The Fourth Week.

Chapter 5: Theory and Practice on the job by doing Research.

I found this week’s reading rather interesting, since I would be doing research for my module in audience studies. I was to come out with methods on targeting a market and getting information from them. This would definitely come in handy for my research.

I learnt that there is always a reason for doing research, and the researcher has to be both clear about how the information will be used and sure that the research process will contribute in some way to the job at hand.

To find out that there is an increasing incidence of deafness among 20-30 years olds relating to long hours of iPod use and listening to loud music, it shocked me a little. I have an Apple iPod as well, and it’s true that I personally like to listen to loud rock music, especially if I’m in a foul mood.

This is all results found from research. But how is it related to PR?

Public Relations practitioners use research to plan, implement, and evaluate public relations programs.

“In simple terms, research is the process of posing questions and finding the answers. Knowing which questions to ask and how to get hold of the answers is a skill to be developed.” (Gae Synnot, 2009)

Quantitative and Qualitative research methods are useful to PR practitioners. Qualitative research provides an in-depth understanding of issues, whereas quantitative research provides statistics and trends.

To obtain reliable and relevant knowledge is very important as well.

I learnt that the PR plan is the practitioner’s working theory of what has to be done to achieve a desired outcome. So I am concluding that this applies to the PR plan for Organizing Chaos Daily that is to be done for this module as well. Research at the start not only provides good information to build an effective program, but it also enables you to set specific and measurable objectives that you will be able to evaluate against later in the program.

“Remembering that listening in research is important. Wait for and hear what is being said, felt, and understood – it is all part of meaning making and sense making.” (Kreps, 2008)