Evaluation
At the beginning of the term I set out to find out about TV on demand through a range of research techniques. To do this, I used the resources available to me to the best of their advantage and developed methods of research which I know will be useful to me in the not so distant future. Although I have learned a lot of new techniques, I do not feel I found out a huge amount of new information about my topic. This may be due to the fact that I already knew a lot about on demand TV, but also to the methods and techniques I used. The area I have found most interesting during this topic is finding out about the advertising industry and funding of online content. Although this is not what I originally thought I would be the main focus of my research, I was flexible and took the project in a different direction. The project allowed me to explore, in depth, the financial state of the industry I hope to one day work in. In the current economic climate companies such as Channel 4 are struggling to make ends meet because of the drop in TV ratings and price of air time, it was interesting to see how they are making the extra cash through their online content and how the extra advertising effects the viewers.
My research was split into two sections. I first collected all of my secondary research from a range of sources. Carrying out this form of research first definitely had its advantages. I gained a better understanding of TV on demand before attempting to do my own research. Because I had read through other people’s opinions and statistics on the subject, I had a good foundation of knowledge which I could use in my primary research. For example, because I understood how different advertising funded on demand sites, I could ask appropriate questions in my interview and made a good choice of who to question. I originally assumed this would be an extremely simple task but over time realised I had to use different strategies to make sure the information I collected was not biased. For example, using just one search engine means only certain results will come up. Google gets money for prioritising certain links, so I found myself going at least 4 pages into the results to find different information. I avoided making the common mistake of thinking Google was the only search engine and branched out to use Bing, Ask…etc. I was surprised to find that each search engine came up with a very different set of results. As well as this, I found that slightly altering the search term also affected what links came up.
Obviously the internet is not the only source of information and I did spend time browsing through library books so I would have a range of sources. However I found it difficult to come across relevant information, despite looking through a number of books. My research could definitely have been improved by me sourcing books from a different location (a bigger library, home..) and reading through them in more detail. Looking back on it, I can see I spent too much time trying to find secondary sources and not enough time reading through them. Some of the sites in my sources table may have had very useful information which I never used because I didn’t take the time to look at all of it. If I were to do the project again I would use less secondary sources but analyse the information in more depth. Nevertheless I had no option to do this during this project because there was a minimum number of sources we had to obtain and a deadline to meet.
Despite what I think went wrong with my secondary research, it was vital to my project and gave me valid information. Although there will always be an issue with which secondary sources are trustworthy, I used a lot of the information I found in my final report and could cross reference it with other sources. This makes my report seem more professional and reliable because I can back up my primary research with evidence which someone else has recorded. This project has taught me how to distinguish between sites I can trust and sites I can’t. Instead of just copying and pasting any text I could find, I took the time to read the ‘about us’ page on every site I got information from. Of course this is not complete proof that a source is reliable, but it gave me some incite into who the information was coming from and I could make an educated judgment. Although it will always be difficult to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources, it is definitely worth trying.
Once my secondary research was complete, I moved onto primary research. This proved to be more challenging as I had to decide on appropriate methods of research and find willing participants. I eventually decided to do an interview, online questionnaire and a focus group. I believe my interview was the most useful and informative of the three. I chose a very appropriate interviewee who had background knowledge of different media industries and uses TV on demand regularly. This meant he was a reliable source and had a lot to say. Ideally I would have carried out several interviews, so I could collect more information and opinions from a range of demographics. This would have widened my knowledge and allowed me to cross reference more information in my report.
The way I collected the information from my interview could definitely have been improved. If I were to do it again I would record the interview on a camera or voice recorder, then upload the material to my blog or write down the relevant sections. Because I had no recording equipment I tried to write in short hand everything Pete Turner said as he spoke. This meant I missed sections of what he was saying or had to ask him to repeat things. This made me seem very unprofessional.
The online questionnaire allowed me to compare and analyse the opinions of different demographics and psychographics. I found the information I collected very useful but realised some of it was not relevant to the future of TV on demand. The number of questions I could ask was limited because if I had written more than 10 the website would have charged me to use it. These limitations may have been beneficial though because it meant I thought hard about each question and did not ask lots of unnecessary ones. However, I realise that my questions could have been improved by asking less opinion based ones and more that directly related to the impact and future of on demand TV. I could have improved my questionnaire by sending it to more people. The more responses I get, the more reliable the information. I sent them out by e-mail which proved to be a good method because almost all of the people I sent it to responded immediately. My respondents included students, teachers, parents and friends with a wide range of demographics. I feel this is very important because my other two forms of primary research did not provide me with information from a variety of people.
I was the observer of my focus group and tried hard not to get involved so I didn’t sway people’s opinions. I had three participants and one leader to run my focus group. It was the leaders responsibility to explain what my aim was, run through the questions I had supplied and keep the group engaged. Although Sam worked well as the leader of the session, there were many problems with the way my focus group was carried out. To begin with, we did it in a busy class room where the participants were easily distracted and not entirely focused on what they were being asked. The 10 minute slot went very quickly and I feel if the session had lasted longer I could have got more information out of the group. Also, as I used my class mates in my focus group they all had very similar demographics. I would have liked to have had a range of people with varying opinions. I was however impressed that everyone in the group made some input and gave me valid information. Sam Leach led my focus group well because he asked appropriate questions which encouraged the group to talk about relevant subjects in more depth.
I believe the effort I put into my primary and secondary research paid off when I created my report. I found that I had enough information to fill a substantial number of slides and if I had been asked to present, would have been able to talk about what I had found out with confidence.
When adding my final notes to the report I realised that one error I have made throughout the project is concentrating only on online TV on demand, and completely ignoring its uses on television sets. For example, Virgin has a widely used on demand service with their TV and broadband package which I have failed to mention. I am sure these systems are also going to evolve in the near future yet I have found little information about them.
Being a media student I will definitely need research techniques in future studies and work I do, so the past unit will prove to have been very helpful.
