Unit 3 Assignment 1 REPORT

Quantitative research
Programme ratings
Program ratings are gathered by a set number of about 11 000 people
across the UK, this gives the channel that is being watched a rough rating
on who is watching then a figure is extrapolated from this to decide what
percentage of the population of the UK is watching. Ratings allow the
channels to change their listings to provide the people with what they
want to see for example if the ratings of a game show keep falling they
will axe the show so that they can replace it with a new show that
people will watch.

In America there is an organisation called

Nielsen and it uses Nielsen boxes to monitor
a select few families in each state, they are
called Nielsen families. The 11000 Nielsen
families all define what America watch; it is a
similar system here in the UK. The UK
equivalent of the Nielsen foundation is BARB
which will be covered later. (See right for a
picture of a nielsen box)
Circulation figures
Circulation figures refer to the number of copies of a video game,
newspaper and magazine in the public in most circumstances this can
only be estimated, but now as EPOS (electronic point of sale) is almost
everywhere a fair few companies are releasing exact circulation figures.
Most video game companies release to the public on how many copies
their new video game has sold, unless it didnt sell very many, then they
just say their number to the next 100 000.
Back in 2013 Rockstar Games
released a video game called grand
theft auto and it broke sales records.
In the first 24 hours of release it sold
approximately 11.21 million copies
netting the company $800 million
worldwide. Six weeks after Rockstar
had sold nearly 29 million copies
worldwide exceeding the lifetime
figures of its predecessor Grand theft auto 4. As of 3 rd of February 2016
over 60 million copies had sold worldwide (thats about the equivalent of
the population of the UK) netting Rockstar almost $2 000 000 000 dollars.

Web hits

Qualitative research
Film reviews
Film reviews are a good way for the producer to see what the audience
thinks of the film to get an estimate of ratings. Film reviews are also good
for the potential audience because it can help them make their mind up
on deciding to go and see a film. As the reviewers are impartial this
means that you can get honest reviews from them telling you exactly
what they thought of the film, though on the other hand someone else
might absolutely love the film, everybody has their own views on films.
There are a few sites that are dedicated to film reviews these include
rotten tomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/) and metacritic
(http://www.metacritic.com/); these sites offer reviews on all of the films
released since they were both launched. Metacritic also reviews video
games.
These days most people care only about their films rating or number of
stars that it is given for example of you asked a person about the new Star
Wars film they will most likely say oh yeah it was good It lived up to its
rating of 4/5 stars but if you asked another person they might say I
didnt think it deserves a rating of 8.2/10 this is a problem as there are
many different rating systems on different review sites in my opinion there
needs to be a standardized rating for all review sites to avoid confusion
between fans or haters. See right how cineworld rates their films.

Game reviews
Video game reviews are a
branch
of
journalism
concerned
with
the
reporting and discussion of
video games. It is initially
based on a core reveal
trailer or poster, then is
further
discussed
when
more information of the
game is released building
up hype until the game is
released. There has been a
recent growth in online
publications and blogs due
to the massive increase in demand on video games and videos on
YouTube, which include game reviews.
Game reviews are very useful to game producers and developers as they
gain access to a whole ecosystem of reviews and opinions on their game,
this allows them to make their game better through hot fixes and patches.
A good example of this is a game called mass effect 3.
Within the first week of mass effect 3s release it was getting bad reviews
for its poor ending; so the developers and producers released an alternate
ending as DLC (downloadable content). Once this happened the reviews
for the game get better and better but the original ending still makes the
people who create mass effect 3 embarrassed when its mentioned. Below
is a screenshot of the IGN site, which does a lot of game reviews.

Fanzine sites
A fanzine site is a nonprofessional and nonofficial website produced by
fans of a particular cultural phenomenon (i.e. anime) for the pleasure of
others who share their interest. The first media fanzine was a Star Trek fan
publication called Spockanalia, published in September 1967 by members
of the Lunarians. They hoped that fanzines such as Spockanalia would be

recognized by the broader science-fiction fan community in traditional

ways, such as a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine. All five of its issues were
published while the show was still on the air, and included letters from D.
C. Fontana, Gene Roddenberry, and most of the cast members. See below
for a star wars fanzine.

