Questionnaires Pt 2

 The Results

Briefly before we get onto the results of the questionnaire I thought I'd give a bit of background behind the questionnaire itself. I sent it out to around thirty anonymous participants who also had a small sample of what ideas I had already in order for them to get a clearer picture of what I was asking about.

The goal was to help me narrow down before pulling together a focus group to help me iron out the final details, the main overarching idea for me to be able to make a few samples for the next stage. Below you can see an example of the general responses to some of the things that I asked in my questions:

The reasoning behind having a chart in this manner is that it clearly lays out each section that I asked after for a viewer, each section has a number and the thought process was the numbers that follow the labels are who voted in favour of having or using the previously stated.

Each section follows a question that I asked on the questionnaire relevant to the production so I broke the questions down in order to get me these categories.

As you can see there are some clear responses such as the choice between edited audio and unedited for the video, as well as stop motion over live action. This has helped to influence what I want to get out of this production as now I have a clear direction for the primary way of the production and it has also given me the chance of getting a decent back-up should the other flop.

In a more detailed format of specifics i.e. what I asked in terms of questions and how they were responded to, here's a few graphs that break it down: 

As you can see here this was a close divide when you actually look at the data. This helps me to determine that while another form of video is preferred I can still make the project a success even with it as a live-action.

This helps me in decision-making as well as allocation because it A) shows that if I were to get a live action video done then I need to dedicate the same amount of time to it as I would the other choice and B) Not to focus on certain parts of it but rather ensure that I give more thoughtful time to each shot if you will as this will effect the quality of what I put out.

Now this area has a much different result to it than any of the others because there's a clear majority over one than the others. 

As you can see on the left there was a small response in favour of this technique however the vast majority decided against it.

I didn't include a development box because I didn't feel that it wasn't necessary to the questionnaire at the time. This wasn't the best method for getting data as for a question like this as I might have missed out on something vital that could help the production.

Focus Group Pt 2

 The Findings

Armed with some feedback from the questionnaire I decided to take what was said into account and begin to make a video based around it. Soon enough I had a small draft sample ready and together to present to the focus group. I'll present the key points below separated out by each section discussed:

Generic Information

There were 3-4 people who participated within this focus group. It took place on Teams and lasted for around 12mins out of a 1hr 5mins video chat where I gave input to other creators as well. We held this on Thursday 6th May.

The Objective of the time

In this focus group I had a main goal of seeking guidance with how to proceed further in making my video. I had a few paths to go down and I wasn't sure which one would be the most effective choice to make this project a success, but my secondary goal was to see what edits would work with the song and the visuals in order to get everything put together in an effective manner.

The Main Q+A

Here you can see an example of the questions that I wanted to ask the group during our time. I'll go through them in brief:

I had two different versions of the same video ready to play and played both for this first part, for the first piece about the audio they liked a first option that I had available with a bit of diluted colour but a VHS overlay.

The second fell in line with what I expected from due to previous reference from the questionnaire where the original audio won out over an edited piece that had been made. This came from the fact that the group felt it made the audio quality seem of a lower quality and that any additional input over what's there already would distract from the song itself. 

The last question that I feel is important to address from this questionnaire is on the subject of lyrics on screen to follow along with the audio. The reason why I feel this is the final important one is because it could be done a lot of ways and figuring out what to do early on before the production goes into a lot of factors; some including tracking or making sure that the lyrics aren't covering any major pieces of the screen. The focus group decided against this as there would be too much information on screen and would distract from the main visuals on the screen itself meaning that there was a high chance of confusion of what the focus was.

Issues and Resolution

A few issues were brought up about the draft video that was shown during this, the top being the best way to execute the video. As I was vague in the questioning and the draft videos didn't demonstrate the idea well there was a discussion about them in order for me to explain my ideas for the group to understand and for us to proceed.

The second was concerning the audio, I made a big point about how the edited audio was good and that it related well to the topic of the video that I wanted to make. However they advised me against it because the sound while different seems poor and that could impact the audience enjoyment but also there could be disassociation between what the audience is hearing and what they're seeing. 

Research Techniques- The Review

 Evaluation

Let's start with the what I use and how effectively I did it.

When discussing questionnaires I think that the information I provided about what a questionnaire is was good, I covered both sources of information that you can get from using this method. Discussing primary and secondary sources of this was one of my stronger points of this section as it was easy to discuss and explain with justification on the good and bad points about it. 

