Internet:
Using the internet is the most convenient form of secondary
research as one can get whatever one wants by typing just a few phrases on he
screen.
Content Analysis:
This is the study of mass media. For instance, if a researcher
wants to know about the changing issues of racism and minority discrimination,
then he or she will examine how the concerned were represented in the media
like the times they were mentioned and or the judging of the tone of reports. This
is especially useful to interpretivists.
Official statistics:
These are the documents released by the government. Official
statistics are data gathered by government bodies for a wide variety of purposes,
such as recording demographic details in censuses, unemployment and crime
rates etc. This is a very convenient and cheap source, but it does have a chance of
being biased in favor of the government officials and this would decrease its
validity.
Well, guys these are all the research methods, and sources that we
studied today, in the next lecture we would be completing this chapter, for now
some FAQs
Q:1 Give comparison between quantitative and qualitative data.
Ans. Quantitative data and qualitative data have various differences that
distinguish them. Quantitative data is represented in the form of statistics e.g
graphs, charts whereas qualitative data is presented in the form of prose and
passage. Additionally, quantitative data is preferred by the positivist tradition for
its relevance and facts whereas qualitative data is preferred by interpretivists for
its in-depth data that deals with human experiences and meanings of events in
people’s lives. Finally, quantitative data is reliable this means that if the same
study was repeated again the chances that the results will be the same stay
increased, but this is not the case with qualitative dat.
Q:2 Define structured interviews.
Ans. Structured interviews are those interviews that contain a pre-set
quota of questions that are asked in the same order every time by the
interviewer.
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