Welcome Paragraph

Hello and welcome to my Radio and Factual Production blogger where I will be blogging all my research and work for the build up to making my Radio Podcast. Here you will find the different types of research such as Primary Research, Secondary Research, Market Research and Production Research. I will also be writing about my idea for my podcast and developing my idea so I can make my podcast. The idea that I have chosen to do was The History of Transport in Manchester and throughout this blogger account I will be showing my research that I have carried out to expand my idea and go into depth with my research. Then I will be showing a powerpoint presentation which will be uploaded onto slide share, this powerpoint will contain information on my idea and how my idea has been developed. Then my blogger will have the process of making my podcast with screenshots of editing and all the paperwork that I have filled out will be on there as well with photo evidence.

Unit 43.1 Research Techniques Essay and Bibliography

Joseph Dootson

In this essay I will be writing about the advantages and disadvantages of a range of research techniques. I will be writing about the different types of research techniques such as Qualitative Research and Quantative Research. Also I will be investigating the methods and sources of research that are Primary Research and Secondary Research. The purpose and nature of research I will be writing about are Audience Research, Marketing Research and Purpose of Research.

Qualitative Research

There are different types of research that are qualitative research and quantative research. Qualitative research is text-based research and a source of information that is used to explore, describe and explain and also can be to predict. McQueen and Knussen (2002) Qualitative Research approaches explore and describe, explain and predict. P28. Reviews. Examples of this research would be books and journals. The Advantages for using this type of research are that the source of information that is used is more reliable as the content that has been collected is from a book. This could mean that the person you are collecting the information from will be professional in the business industry and him or herself may have a degree in this field of research. The disadvantage to Qualitative research is if you are using journals. The content that has been written in journals would be non-reliable and the source of information isn’t professional and could have been found on Wikipedia and the information might have mistakes.

Quantative Research

Quantative research is a numerical based source of information, which is used to measure, to find statistics and collects data from a group of people. This is done by using surveys and to ask a range of questions to a specific audience. When data is collected the data will be formed into bar and pie charts or into columns. The advantages to Quantative research is that for example if you are researching about what the most popular program on ITV 1 is this week you would research the viewing figures on the BARB website to find out that during the week in late may the Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid Had 8.3 Million people watching it. The disadvantage would be that the source of information that you have collected might be false data because the answers that you are getting might be false data. The data could also be incorrect if you have misused the statistics when creating the pie chart for your results.

Methods of Research Primary Research

Primary Research is your research that you find out for yourself for example if you are going to make a podcast on How much Manchester has changed over the past 50 years you would go and organize interviews with people who work at Museums in Manchester or maybe speak to the people of Manchester in the city Centre who have maybe lived in Manchester over the last 50 years and seen the Changes. Another way of using primary research could be Questionnaires for example if you want to find out some information on How Manchester has changed you could make a questionnaire asking different questions such as How much has transport changed over the last 30 years and with my documentary being aimed at ages 50-80 year olds mainly men I would be able to get some good feedback from then because it could be one of there interests. An advantage of primary research is interviews as your primary research because you are able to use structured, semi structured and grouped interviews and this is beneficial because you are able to allow the interviewee to go into depth and then this will enable you to collect more information. A disadvantage of primary research is that if you are using your notes from the past you might not be able to understand what you have written and this could cause you to have false information when you are interviewing someone which could cause confusion and you wont get the information you will want.

Methods and Sources Secondary Research

Secondary Research is different to primary because with primary you are find out research by yourself in contrast to secondary research where you are finding out the information from somebody else such as Books and Journals. An example of secondary research could be that if you were making a podcast on How Transport has changed in Manchester in the last 50 years and you wanted some statistics on The soldiers using trams in the second world war you would go and find that information on using books or maybe going to a museum in Manchester to find this relevant information out. Another example of secondary research could be that are you getting your information from a reliable source for example If you wanted more statistics on how many people use the trams in Manchester yearly you would make sure you use the Metrolink website because this is a reliable source rather than using Wikipedia for your source of information because Wikipedia isn’t a reliable website for your information. An advantage of Secondary Research could be the information that you find out will be from a reliable source such as the Metrolink website or a Museum. A disadvantage of Secondary Research could be that the information you are receiving from a website such as Wikipedia could be incorrect data.

