Unit 3 Research Techniques-Qualitative

Qualitative is where something is being measured by the quality than quantity. It is used when companies or groups of people want to find out about other people opinions on certain things. To find out the information they collect information in depth, using all types of methods such as questionnaires. In another word it is gaining information about something through people view and opinion instead of statics and figures.

 For example in Super-Size Me Morgan Spurlock used himself as a test subject. Testing if junk food is bad for you and what could happen within a month, such as if it would turn you obese or it being quite dangerous for your organs.

Within Supersize Me Morgan Spurlock said that eating Mc Donald 3 times a day had caused him to lose sex drive and gave him mood swings, along giving him several headaches. In the documentary this information was presented to audience by them seeing how Morgan Spurlock was in the beginning, by doctors analysing his fitness. From there it leads on to the audience seeing him eating Mc Donald 3 times a day. Then towards the end where the audience see his outcome, the doctors explain to him and the audience again on how much his body has changed. Such as how his liver became fat and his cholesterol shot up high. All this information was presented to the audience by showing Morgan Spurlock going to the doctors to do the test. Also the audience can see the difference themselves when they saw Morgan Spurlock stomach. In the beginning of the documentary Morgan Spurlock mention about two girls and their problem with their weight. Instead of showing the audience the real girls face they used the paper saying what happen, on how they lost.  Which lead to Morgan Spurlock find it funny on how they lost, considering what happen to him within a month of eating Mc Donald. To show the information they used diagrams of Morgan Spurlock, one of him before eating Mc Donald’s and one of him after eating Mc Donald’s. From there the diagram goes on, showing the body of Morgan Spurlock after he eaten a whole month worth of Mc Donald’s. I personally think this was done to show people clearly and in details on how much it has affected him. Nevertheless I do believe that this way works well, as people can actually see the difference and compare it, along the information was told in colloquial language/simple terms where everyone can understand clearly. Also when some people spend every day with someone, they tend to be not able to see the difference within them. In a way it works for the audience in this documentary as they are watching his journey. So showing the audience at the end, of Morgan Spurlock previous and present body will shock them. In generally it would be just a recap of what have happen.

While in March Of The Penguins they spent months with the penguins, analysing what they are doing. Such as how each year at the same time, the penguins gather up to do the march. But they form the line while waiting for all the members to be there before they start the march. This information was presented to us by Morgan Freeman doing the voice over, over real footage of how graceful the penguins are and what they are doing. Within the footage they used a variety of shots such as long shot, extreme close up, bird eye view etc. It is useful information as people would never know that, it also shows that animals do know what they are doing and that they generally don’t need human help as they have done this for centuries. Though to make people understand that when the penguins reached their destination and goes back to their original place to get food is tough, they used animation and real footage on how thick the ice is and what types of sea creatures live under it, along telling the audience the temperature. I personally think this method in showing people information about penguin’s works. As they use real footage it proves to the audience that the information they are giving are true. Also its quite common sense that using a voice over is better than Morgan Freeman saying his line in the location, as the weather is not that great there so it be hard or gain feedbacks and other background sound will be picked up. Nevertheless the language that Morgan Freeman used, it is not very colloquial, as they used some scientific words which some audience may not understand. Though Morgan Freeman use connotation, as in the beginning he said that the documentary is not about survival it is about love. From there on he refers to the penguins actions like humans, for example in the mating section, he was talking about females fighting over a male, how they strut and stroll.  Sending a message across to the audience, that penguins are no different to human beings. 

Overall the advantages of Qualitative is that it provides a wide variety of detailed data on people’s opinions as there is less restriction, as it would mainly be open questions. While the disadvantage of it is that there would be a lot to analyse and all the information may not be relevant. Along it may be bias and it may lack background information about the person, such as they may be lying.