However I do feel that there are areas where I could improve, such as providing better examples of where each method would be more useful for what type of thing being done but over all I think that Questionnaires were my strongest point.

Onto Focus groups, this one is a bit weaker as I couldn't really find a lot to discuss in essence because they're self explanatory really. We go through life doing focus groups when we work in a team so this becomes something that you know and just gets narrowed to specifics of what the discussion is.

There is room for improvement for example I could have discussed differentiation more when it came to how focus groups impact different decisions of a production, maybe gave some real world examples to back up my points too but overall I think that while a bit more wobbly this section was still okay.

The final section, live research where I carried out my own stuff. 

Starting with questionnaires, now I definitely had a lot to improve here for example instead of asking broad open-ended questions I should have had a more narrowed approach to get better results that could have helped me more in my production. The way a pulled together the data could have been smoother too and instead of loosing results by including a middle option I should have stuck to simple Yes/No formula to achieve the best possible result.

The focus group, this was definitely a luck one. I had no back-up group ready in case this was cancelled or people couldn't make it and with a group as small as it was that would've ended up hurting my production badly, not to mention the fact that I had no back-up questions or development points which would have been extremely beneficial to me and my research.

In summary I felt that I did better with the background of the techniques rather than putting them into practice themselves. 

Focus Groups: What are they?

The Breakdown

So Focus groups, I'm sure that we've all heard of them or maybe have been in one at some point but how effective can they be? All they seem to be is annoying and boring as a way of gathering information but as a way of getting opinions and the chance to talk about the product itself as well as being able to discuss further details about the product itself . It provides the opportunity for companies to get a better idea of how well the public will react to a new product or advert they're going to put out there, and you're able to get some better opinions from the idea than possibly from a questionnaire as you can actually see peoples expressions and body language.

The Good

So we know about what a focus group is so why is this a better preference than a questionnaire and as a good source of information for a project, well for a start as I mentioned earlier they are great for finding out more information as there's only so much a questionnaire can tell you. This comes from the fact that if you work with a focus group you can show a draft or demo of the production and gauge reactions from that but, it also gives the unique opportunity to speak with people to figure out their reasoning for the points given as generally with a questionnaire explanations are generally optional so the chance to get a more detailed response to what has been said is invaluable.

However it's not just the detail above questionnaires that makes this the superior but it also gives you a good point of reference when it comes to the development of the project, by this point it's good to have a demo or draft of what product your producing. Typically this would be when the product was till in its early development phase as it might not be as good within a week of the products end or launch but it's still useful to have as a marker for the making of the product.

  

The Bad

Now onto the bad, the first of whom is inherent bias. Now bias isn't a typical word used for things like research methods or within what's technically the preproduction planning stage but everything has it in one form or another so what about focus groups, how can they be bias? Well there's a few ways that I didn't even know, the first one is obvious when you think about and that's down to the fact of interest in the product itself.

When it comes to the interest of what's being made there's obviously a bit that can play a factor in this that would impact the results from the group as the people speaking have a pre-existing interest in what's being discussed whether it be good or negative there's always the chance that an opinion on the products being looked at making any results gained from it questionable.

Now a last thing to consider is the idea of getting opinions, it's the thought that a small number of opinions from this focus group represent the majority of people when that's not strictly true. In fact having a small sample size could potentially do more damage to the product than good hence why this technique is a follow-up on what has been changed based on what was given from a questionnaire and then convene a smaller group in order to get a final input. So this is an important point to consider that while similar to the topic I mentioned earlier in general but at this level it has a different outcome.

The Secondary

This is where it differs to the questionnaires and other types of research methods too, sure you can find evidence in the form of videos online for a focus group but they won't have the specifics that you're looking for so while you can get some secondary data, it won't give you any particulars that you need.

Instead the best form is to make up your own version of a focus group to get the best data possible, and it's not just at the start of a production either when putting an edit together there's a 'draft' video that can be put together based off of the material gathered earlier and then use that as a baseline for the group.

Reference List

OCR Business Studies for GCSE, 2nd edition (Paraphrase of Information)

Revise Btec National Creative Media Production-Revision Guide

The Pros and Cons of Focus Groups | Bloom Ads

The use of focus group discussion methodology: Insights from two decades of application in conservation - O.Nyumba - 2018 - Methods in Ecology and Evolution - Wiley Online Library paragraph of (179)

Questionnaires-The Breakdown

 The What and how

What is a questionnaire?