Purpose of Research Audience Research

Audience Research is divided into categories in the media industry which is known as the Anthony Giddens theory. These different categories are social capital, cultural capital, financial capital and education capital. These different capitals are used to find out how much equity a person might have Anthony Giddens (2009) “Sociology Is the scientific study of human life social groups whole societies and the human world as seen.”P6. Social class is split up into different class such as A- upper middle class B- middle class C1- lower middle class C2- Skilled working class D- working class E- non working class. Audience Research is also used to find out what people are interested in so that the audience of your product is satisfied with it for example a Television program such as Coronation Streets viewers will increase instead of the views decreasing.

Market Research

Market Research is used to find put what people want to see and listen. Market Research can be also used to find out peoples interests and see what they approve of when they watch television programs and listen to the radio. market research is similar to audience research because when market researchers are making a questionnaire or survey they will divide each category by age, sex and interests. An example for market research would be RAJAR as a market researcher for radio stations would be able to use RAJAR surveys to find out which is the most popular radio station is this week. Also you will be able to see what age group of this radio station reaches out to for example Radio one Breakfast Show presented by Nick Grimshaw the age group that this radio program reaches out to is ages 15-27. Market Researchers can also find out If the certain radio show should be showing hard news or soft news for this type of audience for example with radio one they show soft news because of the age group that this radio show is aimed at and with showing soft news they can gain more viewers.

Production Research

When using production research you will be looking at financial, copyright, locations, timeline and facility issues. These issues are a big part for when researching as if are not look into when creating a product such as I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and Ex on the Beach. If you are using a song in the product you are making you will have to make sure that it is referenced as you are likely to be done for copyright. When creating a product you must make sure that you have enough funds for the facilities you may be using or certain location you will want for example if a certain location you need costs £500 to use hourly and the actors are not available at this certain time this could cause your product to fall through and your sponsor’s will leave you and this could leave you in massive amounts of debt and then this will be a waste of time.

Bibliography

www.BARB.co.uk

www.RAJA.co.uk

Anthony Giddens sociology Polity Press Cambridge 2008

McQueen and Knussen 2002 Methodology Quotes Sheet

Research Methods for Social Science an introduction. Prentice Hall. London.

Unit 43.2 Secondary Research Evaluation

In this blog I will be Evaluating my Secondary Research and explain what went well and what I would do again if I was to do this research again. 

What went well whilst doing my secondary research was being able to find the information on the internet that I wanted I found quiet easily, I was able to gather some really interesting facts such as the final tram was used in Manchester in 1949,  Trams were very popular during the early 1900s because they were cheap and very reliable and that they were very popular amongst the soldiers during the First and Second World War. I was also able to gather interesting information on buses was that they weren't very popular during the early 1900s, Buses only became popular amongst people after Manchester scrapped having trams around in Manchester then the trolley bus was built in Manchester during 1950s and was used up until now and is a very popular use of Transport in Manchester. 

What didn't go so well when I was doing my Secondary Research was that when I was doing my research I wasn't able to gather information on trains in Manchester but when I was making my Podcast Fenton Tenant who I interviewed worked on trains in Manchester building steam locomotives on the trains but I would have like some information to back all the information that Fenton told me in the interview. I was also disappointed that I wasn't able to get some statistics on people who were using public transport during the 1900s-1950s. 

Unit 43.2 Secondary Research Moral Panics Metrolink

In this post I will be looking at morale panics in Manchester at the moment within transport at the moment. A morale panic I have found is that there was a man from Bury who was found hung from the metro link stop in Whitfield people have been really shocked by this and this could make the metro link stops are dangerous at the night time for people to get the trams at night time after this happened a couple of days ago and the bus stop has only just recently been opened again.

