PRIMARY RESEARCH

A key part of your research is the primary research. This is research that you undertake first hand.

You can carry out primary research in a number of ways, these include:

• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Questions on message boards
• Observations
• Your own analysis of the text

The method(s) that you choose for your own research will depend on which you think will generate the most useful information. You should consider carefully what it is that you wish to gain from your primary research and information you need for your project. It is important to think about the time you have available and the logistics of completing the research.

Things you should do before beginning to do primary research:

• Be realistic about how much information you can collect
• Think about how it will fit in with the rest of your project
• Be prepared to follow up any requests for interviews/meetings with a phone call!
• Be prepared for your request to be turned down
• Be realistic about who will speak to you

Below is an outline of what each method involves and how it can be used.

Questionnaires
Questionnaires are a useful way of collecting information off a larger sample of people. As you are limited in the time available you should think about qualitative questionnaires, this is where you ask a small sample of people and focus on getting as much information as possible from them. There are number of questionnaire types, each will be used for different types of research and in different ways. You should decide what one suits your research best.

• Unstructured questionnaire:
Most of the questions are open ended. You are free to change the order of asking questions and to explain them. The questionnaire may take the form of a checklist for discussion. The unstructured questionnaire is used in ‘depth’ interviews and group discussions.

• Semi-structured questionnaire:
This usually constitutes a mixture of closed or fixed response questions and open-ended questions. Semi structured questionnaires are useful in enabling you to ‘stage manage’ the interview so that all the open ended questions are answered fully.You will find that you will often get a better response if you are present whilst people complete the questionnaire. This will allow you to answer any questions that people may have about it. As with any research your results will depend on the quality of your questions.

Interviews

• Individual:
Interviews are likely to be in-depth conversations with individuals concerning a particular topic. The individual that you interview will depend on what you wish to find out. You will need to make contact with the individual that you wish to interview; you may do this through a letter or by e-mail. We would strongly recommend that you follow this up with a phone call should it be appropriate.It is possible that the interviewee could ask for a copy of the questions or conduct the interview via e-mail. This is why it is worth preparing questions beforehand. An interview is a really effective method of getting lots of information as it is likely that open-ended questions will generate a lot of conversation. Should you be interviewing someone from an institution it is worth carrying out some brief research on him or her first if you have not already.

• Group:
Another type of interview involves putting together a group of people to discuss a particular topic. This is often known as a focus group, where the group is selected because of a common interest or because the people in it represent a particular 'type'. For instance, you might put together a group of female viewers to discuss their responses to films directed by women or a group of Primary school children to discuss their television consumption.This sort of focus group needs careful selection and handling; obviously, being with other people will have some impact on how they respond to questions compared to an individual interview. In addition when there are several people present it will be hard for you as the interviewer to keep track of what is said. It might be useful to tape record the interview or even to video it and transcribe it for analysis later. The kinds of question you might ask for either group or for individual interviews are considered below.

Questions on message boards:
In some cases one of the most effective way of getting information from a diverse range of sources is by posting questions on an Internet message board. This can often generate a range of responses from readers of the message board who may have a detailed understanding of your topic area. As with the two previous methods the quality of responses will depend upon the quality of your questions. This method of research can be a quick and effective way of gathering primary information.

Observations:
Another form of primary research is your own observations; this could include watching how people react to a media product. You need to plan carefully how this would fit into your research and what you wanted to achieve before you organised an observation. This is more suitable for certain topics than for others, it would often be supported by a series of questions with the individuals or group who have been observed.

Own analysis of a media text:
For a number of topics it may be appropriate to undertake your own analysis of a media text. This would include analysing a text that is closely related to your research topic. It would require you to trust your academic skills as you would have to make comments about your chosen text and how it links to your topic and is relevant.

Note: It would be advisable to undertake more than one type of primary research, as this is likely to generate the most information. It will also mean that you improve your chances of collecting the necessary information.

Question Types
There are 3 main types of question that you could choose to use in you questionnaires, these are:

• Open-ended questions:
The term “open” describes your interviewee’s options for responding: they are open. The answer can be 2 words or 2 paragraphs. The major advantage of this more natural discussion is the greater detail and variety that the respondent can provide. You are also more likely to discover all sorts of information that you hadn’t anticipated. The down side might be that the mass of detail might be difficult to sort through, especially when you are trying to collate responses of multiple interviews.An example of an open-ended question:What was your response to the humour in “The cannonball run”?

• Closed questions:
With a closed question the possible responses are closed to the interviewees, since they can only reply with a finite number or limited choice. Multiple-choice exams are the obvious example. You have to choose one answer from a number of examples. A variation is the “bipolar” question where the respondent must choose yes/no, true/false, or agree/disagree. The obvious benefits of these questions are ease, speed and concrete data, which you can readily collate and tabulate. An example of a closed question:Do you agree or disagree that “Smokey and the Bandit” is a funny film?

• Probe questions:
A probe, or “follow-up” question, goes beyond an initial answer to get more meaning, to clarify, and to draw out and expand on the interviewee’s point. A probe is often necessary to get beyond an initial superficial or opinionated response. Follow-up probes come quite naturally after a closed question.Probes can be taken by your interviewee as a sign that you are listening to what’s being said, thinking it through, and responding appropriately.Examples of a probe question:Why ? Can you give me an example? Will you elaborate on that for me ?