Final Post!

Can you believe this is our final blog post?! I know I can’t! This semester has flown by and I have very much enjoyed reading all of my fellow bloggers posts. I now understand the world of blogging and may even continue with it once our assignment is complete!

While reading through my classmates blog’s I came across a post titled, “Experimental Research in PR” written by Casey Farricielli. She begins talking about a social media study that involves the audience. She explains the YouTube experiment that my group decided to show in class. It is good to know that people were interested in the video that we showed. The experiment involves the audience in which 6 people pass around a basketball and there are three people in white shirts and three others in black shirts. The catch that gets most people is the black gorilla that is jumping around and passing the basketball among the participants. When told to count how many times the basketball is passed most people do not notice the gorilla, but after telling the class to look out for him they counted correctly. Casey relates this experiment to people who are caught up in the common responsibilities of their everyday lives and fail to notice what is surrounding them. I found this to be a very good point. I had never looked at it like that before. Casey writes, “Walking around the QU campus, I see many student robots texting on their cell phones failing to look up to see where they are going. It has come to my attention that people are so reliant on technology that it is making our culture like robots or zombies. This experiment proves that people are overlooking everyday experiences. I think this change in behavior has a lot to do with the increase of technology.” I completely agree with Casey. In an older post I had blogged about the increase of technology and whether it is a positive or negative thing. Technology is beginning to take over our lives and in my opinion it will not stop. But the question is how far will people take it considering the affect it has on our lives today?

Now I would like to take a look at a blog about experimental research in fashion. After all, my blog is all about the entertainment industry and world of fashion. In the blog post titled, “The Cause and Effect of the Fashion World” Kayla writes, “By controlling a variable or variables researchers are able to see the change in one variable and its affects on another. Incentives are a good way to get the public to participate in an experiment. Who wouldn't want a free Gucci bag or a pair of Carlos Santa shoes just for giving a little bit of their time?” From personal research I can say that when an incentive is offered people go crazy. Especially when the incentive is a free Gucci bag! I know I would jump at that opportunity. For our final project my group is considering giving an incentive as well! This way we can be sure that we will have enough participants in our focus group. Kayla then goes on to talk about retail testing in the fashion industry. Certain stores are chosen to test clothing and see how the customers react towards certain brands or products. What we can take from all of this is that research is prominent in the public relations industry. We have learned about all different forms of research and each kind has its positives and negatives. One thing for sure is that the public relations profession will never run out of jobs for people to conduct research! After taking public relations research I think I would be interested in a job in PR research. Research is never a bad thing and will always help when analyzing results.

Thank you to my fellow classmates and professor for a great semester! I have thoroughly learned a lot and cannot wait until my next Public Relations course! I want to wish my classmates Goodluck with finals and the rest of their semester!

Blog # 10

We have all heard about Nielson in class and maybe even have filled out one of their surveys! I recently read an article that sparked my interest! The Nielson Company is testing an online social network site for a diverse range of pop culture fans who are eager to make their voices heard in the entertainment industry. Nielson is using this site to explore and define experimental research in the media. Karen Watson, Senior Vice President of Communications at The Nielsen Company, and Executive Sponsor of Hey! Nielsen said, “If you’re passionate about any aspect of the entertainment world, you will find like-minded consumers on Hey! Nielsen. We hope this will be a fun place to share opinions and discuss your favorite shows, movies and music. And because we will be providing our clients with insights from Hey! Nielsen members, joining the network is a way to let the entertainment industry know what you think.” Members can contribute to the Hey! Nielsen Score, which will measure the “buzz” on a star, TV show, movie and other entertainment property. Data will also be taken from Billboard and The Hollywood Report. What a clever way to measure results! Nielson has been extremely successful over the past few years and I cannot wait to see what the results entail from their experiments on the social networking site. What will Neilson bring to the table next? Stay tuned until next time to find out!

Surveys!

