Year 12 Audience Research Work (18.1.2011)

Just so you don't feel left out - we will be organising a trip to London to the London Film Festival later in the year......(usually the Autumn). So you will get a day out!


Anyway, today I'd like you to develop the work we started on audience.

Audience Research
There are two main research practices: quantitative and qualitative research.

Today you will focus on undertaking quantitative research. PLEASE PICK UP A HANDOUT FROM S27 - I will leave them just inside the door near the YouTube computer
(S27 IS THE ROOM OPPOSITE MRS HOGG IN THE SIXTH FORM). Read through the handout and highlight the information about quantitative research.

Then, in your production groups(if working solo you can pair up to do the survey exercise)you need to devise a short survey which you will conduct at lunchtime - you can have Period 5 as your lunchbreak.

Your sample must include at least 30 people from a diverse demographic. You need to find out some information about:

Cinema going habits - how frequent? Go alone/groups/for a celebration?
Types of films enjoyed - give them a selection of genres to choose from. What was the last one they saw?
Social background (be careful here, you don't want to offend anyone - ask young people about the occupations of their parents)Staff will usually be happy to tell you what role they have in school. Don't just ask teachers, ask dinner ladies, teaching assistants, care-taking staff etc.
You might also want to build up a picture of the other kinds of media texts they engage with - newspapers/television and how they access them.

Don't forget to include:

Gender
Age

Remember this is the first stage of your audience research. It is about gathering data that can be quantified = statistics. It is also about gathering data that will help you to refine your research in subsequent exercises.

Think about how you will take down the info. Maybe one person asking the questions (not too many), one person recording the information in a systematic way so that it can be analysed.

I will expect to see the findings of your research analysed and posted on your blogs. Label the post research.

From this exercise you will then conduct a focus group (qualitative research) and at least THREE in-depth interviews.

So you need to get cracking.