Unit 43.2 Secondary Research Moral Panics Metrolink

In this post I will be writing about a morale panic i have found out whilst looking on the news websites. A Morale panic for transport In Manchester is that with the trams being built and when they were being used for the first time in Droylsden a old women was run over by the trams and seriously injured this is a morale panic because it could show that the trams that are in Manchester are the moment could be classed as being unsafe for people when they are crossing the road near tram stops as you can see from the image it is a busy road and people may think that the tram stops will be unsafe for people.

Unit 43.2 Secondary Research Statistics on People Using Trams and Buses in Manchester Secondary Research hester

Secondary Research

Trams

In Greater Manchester alone a lot of people use Public Transport over 260 million people use the Metro Link tram service using to get all over Manchester. There are a total 40 Tram Stops in Manchester and there are more being built now because the tram are going to Ashton now from Manchester so that will mean an extra 10 Stops going up to Ashton. The trams will be soon going all over Tameside and by 2020 there will be a lot more Tram Stops because trams are going to be going to Manchester Airport by that time. Then there will be over 97km of track and 99 Stops for people to get the trams from.

Buses

Also people use Buses in Manchester and there are over 225million getting on the bus and using the bus to get to places in Manchester so as you can see a lot of people in the Manchester use Public Transport. There are also over 16,000 Bus Stops in Manchester and 22 of the Bus Stops are in the Manchester City Town Centre as well so this shows you that Public Transport is evolving daily and more people are starting to use Public Transport in Manchester. 

Unit 43.2 Secondary Research History of Buses in Manchester Secondary Research

During the first world war there was no development on buses in Greater Manchester this date between 1914-1918.

The motor bus section of the Manchester Corporation undertaking grew from 16 vehicles in 1923 to 51 in 1926. To provide the accommodation needed for this expansion, a new depot was opened at Parrs Wood in 1926, the first purpose built bus garage, and an extension for buses was added to the Queens Road tram depot which was used for both Trams and Buses. Shortly after The new bus depot was built it was then demolished a few years later. 

In Manchester plans were made for the replacement of all the trams by motor buses, These were called Trolley buses. The trolleybuses were eventually introduced on a joint basis with Ashton-under-Lyne in 1938, although Ashton had had its own trolleybuses, jointly operated with Oldham, since 1925. A number of extensions to the Manchester / Ashton system were built later, some of which were occasioned by the need to conserve fuel oil during the Second World War.

Manchester and the other authorities would have completely abandoned tramways by the early 1940s. As it was, the remaining routes were to play an important part in the area’s transport system throughout the war.

After the war, delivery of new buses began again, and replacement of the remaining tramways recommenced.

the last Manchester tramcar operated on the morning of Monday 10th January 1949, leaving only Bury to close in February 1949 and Stockport in 1951. Electric traction remained, in the form of the Ashton and Manchester trolleybuses, until they too closed in December 1966.

There was now an all bus system operating over what is now the Greater Manchester area, with 11 municipally controlled operators and two major company systems, those of the North Western Road Car Company, and Lancashire United Transport.

  In 1968, a new Transport Act was introduced. As part of the new act, several bus companies run by local authorities around the Manchester area would merge to create a central organisation. They would be made up of companies operating in the following areas:

• Ashton
• Bolton
• Bury
• Leigh
• Manchester
• Oldham
• Rochdale
• Salford
• Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield 
• Stockport
• Wigan

The new central organisation was named SELNEC, which was the South East Lancashire North East Cheshire Passenger Transport Executive.

In 1974, the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive came in to being, bringing Wigan into the area, 

In 1985 the Government passed a new Transport Act, bringing about changes as great as any seen since the 1930s

At one time, around 80 operators were providing road passenger transport services.

At the insistence of Government, GM Buses was divided into two separate companies, and sold to the private sector, initially as GM Buses North and GM Buses South; subsequently the North Company became part of the FirstBus Group, and the South Company became part of the Stagecoach Group.

The Top image is an image of the bus that we are using now in Greater Manchester where as the bottom image is an image of the buses that we were using in Manchester from 1960 till 1966.