Research Methods

By using ‘How To Do Your Case Study’ by Gary Thomas and other literary resources from Tremough Campus University College Falmouth library, I was able to utilize sufficient data collection methods to help with writing of this report. There were however some parts of my research process that could have been improved or used to a greater length. In this blog, I hope to explain the issues I had surrounding data collection where in hindsight there were clear errors in my methods.

As mentioned in the previous blog, my main source of data collection was intended to be from Warner Records. Despite not having anything to do with the organization of the BRITs, a decent amount of relevant and useful information was collected from them. After expressing a large amount of concern, the friend who works there pointed out that even though Warner did not have any part in the management of the ceremony, the company still played a vital role at the BRITs; representing the musicians and artists who were nominated and receiving awards. Alongside this, it became apparent that getting an insight on what the industry actually thought of BRIT Awards would also be very useful. These facts reignited the interest I had previously had in Warner Records, and I was therefore able to go on to have both a phone call and an email interview with Edward Allfrey, an executive in the events sector of Warner Records. 

In terms of researching public opinion, I chose to use ‘Survey Monkey’, a website that allows you to construct and send out questionnaires online. Unfortunately, I did not receive as many responses as I would have liked, the final total number of people replying coming to 42. Alongside this, questions with a box below them where responders could explain their answers were more often than not left blank. This could have been down to poor question wording however, as the questions did not specify clearly enough. This was also a mistake in the Interview with Edward Allfrey. One question in particular was not specific enough; ‘to what extent do you believe that the location of the BRITs makes a difference’. He interpreted this to be asking whether or not people would attend the BRIT awards had it been in a more obscure location than London, his answer being ‘(the location makes) Very little (difference). It is a hugely important date in the music industry’s calendar so artists/people will always travel.” I did not state that I wanted to know if he thought it made a difference to album sales. However, I believe that even though the wording of this question was poor, the interpretation of it was quite obvious, as the two previous questions had mentioned album sales.

Lastly I would like to mention one literary resource that I only talked about briefly in the report; ‘Brits 25 the official story of Britain’s biggest music show’ by Brian Southall. As my research led me further through the history of the BRITs, the name of this book was a reoccurring incident. However, by the time I had actually found this book online, it would not have arrived in good enough time, as I was half way through writing the analytical discussion of the study. Although if I had acquired it within the allocated time frame I am sure it would have been an invaluable resource.

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http://www.uk.sagepub.com/books/Book235663 accessed on 20/05/12