Unit 1 - Research Techniques

1.1 - Understand The Purposes Of Research In The Media Industries

Market Research
Market Research is a very important part of anything to do with radio because not only can you see what standard your radio station should be in order to compete with your competition also you can just gain basic knowledge about the industry you are working in. If you do your market research you can also gain insight into the audience awareness and what the audience are all about in terms of interest and appeal. By doing market research you can also find out the product reach which means how far the product appeals in terms of it’s audience and how far its appeal spreads across it. Consumer behavior is also an important asset of any piece of market research because it tells you how your target audience behave, in terms of television you can find out what they watch and when they do it e.g. if someone watches BBC 2 on a morning from 8:00 to 9:00 you might consider researching into how many other people do this then if you find a significant audience you might do something similar to BBC2. In market research you can also find out a lot about advertising and the effects it has on people by this information you can also find out about advertising placement which means where and when you place your advertisements e.g. people place advertisements for children’s toys on a Saturday morning because that’s the time when lots of children’s television programs are on, it would be pointless placing these adverts after 9:00p.m. because most children are in bed by then. The data below is from the BARB website, BARB stands for Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board LTD and they provide the official measurement of UK television audiences throughout the television industry.

Production Research
Production Research is the research you need to do before producing a successful product such as a television program. The content research is just basically what you are going to put in your program, this process could take a while to do because you will have to find out what previously appeals to your primary target audience and base the things you shall feature in your program around what the audience previously likes to view. Then after you have chosen what is to be viewed in your program you might consider seeing if the content displayed in your program is suitable and maybe cut out and censor certain parts that you don’t think is suitable for the target audience. The resources that are involved in the production are; people, equipment, cost and time. You will obviously have to evaluate each of these things thoroughly all the way through out your production. Viability is weather what you’re doing is possible or not, if something is viable it is possible. The placement is one of the most important things in your production because it entails so many different conditions; broadcast, webcast, podcast and audience. Competition is a very important part of any production research because it helps you gain knowledge about your fellow competitors in the same field as yourself and furthermore collect information on their product and the standard of production of which you are up against.