Surveys, surveys, and more surveys! In one semester I have learned about surveys and even conducted surveys more than I ever had before. Surveys are important to sociologists, public relations practitioners, and marketing researchers. After conducting and learning about surveys in three of my classes I think I can safely say that I will be an expert on surveys once this semester is finished with. This just goes to show you that everyone conducts them. Without a doubt most likely everyone sitting in our PRR 332 classroom has taken a survey from someone else including our Professor. Professor Laskin pointed out an important fact about surveys in our last class. He snagged a survey from a hotel room that when first glanced at seemed like a normal survey, one that they would collect the research and try to fix the problems the customers were having. However, when you take another glance you can see that the survey was laminated. Now who in their right mind would laminate a survey if they are trying to get results? Professor Laskin answered by explaining that this was all a marketing stunt, they didn’t really care about your opinions. They just wanted to publicize themselves in a good light. Lesson learned never try to write on a laminated survey, because they do NOT care.

Surveys are very influential in public relations research to gain information efficiently and are used in every aspect of public relations. This summer I had an internship at a theater in Baltimore, Maryland. The company I interned at constantly took part in survey research. I found it interesting that they constantly cared not only about the research they needed to conduct for major events or shows but for their own benefit of the company to see how the interns were doing. I received a few surveys directed at me, the intern, asking how I was enjoying the program and what I was learning throughout the process. After I had left CENTERSTAGE I received a final survey asking the interns how they enjoyed their overall experience and if they would have changed something. Sending out this survey gives the impression that they care about their employees and really want to do all that they can to improve the company and the status of the company’s workers. Surveys are the easiest way to conduct research immediately and results can be produced in minutes when the internet is used. So keep the survey’s coming!!

What are my classmates writing about?

I found Roberta Soares’s blog post, “To observe is to dress…or is it?” very interesting. Roberta writes, “It is obvious that consumers must observe in order to make purchases, but what isn't often noticed is how the designers and corporate workers must observe also.” When purchasing a new dress or even when strolling through the mall you never think about what the designers and corporate workers are observing. Observation in the fashion industry is essential to the fashion designers and corporate workers to gain inspiration when predicting what the new trends will be. As Roberta explains consumers are highly influenced by what they see in the media. If a celebrity wears nothing but pink they you will suddenly see tons of pink in every department store. Roberta writes, “Samuels also expresses how important it is to be noticed in the fashion industry so that your work can be observed by others and then brought to the consumers.” Fashion designers want their clothes to be constantly observed so that more people decide to make the purchase. Roberta does a wonderful job of explaining how observation is the key to success in the fashion design industry and the corporate industry.

I would now like to switch gears and talk about qualitative research that is happening right on our campus. Meagan McLoughlin writes about how the QU Women’s soccer team was taking part in Qualitative Observation and didn’t even know it in her latest blog post, “Qualitative Research on the QUWS team.” This just goes to show you that you could be taking part in research and not even have a clue. Meagan writes, “One of our assistant coaches works at Yale and he conducts many different methods of research whether it is surveying us to see how healthy we eat and if that effects our play, or observing how many times in a game a specific player wins a head ball or their passing rate throughout the game.” The Women’s soccer team here at QU also participates in observation where they watch all 90 minutes of their games, allowing them to see what they can improve on next time. As you can see qualitative research is extremely useful to our everyday lives and I can almost guarantee that is it taking place on our campus multiple times a day.

Keep up the great work everyone, can't wait to read more! :)

Participant Observation In an online virtual world?

Qualitative research is a method of research that emphasizes the participants perceptions and attitudes in a natural setting. Overall, qualitative research is used to gain insight into people's attitudes, behaviors, value systems, concerns, motivations, aspirations, cultures or lifestyles.
Qualitative research can be taken place everywhere including in the entertainment industry.
MTV uses participant observation to undertake an ethnographic exploration of brands in an online virtual world. Players create avatars and live in an online virtual world.
Studies show that by 2011 80% of active Internet users will partake in the online virtual world. Viacom’s MTV has invested $1.3 billion in virtual games by 2010.
One popular MTV game is Virtual Hills/Laguna Beach. 70% of the shows fans went online after the show and participated in these games. While players may think the game is all for fun, it really is intended as a marketing platform to enhance the sales of the advertised brands. The marketer was extremely smart when thinking this one up. Most people will go on to play the game without even realizing that they are being exposed to advertisements.
The researcher used participant observation by becoming an Avatar in the game. He choose his avatars clothing and skin tone like every other player. He began to explore the virtual world then began to explore the other players. His job is to market brands to the players and communicate with them. The research observed and answered his research questions and concluded that the social interactions among the players in the game along with how they interact with advertisements for social benefits can be mimicked in the real world.
Participant observation is used frequently to observe the online world. Don’t be fooled next time you decide to participate in an online virtual reality world.

