Unit 3 Understanding Research

In this assignment i will be talking about how i am going to collect research on Bear Grylls and the different ways that i will be doing so.I will be doing a mixture of primary and secondary research throughout.

Research Methods
Primary research is new research. It is when you acquire information from the original source i.e. interviewing a certain person/organisation. If you're looking for fresh information this is the best way to get it because you would be getting a detailed account from whoever you're documenting. However, it could be quite difficult to get an interview with your subject depending on who they are. If its someone local, or a friend/family member, it wouldn't be much of a problem as you could ask them quickly and easily with hardly or no problems, but if the person is famous or has quite a high status, it will be much more difficult to just get in touch with them let alone interview them.
Secondary research is finding out about your subject through second-hand sources i.e. books, internet etc. This is a good way to get started on finding out information about your subject, and getting a little bit of background knowledge so you know who you're dealing with, what they're like, and what to ask them when doing your interviews. This is the easier way to find out information as it is a lot easier and a lot quicker to get hold of your information, but it wont be as detailed, reliable, or as useful as it would to ask the person first hand because its someone else's words, it could be out of date, and some of it might not even be entirely true.

Data

Qualitative-Qualitative data is information of other people I.e. Reviews. This is a good way to find out what people think about Bear and what he does. On the other hand, it is quite you have to be careful when using these types of information in your documentary as they can be very bias, and/or the content of the reviews could offend people.

Quantitative-Quantitative data is when you use numbers and figures i.e. statistics, sales, viewers etc. Using statistics in a documentary is a grape at way to keep your audience interested as they get to see and understand the factual part of the subject. When documentaries have carried out questionnaires, they will use these figures to back up their points and arguments, for example, "More people whatch TV when they get home rather than read. We know this because on our recent survey, 74% of people said they watched TV when they got home, and only 21% said they read! the other 5% said they did other things." 

Purpose

First I will do some secondary research on Bear by looking on the internet and in books about his lifestyle, what people think of him, and what he does. This will be easy as I have free unlimited access to these resources giving me enough time to get as much information as I can. It will also give me an idea on the type of things i would ask him and what would be reasonable questions. I will interview people he knows, and people who he works with to get even more insight to his life. This will be a little more difficult as he is famous so getting the permission to interview him and people who know him Another good piece of information I should get about him are statistics I.e. How many people watch him etc. this will give me a good idea on my own audience because people who like Bear will want to find out about him, therefore will watch my documentary.

I will then do some primary research on Bear, and the best way to do this would be to get an interview with him and find out about his life first hand. I also think it would be good to go on one of his 'trips' with him to fully understand and document what he does and how he does it. I think this would be a very good way of drawing in a big audience as following him round on his expeditions would mace my documentary a lot more interesting and exiting.