Research evaluation

Research evaluation
Overall I feel that my secondary research was more effective in finding out what I needed to know. Most of the resources I used for my report were gathered from secondary research. Secondary research was the first technique we used. For it I mostly used the internet I think this was a mistake. I depended heavily on the internet which meant eventually I wasn’t as sure if my information was reliable. I also noticed that a lot of the information I used was coming from opinions to gather hard facts I had to go into websites like ‘The Guardian’ On this website I gathered statistics which showed the increase in illegal downloading. If I had another chance I would perhaps use books from the library. The reason why I didn’t originally is because I felt because illegal downloading was quite a new problem; there wouldn’t be many books about it. I spent much more time on secondary research I think that has a lot to do with the fact that my primary research depended on me getting time with people. E.g. my focus group. I also should have evenly spread different methods of secondary research; if I had a chance to it differently I would most likely look for documentaries on it.
I feel it was a good idea to do secondary research first because we are expected to gather more information because there’s more places to look. So it was helpful to have all this information and then be able to give classmates and family surveys to test out if the theories. A positive thing about doing the secondary research first was that most of the research I gathered was giving facts and statistics that would racist’s questions as to why. Subsequently the primary research methods answered them for example through secondary research I found out that there has been a major rise in illegal downloading. Through primary research I found out people’s thoughts as to why this was happening although the surveys, questionnaires and focus groups wasn’t done on a big enough scale for high quality research.
Most of my resources were found randomly because I would often just type in ‘illegal downloading’ into search engines. The research I did wasn’t methodically done we was researching things based on questions I wanted to know, for example I went on ‘The Guardian’ because I was aware it had allot of facts and it was a good place to look for a political view.
However overall I think did gather enough secondary research the quantity was enough but the quality could have been better if made use of all the methods perhaps I would have found more out. I don’t feel my secondary research helped me answer the questions I originally had. I felt they created more questions for me which was partially helpful because it made me realise some of the questions I had weren’t helping find the things I wanted to find out i.e. who downloads illegally, the reason why they download and what the government is doing to stop it. In relation to secondary research I think the biggest mistake I made was to not plan out what I actually wanted to know for the very beginning I gave my self a broad topic I feel a vast improvement would have happened if I choose a specific subject to research


The first form of primary research I did was interviews. I think out of all the forms I did this was the most helpful for getting information. The advantages of an interview are that if it’s done well you can get a lot of detail; this was what I wanted to do so that all my information found from my secondary research could be answered through my interviewees.
When doing the interviews I was very careful with the people I picked because my secondary researched showed the there was a specific audience who downloaded illegally. Some of the secondary research showed that it was pop/rap/rock music that suffered the most of illegal downloading the target audience for these genres are the youth I also found out that genres such as classical/jazz/R&B hadn’t suffered, the target audience for this are generally older people collectively this showed me that does downloading illegally are the youth. This was one of the best ways I shared secondary and primary research to get results. In order to get the most out of my interview i interviewed a youth who is currently in education. That interview was a success and I feel interviews as a form of research are successful as they allow you to truly find the opinions of your target audience in addition to this it can help you find out more because during an interview you can think of more questions based on something the interviewee said where as with a questionnaire you are stuck with the questions you give out if you want to change it or add to it will be difficult to get to the audience and it will also look un-professional. I believe that with an interview the interviewee can never say to much all the information is valuable. My interviewee gave long full answers which let me know his true thoughts about it also fully explained why he did things. I feel that in questionnaires people more often don’t express there opinions fully. I think it’s a reliable source people make the effort more with it because it’s a more personal thing the interview lasted longer than I anticipated but I was ok with that because I got more than I thought I would. Although some of the things he said were questionable I didn’t dispute or argue with him I tried to be as objective as possible
Questionnaires were positive for me mainly because they gave me a wider audience. In order to have a successful one I had to write questions which were specific and clear. Although my demographic for my research are youth I wanted to get different answers as I only had one interviewee so I got a 5 people or fitting different demographics of race, age and status. I write out my questions on Microsoft Word and printed them off I tested out my questionnaire on my family and a friend because they spread out most of my demographic. I think this was a decent method i got to enough people I could of got more if I did my information would have been more reliable.
Focus groups are a good method I feel but I didn’t go in much detail in terms of my participant’s in it. I should have got mixture of different people but due to time and organisation I wasn’t able to do it to its potential. However, luckily my participants had allotted of opinions on the topic so I did manage to get information out of it. I wasn’t able to get the most out of it as it didn’t last long because of a lack of numbers. If I did it differently I would most likely start by organising a focus group online with random people or just meeting up with people outside of lesson and doing.
My research was on ‘The effects of illegal downloading and what is being done to stop it’. Illegal downloading in general is a huge topic so I made an effort to be specific with what I wanted to find out. I think I could be even more specific with it though if I did overall I would have found more. My research methods both had there good points but I feel that I did best when it came to secondary research in terms of collecting information however I feel that I answered the questions more accurately with my primary because it allowed me to be very specific with what I wanted because it was more personal. My secondary research was found mostly on the internet because there hasn’t really been a book published plus it’s an internet based issue so it was easier to find things. If I had to do it again I would find more of a mixture of people for my primary research just so I can be sure I’m getting different points although I feel that most of the information I had collected was based on me getting what I could not me going the extra mile That is the main improvement I would make