Quantative or Qualitative? - 07/10/2010

There are two different ways in which I can research what the audience would like to see in my music magazine - quantative or qualitative research.

Quantative research investigates a larger amount of people that qualitative, as it includes questionnaires, statistics and surveys. This is quicker that the in-depth study involved in qualitative research, and can be quite accurate in finding the information I need. This type of research can also reach a wider range of people, and it's a lot cheaper than qualitative. But quantative does have it's disadvantages, as it is less informative that qualitative research, and the results can often be "fiddled" (meaning the results are made to suit the designer).

Qualitative research includes more in-depth studies, along with interviews and further case studies. It is better that quantative rsearchas I will get the results first-hand and in a more personal format through interviews, and I can ask more personal questions that people would not be able to answer in questionnaires. But it's also a worse form of research in some aspects as it usually takes longer, is more expensive and has a limited coverage on how many people I want to investigate.

However, I am going to use the quantative method of research as I would prefer to reach a wider audience within my research, which the qualitative research does not allow.