11. Research Methods

Primary - this is research which you carry out yourself, so you gather individual results, for example a questionnaire


Advantage: results are appropriate for the specific time and place
Disadvantage: can take a lot of time and cost a lot of money


Secondary - using other people's research to aid your own, for example using websites and blogs about the genre


Advantage: Low costs
Disadvantage: may not be able to gather the specific information needed


Qualitative - when you carry out in depth research into a small group of people who have strong views on the subject matter, for example a focus group with indie rock fans


Advantage: can gain a wide understanding of the topic
Disadvantage: it is hard to avoid bias from the researcher's point of view


Quantitative - this is more about collecting a wide, overall view on a subject to be able to identify a pattern or trend, for example conducting 200 questionnaires in the town centre


Advantage: Can gain accurate results and avoid researcher bias
Disadvantage: limited results as they are numerical without any detailed explanations