Secondary research
Books
Secondary research makes use of sources that have already been
extrapolated from primary research in the form of books and paper based
reports, these usually are factual and contain vital information on the
topic that you are researching, for example there is an extensive paper
online that outlines the advantages and disadvantages of gaming (my
topic) which uses the writers primary research and gives it context and
background such that it becomes secondary research. Here is a hyperlink
to the paper.
https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/amp-a0034857.pdf
A good source of books for use to collect
secondary research is libraries. The library at
Manchester metropolitan university has
almost 1 000 000 books and even more online
resources. This is really helpful when on a
course because this means that there is
probably a book on every topic of your chosen
course.
Web
The web is a massive online repository of secondary and primary
research, the good thing is that if you know what to type in
to google you can find almost anything, like that paper
above, but if you are unsure you will get a load of garbage.
A common term for this is GIGO (garbage in, garbage out).

Another reason why You have to look upon your source with scepticism is
because there are a lot of trolls out there trying to produce research that
is usually a load of rubbish, this can sometimes get annoying because it
isnt obvious until you get about half way down the page and you realise it
makes no sense.
The web can house really powerful resources and tools if you know where
to look it can hold anything from e-books to video clips. This is particularly
useful when doing background research into a topics history i.e. the
history of media. One of the best sources for online information is
Wikipedia as this holds vast amounts of information that in unimaginable.
Though this is the case some trolls try to edit the information on there, but
luckily the publisher of the page has to authorise it first, before it is shown
to the public.

Internet forums
Internet forums are a good place to collect secondary research as they are
full of opinions and reviews on any given item or topic. This is because
anyone is allowed to Comment on there. two of the biggest forums are
4chan and reddit and most people have heard one if not both of them.
Therefore, they are the best place to collate secondary research for a
product because usually people have given insight on their true feelings
on them. Below is a screenshot of reddit.

Government stats
Government stats are very useful to use when performing research as
they are checked often to make sure that they are still valid and up to
date. The best place to get government stats is either on their archive
online or you can phone them to request certain information, they would
then send you the information by email or post. Below is a screenshot of
the national government stats office site.

Primary research
Interviews
An interview is a very good way of collecting primary research as you can
get what people in the business call exclusives. An exclusive is a fact or
figure that often relates to the celebrity or company that is being
interviewed; it is information that has not been heard before anywhere
else by anyone in the media. Though interviews are very useful they do
have their bad sides as the interviewee might not always be truthful and
might tell a false fact.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires are a good form of secondary research as you can find out
a good basis for an audience profile on whatever the topic is that you
make the questionnaire about. The biggest problem is that ratings are
personal so questions that ask things like on a scale to 1-10 10 being
excellent, are bad as somebodies 6 might be someone elses 8 therefore
the ratings are not accurate. See below for an example of a questionnaire.

Internet forums
Internet forums are a good way of gathering opinions, they can also be
used to pitch a question to your target audience. They are very useful
when it comes to collating research as they allow the researcher to find
certain topics and see peoples opinions and views on it i.e. if a video
game is good or bad. One of the best internet forums for this is reddit but
there can be a lot of trolls on there, giving you false information that can
wildly effect the outcome of your research.
Data gathering agencies
BARB
The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board are the organisation that
compile audience measurement and television ratings in the United
Kingdom. It was created in 1981 to replace two previous systems whereby
ITV ratings were compiled by JICTAR (Joint Industry Committee for
Television Audience Research), whilst the BBC did their own audience
research. BARB is jointly owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5,
Sky and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. Participating viewers
have a box on top of their TV sets which tracks the programmes they
watch.

