Audience Research - Methodology

To undertake audience research into what our audience expected from an indie-rock music video, we created a questionnaire, and issued it to 10 people. A copy of the questionnaire can be seen below:

I designed our questionnaire so that it gave the audience the opportunity to provide quantitative answers to our questions, as these can be analysed and evaluated more easily, using graphs, charts and percentage data. This enables us to get a better feel of our audience's views on music videos for this genre, enabling us to use our audience research more effectively.

When designing question three, which asks the audience about their expectations from an indie-rock music video, I took many of the common themes, ideas and conventions that are represented in music videos from the genre that I have noticed when doing research, and added these to the list of possible options for the audience to select. I also added some conventions of music videos from other genres, as this would allow us to perhaps identify any unusual opinions or misinterpretations of the genre. In addition, I allowed people the opportunity to say whether they expect to see intertextuality in music videos, as this would enable us to see whether this is a popular feature, and whether we should look to include this in our video.

Question four was designed to assess where people usually associate indie-rock videos with being set. By producing a list of popular settings for the genre, this question will allow us to assess which location is most popular, and this may influence our decision as to where we set our video, and also what type of video we choose to produce.

Question five enables us to see whether people prefer videos with a heavy focus on performance, or whether they like videos that include more of a narrative. Again, this information will be able to influence our decision on what content to include in our music video, and the audience's opinion is something that we will look at incorporating into our video.

Question six assesses the services people use to digest music videos. This will enable us to assess modern viewing trends, as we anticipate that a large number of people will watch music videos online, using services such as YouTube. In addition, the results will give us a suggestion of where people are when they watch music videos, those who enjoy videos on the television are likely to be watching at home, whilst those who watch videos on the internet are more likely to enjoy the videos whilst sitting at a desk, or whilst away from a fixed location.

Question seven is a continuation of question six, assessing which devices people choose to watch indie-rock videos on. As well as enabling us to find out which device is most popular in each category, which could have an impact on the ratio and resolution used to produce our video, we can find out which style of device is most popular for viewing music videos. In addition, we can further judge where people are likely to be located when viewing music videos, as those who use smartphones or tablets are often likely to be on the move when viewing music videos, whereas those who use a computer, be it in desktop or laptop form, are more likely to be positioned at a fixed location, such as a home or office desk.

Question 8 asks the audience whether they prefer videos that use amplification, illustration or disjuncture. It is important to gauge public opinion of this before starting the project, as it will allow us to formulate our plans for the video, having taken on board the thoughts of our sample audience.

Finally, question 9 assists us in creating an audience profile, by finding out what other forms of goods people who watch indie-rock music videos choose to buy. This would help us to target our video and associated material more effectively, whilst also aiding us in deciding whether traditional media, such as DVD's or discs, is a better way of providing our media instead of modern media methods, which may include online services and social networks.