Final PRR Post

This will be my final post of the semester, and I am saddened by that, but today I will be speak about two of my classmates experimental research blogs. In Greg's blog, he gives a great description of experimental research, and why we need it in the industry. He goes on to speak about how the independent variable may influence the dependent variables, and he relates this to an Oregon hockey team's experiment for gauging fan attendance.  He mentions the fact that there needs to be an experimental group and a control group which  I thought was very important. Greg's Blog is very good, because he actually designed an experiment for the Oregon  Ducks. I enjoyed reading his description, and he created it like the one which was done in class on Experimental Research. He would be doing this by survey. He would do a pretest and post test for one, and then a pretest, experiment exposure, and the post test for another. He  would make it random as possible. He then put information about Oregon sports on each survey. Only one survey gave a little more incentive to go out to the games. He was looking to see if the incentive of a free winter hat would make a difference in the surveys that only had Oregon sports information on it. Overall I thought Greg's blog was great, and fine tuned.

The second blog that I took great interest in, was Meag's Sport blog. Meagan's blog caught my attention because it was based off an extremely famous, and gifted soccer player; Christiano Rinaldo. I actually knew a little bit about this experiment, that Rinaldo was doing, and watched him play during this summer's World Cup.  I thought it was a cool idea how Meagan thought outside the box, and used this as an example of experimental research.  Rinaldo noticed the new ball, being the dependent variable had changed. He experimented  and practiced with this new ball called, " The Jabulani", until he perfected his shots, which he used in his World Cup play. 

Experimental Research

As we talked about this in class, experimental research has many facets to its operation. There tends to be a certain need for control in experiments, certainly so the researchers have something neutral to base their findings off of. In  experimental research, there are hypothesis' which allow for the researchers to make an educated assumption on the outcome of their research before they begin the experiment. During experiments, there may be control groups and experimental groups. the control group does not change, while the experimental group is exposed to whatever it is the researchers are testing. Many times there are dependent and independent variables within an experiment.  The dependent variable is influenced by the independent variable ( which is manipulated, or changed).
In an experiment done with college students at a southern college, researchers studied how students viewed and perceived PR articles compared to news articles. The study was extremely interesting, and certainly made a ton of sense at the end. The Hypothesis, was that students would be more prone to believe a story if it had a multimedia aspect to it. A news article online with pictures, videos, and other links may seem to be more credible to students regardless where it may come from.
I found the independent variables to be interesting, because they manipulated who was reading what kind of articles. Some students may have only been exposed to newspapers with one picture and many words. This may show how students aren't intrigued by newspaper articles compared to other medias.
On the other hand some students were given more than one type of media and the choice to select either online news articles, newspapers, etc...
The hypothesis was correct, in that the students that were observing more than one type of media report, enjoyed the multimedia articles online better, because of the interactive web layout, which allows them to see pictures, videos, and links. All of those things may seem to make a story more credible. 
Credibility, accuracy, and bias were the dependent variable for the students to gauge.
The experiment was done well, and I agree with the outcome of the experiment. If I was given an article to read online with video and other links for a story, and a newspaper, I would probably want to read and be more likely to believe in the online article rather than just a newspaper article story.

Survey Effectiveness

Surveys are a very effective way to reach your audience.  They are fairly easy to construct, and are user friendly. People taking surveys, are given a choice of answers to select, so it is not that complicated for them to actually complete. It is important to know who your audience is, so you don't confuse the audience by using a vocabulary that is too advanced for them.  surveys are effective, because you can reach a broad audience and receive results fairly quickly.  It is important to consider your target audiences characteristics. Characteristics such as level or literacy, language problems, and geographical  issues should all be taken into account while designing a survey for a specific group of people. along with learning about their characteristics, the researcher should also make sure that the anonymity of the respondents are protected. Another factor to be aware of while creating a survey is the respondents personal information. Some things are very touchy to certain people, and they may take offense or decline to answer certain questions because they feel  infringed upon. Things such as personal finances, sexual behaviors, and drug use are things that should be taken into  high consideration before actually being used.