RAJAR
RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research Limited) was established in 1992 to
operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry in
the United Kingdom. RAJAR is jointly owned by the BBC and the
RadioCentre. Prior to this, the BBC and RadioCentres predecessor (The
CRCA) carried out their own measurements independently of each other.
The company operates as a Joint Industry Committee (JIC) and its Board is
chaired by an independent Chairman. It has shareholder representation
from the BBC and the commercial sector, as well as the IPA (Institute of
practitioners in advertising) and the ISBA (Incorporated Society of British
Advertisers). The company is a non- profit making entity.
RAJAR collects information on behalf of over 300 BBC and Ofcom Licensed
commercial radio stations, ranging from very small local services to the
national networks. Station listening by time, duration, platform (AM/FM,

DAB, Online/APP, and DTV) and location (in car, at home, at work, or
elsewhere) is recorded and published on a quarterly basis.
The research methodology is based on a continuous diary survey (ex.
Christmas holidays) measuring the listening behaviour of over 100,000
adults a year. The diary is filled in on a quarter-hour basis for one weeks
listening drawn from a sample representative of the individual station
transmission area and the nation as a whole. The fieldwork for the
Research is carried out on behalf of RAJAR by specialist research
contractors. The sampling point framework is undertaken by RSMB Ltd.

Audience research
Audience data
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience,
usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also
in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web
traffic on websites. Sometimes, the term is used as pertaining to practices
which help broadcasters and advertisers determine who is listening rather
than just how many people are listening.

Here are some audience data figures for TV and radio from the 27 th March
2016 to the 3rd April 2016

Demographics
Audience demographics refers to the number of viewers in an area where
a certain program is shown, i.e. the regional news that is shown on ITV at
18:00-18:30. The demographical stats are the number of viewers of a
program per region and what their age groups are. The method of
grouping is dune through what job you have, class, age and gender.

Consumer attitudes
When doing audience research, it is key to find out what your audiences
attitudes are to certain matters and what the main religious views are of
them as you need to make sure that you dont offend anybody. Most
consumers of video games are teenagers and as that is what my topic is
on I will also target their parents as video games are not that bad for
imagination development. I will have to change their parents mind to get
them to see the true potential ov video games as most parents think they
are bad due to the fake media reports back in the early 2000s.

Market research
Product market
It is key to know how your target audience can be reached so that proper
market research can be carried out. Firstly, a basic consumer profile is
made that shows the company conducting the research on what the most
likely they then use the market for similar products that have already
been released to see what other audiences are most likely to use their
product. After a clear target audience has been selected a more detailed
consumer profile is constructed based on the likes, dislikes and hobbies of
the target audience and the information at hand. This is how most
research is carried out.

Advertising placement
The main contribution for selling a product
is good placements of advertisements, the
most effective is a TV advert at prime time,
but there are many different ways of
reaching your target audience. One of the
oldest methods for advertising are in
newspapers but if the target audience
doesnt read newspapers then it is pointless
using that method. Advert placements need
to be tailored for your specific audience i.e.
an energy drink advert will be seen most of the time in gyms.
Product research
Content
In the next assignment I will be making a presentation on a chosen topic,
that topic is: pros and cons of video games. I intend to use a lot of the new
studies that have been taken on the matter, there are some saying that it
has profound health benefits if you play games within reason but there are
other papers on the topic that say that video games are not good for you
and they can lead to depression. Usually programs that are the pros and
cons of something are laid out in a certain way; firstly, the topic is
introduced and a summary of what will be said is given to the audience;
secondly all of the pros and cons are listed then finally a judgement is
passed on the topic on which sides argument is better than the other.
Therefore, coming to the conclusion weather the questioned activity is
very bad, bad, the pros outweigh the cons, good or very good.

Finance
When making the presentation I will be working to a
budget, this budget will be used to purchase software,
hire equipment and staff and to pay for quality research.
The budget will be charted out before I start and will be
assessed throughout the production stage ensuring that It
is not broken it is key that the budget goal is not broken
as I will not be able to continue production of the piece if it is as there will
be no staff to help.