Quantitative Research

Quantitative Research is based on measurable facts and information that can be counted, producing numerical and statistical data. Quantitative research is type of research which uses numbers for data and statistics to analyse results.
Quantitative research produces data and information that is measurable and quantifiable and includes programme ratings, box office takings, readership circulation figures and website hits, as well as the counting and measuring of items or space in a content analysis of a media product. The data generated from quantitative research can usually be represented numerically and is often presented in the form of tables, charts and diagrams.

Advantages of quantitative research. First advantage is that quantitative research allows the researcher to measure and analyse data. The relationship between an independent and dependent variable is studied in detail. This is advantageous because the researcher is more objective about the findings of the research. Second advantage is that quantitative research can be used to test hypotheses in experiments because of its ability to measure data using statistics.

Disadvantages of quantitative research. The first disadvantage is the context of the study or experiment is ignored. Quantitative research does not study things in a natural setting or discuss the meaning things have for different people as qualitative research does. Another disadvantage is that a large sample of the population must be studied; the larger the sample of people researched, the more statistically accurate the results will be.
This is an example of top 30 films box-office figures for 2011.

This is an example of Weekly Top 30 Programmes for 3rd-9th September 2012.

Quantitative research is important in the media because you can collect as much as you want to find.Also you can analyse it and compare the results.It is important for the media because for an example if this is about television programme. They can see their ratings and if it is low rating, they always can improve it before it goes bad.