I think everyone has taken a survey before, and personally when I take one, I find some level of fun and interest in them.
I was looking online the other day at some people that create surveys for their website viewers. This website,smart girl used surveys very effectively. Now, the website clearly is a young to middle aged teenage female's website, but they have their niche and were looking for results on favorite music. A simple survey was conducted which got out to 476 people around the world last June.
The survey basically asked these young women about their favorite music, their least favorite music, and how they are incorporated into each girls lives. The statistics were given at the end, which allowed for everyone involved in the survey to view the results of others, along with the public. At the end of the survey, the participants were promised that their personal information, would be kept confidential, which is very important.

Blog Comments ( post 8)

This week we need to comment on each others blogs about qualitative research. As we have established, qualitative research is a method of research that emphasizes the participant's perceptions and attitudes. It is used many times to gain insights into people's  behaviors, concerns, beliefs, aspirations, and motivations alike. I personally spoke about focus groups in my previous blog relating to qualitative research, but Lisa's Blog spoke of a different form of qualitative research. She spoke about ethnographic research, and gave a real life spin on it. Ethnographic research is the observation of customs, beliefs, and behaviors of a certain culture or group for an extended time.

Lisa spoke about a television serious which is now being aired on MTV. Although MTV does not usually excite me, this show is different. Lisa wrote about The World of Jenks. Jenks is actually performing ethnographic research himself. He is actually  placing himself into real life situations within other cultures or unfamiliar situations to gain an understanding of the way others work. Lisa does a great job relating The World of Jenks to Ethnographic researching, and it now leaves that impression in my mind, that what he is doing in his show is ethnographic research. Lisa asks if she would let Jenks spend a week conducting ethnographic research with me. I would have to say maybe at this point, only because recently he has had some truly inspirational people on his show, and I would have to step up my game to be on it as well.

Straying from ethnographic research, was Francesca's Blog on social media. Social media can be used as a qualitative research method, and Francesca is proving why it may even be more effective than a focus group. Francesca goes on to speak about how Facebook, and Twitter are great vehicles for gauging such things like audience awareness, and their attitudes of course. She uses a nice example by sampling a new movie that is coming out. As an example she speaks about how a production company may release their movie trailer on YouTube, and on Facebook/ Twitter by adding a link. These links usually come equipped with comment and text boxes where fans can respond to the posts. This was certainly a great idea. At least I think it is a great idea because I find my self doing things such as commenting on movie trailers myself, especially on Facebook with friends and strangers. 

An example of a film that is advertising on Facebook is The Town. This movie has set up its own page, and allows users to " like" and comment on the film as well. I think that this is a great mode for advertising and public relations specialist to capitalize on.

Qualitative Research ( Nike Soccer)

Qualitative Research is a method of research that emphasizes the participant's perceptions and attitudes in a natural setting.  The researcher (s) is the primary data collector, who is looking for the participants input. This type of research differs from quantitative research because it is more focused on attitudes and beliefs rather than numbers, stats, and surveys.  Qualitative research can be done through  methods such as focus groups, interviews, panels, and field- studies.
 In a You Tube video, I observed a Nike marketer conducting a focus group on elite soccer players. The product manager conducted a focus group on current and future shin guards that will be released to the public. In the  Nike Soccer video, the product manager is looking to find the players attitudes towards each shin guard.  The man wants feedback to what the players, like and dislike about the product. At one point he asks, " what things do you think we have done well?  What things can we do a lot better." The manager  also refers to the players as elite, whether they are or are not, it gives the players a sense of importance while he is addressing them.

Since these players are elite, they are the prime focus for how to market to a larger following of soccer players. The younger soccer players may know many of these players, and of course they want to be like, and even imitate their favorite players. The manager draws relations to Ronaldo, and Rooney, who are great players. The people in the focus group also may take pride in thinking that they are being compared  to these incredible athletes.  The focus group is highly concerned on the attitude of the players, and why they  are choosing each specific shin guard.  The manager goes on to say that they aren't preparing these guards for a certain shape of player, or type of player, but for a style of player. So look and comfort may be possible things he took into consideration. Players in the focus group said that the tips they are giving to the marketer might be helpful in his marketing to the public, and may also better the product in some way.

