Research Methods

Before creating my music magazine I need to do some research into what would appeal to my chosen target audience and background research into magazines that are already on the market.

Research is split into two different types; primary and secondary. 

Primary research is research that you do yourself. For example:

• questionnaire
• survey
• interview
• focus group
• phone call
• email
• letter 
• textual analysis

Secondary research is research which you collate from someone else, such as: 

• books
• internet
• search engines
• industry websites
• websites by individuals
• newspapers, magazines
• journals

These can then be split into a further two data groups; quantitative and qualitative. 

Quantitative data is to do with numbers and looking for certain patterns or trends in people's responses. Examples of these are questionnaires or surveys. This type of data tends to use closed questions as it is then easier for the researcher to compare their target audience's answers.

Qualitative data is to do with opinions, words and feelings in people's responses which can be retrieved from methods such as the information you would collect from a focus group. This type of data prefers to use open-ended questions in order to get as much detail as possible within the answers. The researcher can then use the answers in more depth.


Although the majority of these research methods will be beneficial for me some of them will have their drawbacks. For example, a questionnaire may have rushed answers as people may not want to answer it and therefore the data wouldn't be reliable. Also, some participants may feel influenced by the person giving the questionnaire, also know as 'Interviewer Desirability Bias', and so may answer in a way which they feel would please the interviewer.