Research Methods

There are 2 main types of research in order to find out information:
Firstly there's Primary Research:
This is research you have performed yourself. For example:

• an interview
•  questionnaire
• survey
• internet- (self searches)
• textual analysis- the ability to analyse what your respondants say against their attitudes.

I could adapt this to help myself find out about what sort of people read different types of magazines because I could send out questionnaires and surveys myself.


Secondly there is Secondary Research:

This is research that another person or party has carried out and either published it in a book or on a website so anyone can view it and therefore use it. For example:

• NRS website
• search engine
• book
• magazines
• maybe a newspaper

This could help me with my research because I could look on the NRS website or in a book about Media ands find out any figures or facts that I can't find out myself such as on average, what percentage of the population read this sort of magazine or which gender it is most popular with; this would strengthen with my research and give me a wider view and knowledge of what poeple like to read.

There are a further 2 sub-categories of research:

There is Quantitative Research- the statistics in your research and how you try to find patterns and trends from them. Examples of how you can find this are:

• Questionnaires
• NRS website
• Surveys

I will be using this sort of research in my investigation because I will be finding out percentages, means/ averages, modes and finding the correlations of numbers in my data. It is useful because then you make a magazine that will definitely attract your target audience and you would know where to sell it because it would have the highest percentage of magazines sold in that place.

Lastly there is Qualitative Reasearch and this type is to do with the ideas, feelings and finding out the opinions of the person you are asking through using open questions instead of closed ones. You can do this sort of research through:

• Interviews
• Stopping people on the street (e.g. using a sample number of 50)
• Questionnaires with open questions

This would aid my research because I would have a clear and precise view of what my audience wants because they have been able to tell me exactly what they want.