Digital Fiction Factory

Our first guest speaker was in the form of Ian Wareing from the 'Digital Fiction Factory' who came to speak to us about the organisation and also set the first question for the class. During the talk we were introduced to the Digital Fiction Factory as a "completely new kind of development and production centre.” Ian explained how the partnership between the BBC, Channel 4, Creative England and Conker Media would not be possible without audience participation and so we understood how baring the audience in mind when creating content plays a vital role in the success of the company.

During this time we also watched some of the projects made by the Digital Fiction Factory such as 'The Well' and'The Beauty Inside', before being presented with the question:

"The Internet, social media and other open systems have allowed for user generated content (UGC), crowd-sourcing and other forms of audience participation to prevail in digital media. But how do we translate these features into storytelling experiences, without treading on the toes of the author?"

Quantative and Qualitative Research

To begin our Applied Media Research module, we were introduced to methods of gathering material through both Quantative and Qualitive research.

Quantative research is one which most are familiar with as members of the public, and although tedius, it provides a structured method of extracting useful information in the form of questionanaires, online surveys, voting polls and cencus, for example.

In groups, we had the task of creating a questionnaire with the intent of finding out which factors within a univeristy most affect a student's decision in choosing where to study - 'How to promote a university degree to potential students'. From this, we discovered that through qualitative research in the form of a questionnaire, information can be gathered in a quick space of time. I also enjoyed the group work factor within this task as it meant that different opinions could contribute to the overall outcome.

Whenever we recieved feedback from the class, a minority of people reported that the questions were vague which I will bear in mind if we ever re-visit quantative research again and ensure the questions are less open-ended.

Qualitativeresearch on the other hand, involves the same concept of extracting information from the public, but the process however differs within this method and intends to gather the 'quality' of something on a more personal level.

In order to extract this type of information we needed a more in-depth method, and so came up with a diary entry format as we realised that this was just about the most personal way in which an individual can express their opinions.

The feedback from this activity was more positive and the participants also agreed that it the diary entry was certainly useful in gaining personal information.