Thursday 21 June 2012

types of research - Quantitative

Introduction

In this post, I am going to be researching and looking at the different types of research used within the media industry. while i am recording my findings and results, I am going to be explaining what each type of research is, three different example of the types of research, the advantages and the disadvantages of these types of research methods.

What is quantitative research?

Quantitative research is data which is in the form of numerical figures, statistics, ratios, etc. This is data that can be measured and gathered into a model/graph. Quantitative research usually asks the target audience questions which have choices (e.g. tick-boxes or multiple choice) and the answers are usually in figures or numerical form.

A few definitions of quantitative research are;

(4) "In the social sciences, quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques."

(5) "Quantitative research is concerned with allocating numbers to ideas – it aims to provide accurate measurements of what people think. It is not concerned with the why – this is the role of qualitative research – but the ‘how many’ and ‘what’.

(6) "Methods of research can be broadly divided into qualitative and quantitative. the basic difference is that quantitative research reports findings as numbers, while qualitative research reports them as words. The main quantitative research technique is the survey, with all its variants. There's a much wider variety of qualitative techniques"


Methods and sources

The advantages of quantitative research are;
  • the data collected from quantitative research can be easily interpreted. This is because the data is in figure form, so the information can be gathered and converted into different factors (e.g. ratios, percentages, fractions, etc.)
  • the data can be put into graphs and charts, which is an advantage because it can be easily read and downsized to help the data more "understandable".
  • "Quantitative research can be used to test hypotheses in experiments because of its ability to measure data using statistics." (7)
The disadvantages of quantitative research are;
  • the purpose and context of the research is ignored and it may not be clear to the interpreter of the finalised data.
  • another disadvantage is that a large sample of the population must be studied; the larger the sample of people researched, the more statistically accurate the results will be.
  • this also creates another disadvantage because that means quantitative research is more expensive, as more materials are needed. 

Examples of quantitative research

One example of quantitative research can be for media purposes. e.g. a research group may be wishing to look at which type of media forms influence customers the most (e.g. social networking, internet, television, radio, etc). 

They may wish to find this information so they can use the mediums to channel their advertising/promotional material. The forms or methods of quantitative research that they can carry out can be;
  • questionnaires to the target audience stating numerical or choice questions. This will help gather personal data for the researcher and put their information into graphs and charts.
  • they could find the information using secondary sources, e.g. internet, journals and books to help find information which has already been gathered
  • a taster/sample session to help a small sample of customers try out different methods and to see which one sis the most effective/popular/occurring. 


Another example of quantitative research can be for science purposes. e.g. a scientist may wish to gather information on the BMI of a country (national geodemographics) for biological reasons. They may wish to find out this information to help find an average and a scale on the weight and height of a population. 

A few methods of quantitative research to help them gather the data they need can be;
  • questionnaires to the target audience stating numerical or choice questions. This will help gather personal data for the researcher and put their information into graphs and charts.
  • they could find the information using secondary sources, e.g. internet, journals and books to help find information which has already been gathered
  • a taster/sample session to help a small sample of customers try out different methods and to see which one sis the most effective/popular/occurring. 


The final example of quantitative research can be for geographical purposes. e.g. a research group may wish to explore the concepts of weather in two different countries and compare the atmospheres. They may wish to carry out this experiment to help figure out effects of global warming.

A few methods of quantitative research to help them gather the data they need can be;
  • they could carry out experiments to help gather numerical data which can be put into graphs and charts. This will help them to find the information that they wish.
  • they could attend or host a group session which will help the researchers gather the data together instead of individually
  • they could find the information using secondary sources, e.g. internet, journals and books to help find information which has already been gathered

Conclusion

So in conclusion, quantitative data is statistical or numerical data that can be measured or gathered to form a graph or chart. Quantitative research usually asks the target audience questions which have choices (e.g. tick-boxes or multiple choice) and the answers are usually in figures or numerical form.

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