Answering this will give a better understanding of what they are and how important they can be when making any type of product. So what are they? Questionnaires work like this, you have a set amount of questions relating to the topic being covered (for example employee health) in order to get an idea of a wider margin of effects that something has had or to gauge opinion on a product or production depending on the situation.

What information can be gained?

There are two different types of data that you can get from this type of survey/questionnaire and when you begin to make or design one you need to think of when thinking up of one. The first one is Quantitative, this type mainly deals with measurements and numbers such as lengths or angles but it can be applied to media as well, we need to know the shot angles and locations not to mention timings too but how does that help us now? Well not only does it help when working out the camera work and setting but it can do a lot of work when it comes to pricing and sourcing, one of the best ways to get the data such as pricing or other data relating to this is through Secondary Research or Second-hand from existing sources such as the internet or newspaper.

Next is Qualitative which is less of a measure on more about what the characteristics then stats like its counter part, what can we get from this? Well if continue with our media example we can find out what people are looking for in a product promotion such as within an advert with it's visuals or persuasiveness, or maybe to get information on the product itself (if that's what your promoting) but they can also help to figure out what you want to make and how effective it will be once production is done.

Different Types

Now as with many other things within the world there are different types of questionnaire however there isn't as many different types as you think there are. The different types include:

Computer: This is where the questionnaire is sent out in an email and the receiver has to respond either through a link or document that attached to said email. As a method of distribution and response this is a good type to use as it gives people more freedom and time to respond. However there could be issues relating to inboxes such as spam folders etc. or the more likely outcome which is that people who get sent them will ignore what's sent through.

Phone: This type of questionnaire is more problematic than others mainly due to the fact that it has fewer methods of response. For example trying to gauge a full group response will be more difficult than a face-to-face or on the web type but the main thing is expense as more often than not companies calling out could be charged large sums if calls are made to multiple people over large extended periods. This is not including reception, possible language barriers and other such things that could have an effect. 

Face-to-face: This is almost self descriptive as it's done during the initial interview stage at the end of the talk, but this has many different forms such as being in someone's home or place of work which can make them feel uncomfortable given the circumstances but it's yet again more expensive for the company as they would have to pay for the copies of the questionnaire and the time spent outside of the office (and possible travel too).

Post: Now we've all had mail ballots and this works on a similar principle and can actually give some good results as people sent can reply to them in their spare time which means that data gathered could be more accurate. However again costs are a considerable thing to consider as it's a lot of pre-paid resources that could end up being put into the bin by the responder.

Strengths and effectiveness:

 So as a technique for collecting data how good is a questionnaire? Well if we look at it from a statistical stand point then we can see that it's certainly very helpful in getting a baseline for what's being tested, if different groups are being evaluated then it can triangulate the areas in which the groups come from or help find the groups that found it more useful than others. They can help with getting a general percentage for certain products/services or to help provide an idea of how it works for them (the consumer) and maybe an idea from a larger audience on what the company/organization can do to help improve it for next time.

These types of research methods used are easy to make and send then simple to fill out for the responder making it a much smoother process than some other methods out there. It helps to give companies a guidance for focus groups to talk about or to get information from even if it's verbal.

Weaknesses and limitations:

As with most things there isn't perfection coming out of this by any means there are a few pitfalls that come with using them. I mentioned previously throughout this response about company costings and this is a big limitation that changes depending on which type is used, if it's a physical copy that can go in the post then you have to think about printing costs and envelopes to send to them that also include a return on them. Linking there's also the possibility of phone costs as most phone numbers will charge whoever rings first which is more often than not the company who made it.

Yet it's not just costs that have an effect on it but the information gained, for example in a survey of 100 people there could be 12% positive response, a 20% negative response and then there could be an undetermined result of 68% which isn't exactly helpful data to use when collaborating all the data together which makes this a big weakness when it comes to getting the data together.

Conclusion:

When using a questionnaire be careful, making sure that all the information that you get is justified in how effective it will be to you and the business/product being made. There are some fairly big negatives against this, such as funding and the amount of data that's collected at the end of this compared to how useful it is compared to other methods. However for a founding baseline in the development stage of the production to help guide your ideas and the flow of how it then develops it becomes a better value of research than others.

Reference Link:

Questionnaires (research-methodology.net)

Understanding Qualitative, Quantitative, Attribute, Discrete, and Continuous Data Types (minitab.com)

OCR Business Studies for GCSE, 2nd edition (paraphrase knowledge given)