Other Forms of Research...

Experiments - Experiments are a good method of research as they usually give you a definite answer, they also give you detailed data to collect, the more people or subjects take part in the experiment the more detailed your results, however drawbacks of doing experiments are that it could be quite difficult to record (for example watching peoples behaviour), they can also be quite difficult to control.


Participant Observation - The researcher participates in the activity in order to better understand it. Benefits of participant observation are that you get a much more in depth understanding, being able to communicate with participants and react is very important, however again it could be very hard to record, if there were more than two participants it would also become difficult to get everyone involved, you may also have a bias opinion which would reflect on your participants distorting your research.Another problem with participant research is that if the researcher is actively involved, they may not be able to observe in an objective way.

Historical research -  Looking at the past history of something, studying the development of it and comparing and contrasting it to contemporary examples can be very useful in understanding why it is how it is today. however it can be quite a dated method of research, leaps in technology can also make this form of research obsolete as there is nothing to compare it to in the past, however for things such as behaviour and or social research it can be very useful

Rhetorical Analysis - Analysing the media language and how it can persuade the audience.Shows you wast the makers of a certain products think of th audience, how they advertise to a specific demographic.

Comparative Analysis - Comparing and contrasting different products in order to get a more rounded view, e.g comparing different women's magazines in order to see how to get the biggest audiences. Or Mobile phones, comparing ordinary touch screens to an iPhone to see where the can improve their product. However this can be quite a bias form of research.

Competitor analysis - Gives a fuller view of the market, what your up against, what you need to be better than and different from.