Old Specification - Module 4 Coursework
Research

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Audience Research Methodology
Sample Audience questionnaire
Format Research table
How to write your Research (findings) report
Sample Research Report

The purpose of this section is to provide you with:

1. Information about the audience who will use the artefact
   (AUDIENCE RESEARCH.
   
   
2. Design ideas and key conventions for your artefact – you need to find things to put in your artefact (CONTENT), ideas/conventions about layout, language, colour and images (FORMAT)
   

The 1000 word report, of your FINDINGS, in this section, is worth 20 marks.

You need to research in THREE areas – audience, content and format. However,only the audience and format research will be formally assessed in this section. Your content research will come into the drafting section.

Audience

In the previous section, the BRIEF, you were in contact with your target audience simply to find out if there was a 'market' for your product/artefact. If the audience had shown no interest at that stage, you would not be continuing with your project but would be finding a different product to produce.

However, if you are reading this, your audience should have confirmed that they need what you are going to produce (leaflet, website, game etc) and will use it once it is produced.

In order to make a product which will satisfy the needs of your target audience (and commissioner) you need to find out more about the people in your audience (what are they interested in generally in terms of media, magazines, hobbies, sports etc, what is their existing level of knowledge in your project area, what sort of design and colours attract them) and their needs either by asking them or by consulting experts.

Reading a text

When your target audience come to use your product/artefact at the end of your project, it would be a mistake to assume audiences for media texts are passive consumers of what they see, hear or read.  The texts that they are in the process of consuming might include a:

1. Preferred reading
2. Oppositional reading
3. Negotiated Reading
4. Aberrant reading

A preferred reading (or dominant system of response) is a way of understanding the text that is consistent with the ideas and intentions of the producer or creator of the product.  This may lead to an acceptance of the dominant values within the text.

With a negotiated reading (or subordinate response) the individual has a choice as to whether or not they accept the preferred reading as their own.  Audience members may read the text though the filter of their own personal agenda.  Although there may be an acceptance of the dominant values and existing social structure, the individual may be prepared to argue that a particular social group may be unfairly represented.

In an oppositional reading (or radical response) individual members of an audience may completely reject the preferred reading of the dominant code and the social values that produced it.

An aberrant reading is where an entirely different meaning from that intended by the maker will be taken form the text.  This could be when individual members of the audience do not share, in any way, the values of the maker of the text.  A famous example of this was the television series “To Death Us Do Part” – the makers of the programme created the racist character “Alf Garnett” as a figure of fun but some members of his audience saw him as a hero.

Consider your own place as an audience member – for example what newspaper would you identify yourself with?  What does that paper say about you?

What music do your identify yourself with?

The impact of the text upon an audience can come in many different forms and analysis is often a secondary response. An audience will often respond emotionally to hat they are consuming, it may repulse them or give them pleasure.  These emotional responses should be considered an important factor in how the audience encounters the text.  We might also have a particular ideological position that is being engaged by the media text.  Remember that whether we read something from a dominant, negotiated or oppositional perspective it is intrinsically linked to whatever personal experience or detail the text encourages us to reflect upon.

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Again, the section on Audience Research on the Communication and Cultural Studies website (address in Brief section) is very helpful on this subject. Also see the example of Audience Research from a former student’s project, but remember, yours can only be 1000 words!

METHODOLOGY

You need to question a representative sample of your target audience here - 30 people or so - in order to

• find out exactly what they are like
• what they know already about what you are going to communicate to them
• what they enjoy and respond to

This is so that the message (your artefact) reaches the sender (the target audience) as effectively as possible!!

You could ask:

Questions about the subject of your artefact e.g working holidays abroad - you could ask things like have they travelled abroad before, where have they travelled, were they on their own, do they know what work permits they need etc. By doing this you will find out what you need to include in your artefact and where to pitch it - there's no point in including things your audience already knows but you mustn't assume knowledge they haven't got either.

Questions about their interests and particularly about what attracts them to different media - if you are doing a print artefact ask them what magazines they read and enjoy, what books they read - it may help you with design decisions. If you are doing a website, ask them if they have access to the Internet, how often and what sites they enjoy visiting. If you are doing a boardgame ask children which games they already play and what they enjoy about them.

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You may wish to get an idea of your audience's attitude to certain subjects as well. This sort of research is done all the time by market researchers on behalf of advertisers and other groups so that they build a picture of their customers' likes and dislikes and pitch products at them in a suitable way to fit in with their lifestyle etc.

Here is a sample Audience Research questionnaire from last year. The student wanted to produce an leaflet about a pet-sitting service and needed to find out what sort of people might use this service and what they might expect of the service.

Format/Design Research

Now that you know a bit more about the type of people in your target audience - your users, if you like - you need to design something which will appeal to them, very specifically. The best way to ensure your design appeals in the right way is to collect existing examples of your format – booklets if you are producing a booklet, boardgames if you are doing a game etc. Make sure that your analysis of format includes material which is aimed at the same audience as you intend to reach. It doesn’t have to be on the same subject, but if you are aiming at teenagers, look at material aimed at teenagers.

See example of how to collect and collate your format/design findings and use what you learn for your artefact.

Content – You should have consulted your audience about this in the Purpose section but now you could either ask them again in more detail or use other sources of information e.g people, books etc. Remember, you will use this information in the DRAFTING section.

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METHODS OF ANALYSIS FOR DOCUMENTS

Once you have collected and collated all your examples of good design and existing material, analyse them using some or all of the methods below.

1. Use communication models
2. Semiotic analysis
3. Critique
   Content - main message (see Lasswell)
   Form - Structure (does it have a beginning, middle and end)
   Layout: balance of text/space headings/subheadings borders, colour
   Style - Overall character - dull/lively,(impact), register/tone
   Typography (or fonts) Blocking/paragraphing
   Use of illustrations Graphics
4. Success - has it achieved its aim? What effect did it have on you? BE CRITICAL
   
   DON’T JUST DESCRIBE!

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How to write up your Research Section

This section is worth 20 marks. You have 1000 words for the Research report..

1. Explain why research is necessary, for the successful production of your artefact, the methods of research you are going to use e.g questionnaires, semiotic analysis and justify your choice of researchh methods.
2. Outline your sources of information in terms of format and audience
3. Mention existing material if there is any and any analysis of it you have done.
4. Outline what you have found out about your target audience and commissioner, as people and what motivates them.
   
5. Summarise your findings on the codes and conventions of your format e.g leaflet design, website design etc. Draw together everything you have learnt about language, register, layout, use of colour, illustrations etc. Discuss in technical terms (as in Module 2 last year) the good and bad points.
6. Link your findings about audience by mentioning what you will use in your artefact design, based on what you have learnt about communicating successfully with these sorts of people e.g what language will work best for them and how do you know, what images, colours etc.

Sample Research Report (do not copy - use as a structure for your own version)

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