Media Research- Types of Research Descriptive vs. Analytical Pure and Applied Qualitative and Quantitative Descriptive Research Analytic Research Fundamental or Pure Research Quantitative vs. Qualitative

1. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
Affiliated Institution of G.G.S.IP.U, Delhi
Media Research
Paper ID-24305
Paper code-BJ(MC)305
Manmeet Kaur

2. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
Types of Research
The basic types of research are as follows:
(i) Descriptive vs. Analytical
(ii)Pure and Applied
(iii)Qualitative and Quantitative
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3. Descriptive Research
• Descriptive research includes
surveys and fact-finding
enquiries of different kinds.
• The main characteristic of this
method is that the researcher
has no control over the
variables; he can only report
what has happened or what is
happening.
• Descriptive research attempts
to determine, describe, or
identify what is.
Analytic Research
• the researcher has to use facts
or information already
available, and analyze these to
make a critical evaluation of
the material.
• analytical research usually
concerns itself with cause-
effect relationships. It basically
find out how actually the
entire thing has happened.
• analytical research attempts
to establish why it is that way
or how it came to be

4. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
Examples
 Examining the fluctuations of U. S. international trade balance during
1974-1995 is an example of descriptive research; while explaining
why and how U.S. trade balance move in a particular way over time is
an example of analytical research.
 Starting from late 1986, the value of U.S. dollar value has steadily
increased against the Japanese yen and German Mark.
 Examining the magnitude of this trend in the value of U.S. dollar is
another example of descriptive research; while explaining how and
why this surge in the value of the U.S. dollar is occurring.
 If one attempts to explain how and why this surge in the value of U.S.
dollar is going to affect the U.S. economy, as well as the economies of
Japan and Germany, this is another example of analytical research.
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5. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
Content
 The word descriptive means 'to describe', so example for
descriptive questions would include:
What color is it?
 How much did it weigh?
 How Old?
 So basically a question that a description is required in the
answer. These answers can quite often one word answers.
Analytical means 'to analyze', so an example of an
analytical question would be:
What best describes global warming?
 So this means to answer this you would need to analyze the
subject before you can answer it.

6. Applied
• Applied research aims at
finding a solution for an
immediate problem facing a
society or an
industrial/business
organisation.
• the central aim of applied
research is to discover a
solution for some pressing
practical problem
Fundamental or Pure Research
• fundamental research is
mainly concerned with
generalizations and with the
formulation of a
theory.“Gathering knowledge
for knowledge’s sake is termed
‘pure’ or ‘basic’ research.”
• whereas basic research is
directed towards finding
information that has a broad
base of applications and thus,
adds to the already existing
organized body of scientific
knowledge.

7. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
Applied vs. Fundamental: Research can
either be applied (or action) research or
fundamental (to basic or pure) research.
Applied research aims at finding a solution
for an immediate problem facing a society
or an industrial/business organisation,
whereas fundamental research is mainly
concerned with generalisations and with
the formulation of a theory. “Gathering
knowledge for knowledge’s sake is termed
‘pure’ or ‘basic’ research.”
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8. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
• Quantitative vs. Qualitative: Quantitative research is
based on the measurement of quantity or amount. It
is applicable to phenomena that can be expressed in
terms of quantity.
• Qualitative research, on the other hand, is concerned
with qualitative phenomenon, i.e., phenomena
relating to or involving quality or kind.
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9. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
Content
• For instance, when we are interested in
investigating the reasons for human behaviour
(i.e., why people think or do certain things),
we quite often talk of ‘Motivation Research’,
an important type of qualitative research.

10. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
Content
• This type of research aims at discovering the
underlying motives and desires, using in depth
interviews for the purpose. Other techniques of
such research are word association tests,
sentence completion tests, story completion
tests and similar other projective techniques.

11. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
Content
• Attitude or opinion research i.e., research
designed to find out how people feel or what
they think about a particular subject or
institution is also qualitative research.
• Qualitative research is specially important in
the behavioral sciences where the aim is to
discover the underlying motives of human
behavior.

12. TRINITY INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES
Sector – 9, Dwarka Institutional Area, New Delhi-75
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