Research skills
Research in the media is mainly used to find out about audiences, for example how much media they consume and in what ways. This helps producers meld their products to their audience by finding out what attracts them.

There are different types of research that I could use to find information to help create a newspaper that would attract my target audience.
Quantities
This is based on numbers and statistics. For example asking a range of people if they buy news papers and recording the results as a tally would be quantities research. But it is more valuable on a large scale, BARB used 4485 homes to represent the viewing of 23 million homes. Because of the wide range of households used the researchers can assume there will be a certain amount of households watching a certain programme.

Qualitative
This is asking people to explain their views and opinions, and is normally focused on a small focus group. Eg asking the group whey they buy newspapers or why they like a certain new paper.

Primary
This is your own original research

Secondary
This is using the findings of others

Methodology – how to carry out research
Questionnaires, surveys and interviews are the most popular methods, but they have to be organised appropriately. The questions have to be thought about carefully, the questions could be open, where the interviewee can give a detailed answer and the interviewer can gather lots of information. Or the answers can be closed, which can normally be answered with one word so to be direct.

My questionnaire will be used to research the type of articles my target audience prefer to read about and how it should be set out, also I will research what other aspects attract my audience. I will use a mix of Quantitative and Qualitative research so to find various statistics about local newspapers but also asking people to explain why and what. I will test out my questionnaire with a pilot, where I will give out the questionnaire to 3 of my target audience (families, 30+ and the elderly in local area) So I can make sure the questions are clear and set out properly. Once the questionnaires have been filled I will present the data with pie charts and a written analysis of the research.