all different companies.

RAJAR-Radio Joint Audience Research This is a company that counts the official figures of all listeners for radio stations in the UK. It covers about 310 radio stations. An example of their findings is that BBC Radio 2 listening figures are 11,665 and the average listener listened to it for 7.5 hours. This example is from a survey from the end of 2011. This is a good way to find information about radio audiences, as it is updated constantly and is shown well on their website. Listeners hired by the company complete a listening diary once a week logging there listening for the last week. But there can be problems by this, for example you may have the radio on but may not actually be listening, or you may be somewhere where you cannot change the radio station and are somewhat forced to listen to it.

3: There are ways that audiences can be separated, these are by gender (male), age (E.G. 18-30), race (mixed race) and social class (D class). All of these ways of separating audiences show companies who their product will appeal to the most. Companies can also see if they would need to widen their audience capacity. A good example of when gender helped a company sell a product was when Coca-Cola made Coke Zero because women mostly bought diet coke, and developing Coke Zero meant that Coke had a product aimed at men and women.

Another way of splitting up audiences is by lifestyle. If they are mainstream, a reformer, aspires or succeeders. An example of this is that if an advert for CocaCola were shown, it would be aimed at mainstreamers whereas a BMW advert for their cars would be aimed at aspirers.

4: Advertising is important to media production because it makes money for companies and businesses. On TV channels the amount of time dedicated to showing adverts in between and during programmes is a large amount, but this can be stopped by the viewer by just turning over to another channel, compare this to advertisement in newspapers, advertisers sometimes will buy a page worth in a newspaper just for one advert, this can also mean that the reader is more likely to read it. Advertising like this makes audiences aware of products so they can buy them, but this also makes money for the TV stations and newspapers that pay for the production and purchase of TV shows, plus it also helps with the production of the newspaper, thus keeping the price to the public low.

5: The role of a researcher in media productions is to conduct different types of research such as secondary, primary or production research and also to find the results and to see what conclusions can be made based on these results. An example of a researcher is someone that would work for BARB, it is their job to calculate the information about audience figures for the different TV channels and tell the TV channels what channel is watched the most in a certain household.

Researchers can also conduct research like interviews, or make questionaires for people to fill out, asking random people will usually either do these or it can be done in a focus group. You can also have researchers for shows such as game

or chat shows, in chat shows there job will be to find out the latest information about the guests for the presenter to know and ask about.

6: There are a number of ways in which the viability of a media product can be assessed. One example of this is checking if the product is ready for production, for example if the media product in question is a TV show, you have to check a variety of factors, such as whether the presenters of the show have been booked, who they are, and how popular they are, which will influence the audience and how large a audience will watch. Also it shows what help or support is needed for the project to be ready. An example of this is a newspaper, if it is not ready to be publicised to a wider audience due to funding for example, it can be helped by trying to agree advertising deals to try and overcome this. My own personal example is that through personal experience, I realised that some of my ideas were not going to be able to be put into production, this was down to reasons such as finding locations or time limits.

7: A SWOT analysis is a 4 stage analysis usually aimed a product prior to marketing or future development. It covers 4 different factors, strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, this is what SWOT stands for. Strength, is when a certain products strengths in the market are analysed whereas weaknesses are those things that bring to light what could be better about the product or their marketing. Opportunities are when a product should start to come up with new ideas and ways to show a product in a positive light, and threats are when other companies with similar products and ideas are analysed in terms of competition.

8: Copyright means if someone was to create or use a certain thing (E.G. Song) that was original and someone else wanted to use it they would need to ask the copyright owners permission for its use and usually pay to be able to use it.

Copyrights can be sold, but if someone uses a copyright piece of work without the owner's consent they can be sued, so it's really important to know about when using media products.

9: There are four main types of research, which are used in media. The first method is primary, this involves receiving information from interviewing people, surveys and constructing findings and data from this. Another method is secondary research, this means looking at information from newspapers, books,other websites and other forms of information, plus information generated and published already by others. The other two types of research used in media are quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative is when researchers form their information in the way of a graph, pie chart etc, by using numbers and statistics.

While qualitative is finding out a opinion on something and how people feel about things. I can display my own research using data when conducting my advert production, I did primary research with a questionnaire and turned the results into data when partaking in a questionnaire for research findings.

10:

When I was making my own questionnaire for my research there were different factors I had to think about before starting to question people. For example how would my responses answer the questionnaire, for example either by filling it in by paper, or by email. Also I had to think whether I should aim my questions at a certain sector of the public (e.g. Sportsmen/women). I also would have to make sure that I would know what age,gender and sometimes what race they are. And whether they were mainstream or a reformer etc, as this allows you to analyse your results more efficiently. This was important to my research and to the production of my advert as it can show me what my target audience thinks, and whether I should make any changes.

11: A focus group is when a group of randomly selected people are invited to view and talk about a product or an advert so the company who make the advert or product can get an idea about if the product would do well in a certain market.

Focus groups are used to see what they think of a film alot of the time. When a focus group is organised you have to make sure that the group is a mixture of different people like age,race,gender etc. so the companies can get a view from a wider range of people. Some focus groups can just be made up of a particular audience group though, especially if the product targeting a niche product.

12: Secondary research involves receiving core published information from devices such as Internet, newspapers and books. Though one of the issues with this are that the information could be of bias form, or inaccurate so you need to know where it's come from and why it was done and you need to cross reference the information by taking in other sources. Another important aspect of secondary research is having a bibliography, which is to keep track of where all your used information is, so it's not credited to the person who found it and not passed off as own work.

13: When you are presenting something such as a advertisement pitch, for example there are things that need to be considered about the person who is actually presenting. One factor is the clothing, usually for a presentation pitch the presenter would want to be in a suit to look more professional and serious about the job in hand. Whereas if someone if someone turned up in normal clothes it would look unprofessional. But for example if you turned up to a "lucozade sport" presentation pitch in sportswear such as a tracksuit it could also look professional as you have thought alot about your target audience, E.G. how they dress. Facial expressions need to be serious and eye contact should be made at your audience at all times to try and keep a feeling of professionalism between you and the audience. Another thing is that needs to be considered is body language, if you stand completely still throughout the whole presentation, it can come across really boring. However, if you are moving all around it can become a distraction. Also, the presentation itself would need to be structured, such as having the product history and initial ideas at the start of the presentation.

14:

Interpersonal communication: This means when there is communication between two or more people, this will include information on what was said and also if there was any non-verbal communication.

Intrapersonal communication: This is communicating with yourself, including any fears and anxieties whilst communicating, this will lead to how you deal with these fears and how they can be fixed.

NVC: Non Verbal Communication is what a person is doing. E.G. Facial expressions, eye contact and body language. NVC is as important as verbal communication.

Paralanguage: This means the way you talk,rather then the way you say it. For example when someone speaks with either a certain pace, or a certain tone, it's important not to talk too fast as the listener may not understand what you are fully saying and do not talk too slow as the listener may start to lose interest.

Visual aids: This is when images are used in a presentation and what way the text is presented to the viewer; this is to make it more interesting and allow your audience to follow your idea more easily.

15: One of the ways to make your oral presentation better is to take into account things such as paralanguage, so the way you say something. While speaking make sure a wide range of vocabulary is used, also try not to repeat things you have already said. If you do some of these things it can make you and the presentation less professional.

16: A way to make the written presentation more professional is to, for example, not to repeat things and use a wide vocabulary. It is also important not to over do the text because it can make the people watching it get bored, so it's good to give them the right level of text, just key phrases to be shown and you can all the rest, meaning you can engage them and keep them entertained.

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