In this video, we found out some attitudes of players, and possibly the main demographic which is going to be targeted. I feel the main demographic will be all teenage soccer players looking for style. The name Nike stands alone in athletics as the forerunner in the industry, which allows them to conduct surveys with these great athletes who probably received an incentive to do the interview and focus group. The players may have all been given new shin guards and gear by participating in the focus group.  This was a great example of qualitative research, and I enjoyed examining the video, and making connections to what  I have learned and seen in research class.

Blog Post 6

Unobtrusive research is the method of gathering data by means of receiving the information without a subject knowing that they are being observed. Knowing this, I was able to search other classmates blogs on unobtrusive research and have a decent understanding of this type of research. Being that I am a fan of Major League Baseball, and it is the Post- Season, I took a great liking to Jessica Tessier's blog on Roy Halladay and how blogs are great for unobtrusive researchers. Blogs have become very popular over the last few years, especially as more social medias emerge. Jessica's Blog, sports public relations was very intriguing and gave an insight on a fans perspective of Roy Halladay, a thirteen year veteran in the league's first playoff debut.

  

Now a social researcher doing unobtrusive research can hit the jackpot, by researching fans blogs, and professionals blogs.  Jessica says, " These blogs give fans or non- fans something to converse about. They also give great insight into blogger's views and opinions." I think think this is a great tool because with each blog comes a comment section. Many other people will read blogs and then post their own comments to the situation. This may very well help a researcher that is conducting unobtrusive research

The second blog I enjoyed was about social media's and the way it can influence unobtrusive research. Amy Hardman's blog was pretty cool, because it brought up some interesting ideas that I hadn't even thought of. According to Amy's Unobtrusive Research, social media's such as Facebook and Twitter allow insight into someone's life without actually being there yourself or questioning them. Things such as religion, race, gender, birthday, age, and favorite activities are all easily accessed when looking at someone's page. this is a great tool for researchers to use. 

Amy also made a great point by telling us that the researchers should also look at peoples statuses. She used a great example of one of her own friends.  "For example, one of my facebook friends Morgan* updated her status to say “its fine York Hill shuttle. I don't have a job or homework or any sort of life I have to get on with. Actually, I like waiting at the shuttle stop all day” expressing her frustration over the York Hill shuttle situation. If I was researching information on the successfulness of the Quinnipiac shuttle system, I would most definitely take this information into account (with Morgan being completely unaware of my withdrawal of information from her). "  

I agree with Amy. This is a perfect example of how researchers can use social media's to gauge their research prospects.  

  

Unobtrusive Research

            In research class, for the last two weeks we have been discussing the research known as unobtrusive research.   We learned the advantages and disadvantages of unobtrusive research along with what studies usually pertain to unobtrusive research.  It is obvious when using this research that we want to be unbiased, which is usually the situation with all research. 

            In class the first presentation about secondary unobtrusive research was very helpful in  the explanation of this research. Amy and Dave said, “ These methods allow researchers to study things from afar without influencing the process. This can eliminate or minimize many of the threats to validity of research that we have raised though out the course, such as reactivity and social desirability bias.”  This is true on many levels. If someone was being watched or interviewed, they are most likely to act differently. They may be more prone to do something that  they wouldn’t usually do or say when not being interviewed. It is natural for people to change their minds and act differently, because most people don’t want certain things to get out. This is especially pertinent when we are talking about touchy situations.

            A touchy topic could be seen through the one that was spoken of in class. The one professor talked about was the pornographic magazine sales.  Instead of interviewing people and possibly embarrassing them, the researchers actually went through their garbage to see who had bought pornographic magazines, and who hadn’t. This is a prime example of unobtrusive research. 

 In an online book, Methods of Social Research, I took interest to a study which was done on racial prejudice. This was  unobtrusive indirect  research being done along side of direct research. The direct research was seen through a survey on racial prejudice. People were questioned if they were prejudiced. The most common answer was "no". The researcher wanted to double check this direct research by performing some unobtrusive indirect research. So unobtrusive research can also be used as an additional tool in someones research. 

Unobtrusive research seems to be the most interesting to me, because it is always fun to see what kinds of different ways people will try and capture their research.