Research Methods

Primary Research

This is collecting 'primary data'

Which includes:

• Questionnaires 
• Direct Observation 
• Telephone interviews 

The advantages of this type of research are that they address specific issues and they can be controlled to fit with what needs to be discovered. However, they can be time consuming to carry out, it is easy for someone to not give their true answer, participants may not take the task seriously and they can be expensive to produce. 

Secondary Research

This is a summary of research that already exists by processing data that has been collected previously 

Which includes:

• Research reports 
• Websites
• Magazine articles

Advantages to secondary research is that it is of relatively low cost and is quite quick to carry out - as they data has been collected already. The disadvantages are that the data may be out of date - and so the results may be inaccurate and the data may not be about the exact same issue/topic that the researcher wants. 

Qualitative Research

This type of research finds out how and why through analysing information  

This can be done through:

• Interview transcripts
• Survey responses
• Emails 
• Notes
• Feedback forms 
• Photos 
• Videos  

Quantitative Research 

This is finding out facts and statistics by asking peoples opinions using a structure 

This can be done through:

• Surveys 
• Questionnaires 

The research I will use will be secondary research largely due to a low budget and lack of time. In particular I will be using websites to collect my data and do my research. However, I will have to be careful to not collect incorrect or old, irrelevant data. As well as this, I will also be watching psychological horror films and trailers in order to understand my chosen sub-genre as well as I can.