Assignment 1: Qualitative and Quantitative

Qualitative Research:

This assignment will consist of exploring the purpose of the research methods of both qualitative and quantitative data within the media industry most specifically Qualitative and Qualitative whilst exploring how they carry out research on media productions or products. I would like to start off by saying that the main reason which would come to mind concerning this topic would that it helps us understand exactly what the preferred audiences or even wider audiences - (those who connect with the product or the music video) are more inclined to engage with therefore making the end product much more worthwhile as knowledge is increased.

Qualitative Data/Research is a form of research method or rather a research category which is defined as ‘Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. Qualitative Research is also used to uncover trends in thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem.’ https://www.snapsurveys.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-qualitative-research-and-quantitative-research/. I believe that the main aim of qualitative data in this context of music video producers is essentially to be used to understand opinions of those who make as well as interact on the different media products and how that has an impact on individuals.

Some of the main benefits of the Qualitative data consist of:

•      Often uncovers thoughts and opinions – This therefore enables Music video producers to be able to truly understand how exactly firstly their potential audiences feel and think about how music videos are conducted as well as what works and what isn’t so effective in this aspect.
•          Provides depth and details – Through the quality of the research it enables us to be able to understand not just the shallow specifics of the research but enables us to really understand and look deeper through analysing whether that be through reactions, feelings, etc.

As with any form of research methods, there are cons to Qualitative Data. 
It is above everything very time consuming as getting everyone within the surveys opinion would be lengthy and would take some thinking for the interview in the sense that it would require in depth analysis which would take more than just hours. The interviewee may not want to take some time to answer these questions which may be asked and if they do there would be the chance of them "winging" some of the questions given not to mention forms of research such as -  unstructured interviews which may lead to the conversation going off on a tangent. This form of data research is effective but just like quantitative it has its disadvantages in terms of time consumption but remains highly effective in helping industries - in this case, Media companies get an opinion detailed answer thus giving them more detail to work with when marketing off their product.

Quantitative Research

Another research method or aforementioned research category which is also often spoken about in conjunction with Qualitative data is Quantitative research which is defined as ‘Quantitative data is any kind of data that can be measured numerically. For example, quantitative data is used to measure things precisely, such as the temperature, the amount of people in a crowd or the height of a structure.’ https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi4kNLOzs_TAhWpJsAKHbFxDdAQFghYMAg&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.reference.com%2Fmath%2Fquantitative-data-mean-7183ca415cad2c27&usg=AFQjCNGY3cx2rkcHPgQUvyfjJx64jE7EGQ&sig2=SSxcw6um4Hr7gMMaaWnkSQ, therefore often referring to methods such as Surveys, Graphs, Questionnaires, Opinion Polls or even Numerical data such as Box Office Figures, Youtube Views, Number of Itunes Purchases or even Views of a particular music video on any given platform – All of which produce quantitative research.

Some of the main benefits of the Quantitative data consist of:

• Can allow for greater objectivity and accuracy of results. Generally, quantitative methods are designed to provide summaries of data that support generalisations about the phenomenon under study.
• Allow for a broader study, involving a greater number of subjects, and enhancing the generalisation of the results.

However, There are some disadvantages of using Quantitative data; one of which would be that the stats and figures may not always be accurate and reliable for that matter as they often tend to fluctuate. In addition, in the example of an institution trying to find a specific audience based on age and gender, some figures only show amounts and do not go into detail on more specifically who and what. So the audience information is often missed out so there would be no ideal way of targeting an audience. Quantitative research does not go into the the opinions so therefore the "detailed" aspect of the results aren't reliable as we aren't able to further understand the audience's preferences. Which can cause a incorrect or inaccurate answer for results/data.