Research Rationale

The target group that I have access to is mainly teenagers as I am a teenager and currently in sixth form. Since I attend a sixth form, there are not only teenagers aged 16-18, but there are also students who are aged 11-16 who are a part of the lower school. By having access to a large range of teenagers this will enable me to widen my research and conduct a fair survey. By asking different age groups, this will help me understand what type of music and what type of music magazines teenagers read and what attracts them most to that music genre and magazine.

The type of research that I can conduct is observational research which includes qualitative research. This form of research includes asking questions that will not give me a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer but an in-depth answer. This will help me for my research and work as I will know what teenagers prefer and why. This type of research also will give me more variation, however the only negative side to this research is that it takes more time and people may act differently as they know that they are being observed. The reason as to why I am going to conduct my research by using qualitative research is because I can get an in-depth response which will in turn help me to conduct my research further.

I could also conduct my research by quantitative research. This form of research includes surveys such as tally charts and frequency diagrams etc… This type of research is about asking people for their opinions in a structured way and by doing this I can generate and produce facts and statistics. If I were to conduct my research in this way, I would have to ask a large number of people to make sure that it is a fair piece of research.

Seen as I like both of these ideas, I may conduct my research by using both methods – Qualitative and quantitative research as this will help me more and this will enable me to get a broader picture of what music genres teenagers aged 16-18 like.

For conducting my research, I will need to create some questions where the person that I am interviewing will not give me a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, and I will also have to create some questionnaires. Once I have collected all my research successfully I can then move onto creating my focus group with a camera and thinking of new and creative ways in which I can present this.