Let's Hear from my Public Relations Research Classmates!!!!

“If you are refreshing your page to see new updates and statuses, or even searching for a particular person to see what they are up to, you are conducting unobtrusive research” said Laura Valenti in her last blog post, You Heard it Right Out of the Horse’s Mouth! In Laura’s Blog Post 5, she writes about unobtrusive research in the social media world. I found the above quote to be extremely enticing because everyone is conducting unobtrusive research many times a day and aren’t even realizing it! Laura first points out that you must conduct research from a credible source. This is something that should be stressed over and over! There is so much information that we can conduct research on but if we believe what is published from a non credible source then our research will not be accurate. Before beginning research remember to always look for reputability and credibility. Laura explains that unobtrusive research is beneficial in obtaining an honest answer about a certain topic, but from a celebrity you can never tell if what you are receiving is honesty or all lies because they have to watch most everything that they say. Yes, unobtrusive research is useful in researching celebs but in my opinion maybe not the most trustworthy approach!

Now let’s take a look at Post #5, written by Sam Roman who has participated in unobtrusive research at her own job! Sam explains that she worked for a well known retail store this summer and that her store had a unique policy. Not to confront someone even if they were seen shoplifting because if they were wrongly accused a lawsuit might occur along with more work for the PR department. Sam writes, “In recent year, unobtrusive research has done a lot in prohibiting shoplifters. Store employees are trained to looks for suspicious people - not to judge on what they look like or wearing, but on their behavior. If they fail to make eye contact, barely look at any of the items for sale but take huge piles of clothing anyway, neglect to grab the proper sizes or constantly refuse help, they are showing blatant signs of possible shoplifting. The knowledge of all of these behavioral tactics was a direct result of the performance of unobtrusive research in retail stores.” Unobtrusive research seems to come into hand when it comes to shoplifting! Unobtrusive research is cost efficient and allows us to gather results immediately. Now every time I go into a store or refresh my Facebook page I will be reminded that unobtrusive research is being conducted!

Blog Post 5

The focus of this blog post is centered on technology in the entertainment industry and how we can use unobtrusive research methods to study this correlation. Unobtrusive research allows researchers to study things from afar without influencing the process. This type of research method is beneficial because respondents are unaware that they are research subjects, thus are unaffected by potential biases.
Everywhere you go you here a beep, a ring, or a bbm sounding. I am curious what this new obsession is with blackberry’s? I conducted unobtrusive research and have noticed how obsessed and may I say unhealthily obsessed people are with their blackberry’s or with the Apple iPads. What will be next? Just by logging into Facebook I see posts from friends asking other friends for their new pin to their blackberry. Every day I have seen updates from my friends on Facebook from their blackberry’s. I even took a peek onto some of my friend’s pages and under their interests you can find bbming. I find this to be a little much. Maybe I am just a little jealous because I haven’t yet conformed to the world of bbm, but from my unobtrusive research I have found that people are constantly in front of their blackberry’s. It is crazy how a simple device or social networking site can control our lives.
Today technology is invading the entertainment world. The main focus of two new movie releases is technology. David Fincher’s The Social Network, is about the controversial founding of Facebook. It brought in 23 million dollars in the first weekend in October. From unobtrusive research on Facebook statuses I found that many people seemed to enjoy the movie and the fact that it is starring Justin Timberlake didn’t hurt.
The Joneses, is a movie about a fake “perfect” family whose job is to market off their brands and products to others in their suburban neighborhood. They guilt trip others into purchasing the latest trends and technologies so that they can increase sales. What they really are doing is hurting others by making them feel terrible that they cannot afford everything that “The Joneses” own. At the end of the movie their next door neighbor kills himself because he bought everything in order to keep up with “The Joneses” to please his wife and unfortunately lost his house because of this. He couldn’t handle the pressure of his wife being disappointed in him and thus committed suicide. I can’t help but to think, what if this happened or has happened in the real world? How can we let technology control us or affect us in this matter?
From unobtrusive research I can see that technology is invading our lives and the world of the entertainment industry and is not stopping anytime soon. Technology is extremely important to everyone and is one of the best inventions ever created. However, all I ask is that you stop and think about technology and whether it is controlling your life more than is necessary.