Advantages and Disadvantages of sources

Advantages and disadvantages of sources.

Expense/Cost

At AS and A2 I spent very little money on Research and Planning. This is because I found that all the sources I required could be found online free of cost and were open for use by anybody. There are disadvantages to this method of conducting research and planning. One obvious disadvantage is that perhaps I did not have access to as many quality sources as I would have had if I had spent money. For example, this would be the case if I had bought magazines such as NME or Q to help with my research. However instead of buying these magazines I was in the fortunate position of being able to borrow them. Therefore I was at an advantage in that I had the quality sources yet I did not have to spend money on them.

Accessibility

There was varied accessibility of sources at both AS and A2 standard. At AS the sources were harder to find than at A2, yet within AS level there was varied difficulty in acquiring them. For example, it was easier to find magazine front covers to analyse than it was to find magazine double page spreads. This is because most magazine websites such as Q and NME had an archive of magazine front covers to view et they hid the magazines content from view unless money was paid. Therefore to view the contents page and double page spread I had to google search them which often produced sources which were not relevant. Therefore the accessibility of sources online were harder to acquire at AS standard. At A2 level it was easier to acquire sources. For example, it was especially easy to find music videos to research as I had YouTube to use. This was an advantage as it allowed videos to be viewed quickly and free of cost. Digipaks were also accessible as I was in the fortunate position to own numerous digipaks and thus had them on hand to analyse. In reference to these sources I was therefore at an obvious advantage as they were easy to acquire. However, I was at a disadvantage when it came to analyse magazine adverts as I have no direct subscription to any music magazines and at the time I owned none. However I was able to borrow a variety of magazines but this represents an issue with accessibility as I had to go to great lengths to try and acquire them. It was therefore harder to have access to sources at AS than at A2 as at AS level research focused on magazines which were reluctant to reveal content, whereas at A2 there was a variety of features to analyse.

Reliability

At both AS and A2 level I would suggest that the sources I used to conduct research from were reliable. At AS I would argue that this is because my research consisted of reputable music magazines such as NME and Q. I was at the advantage of not having to conduct research from other students work as my own work focussed on primary sources such as the magazines and not secondary sources such as a student’s blog. However it can be seen that there was a disadvantage that during the analysis of magazine front covers search engines would produce the coursework of other students. Therefore time had to be taken to ensure it was reputable work, which could be analysed. At A2 I was fortunate to have reliable sources, for example The music videos I used for analysis were sourced off YouTube and thus were reputable as they were uploaded by the artist. However care had to be taken to ensure the official music video was viewed and not a fan made one. The digipak’s were again reliable as they were the official work with which the album came and were therefore produced by the band and artist. The magazine adverts again came from official magazines and thus were not false productions. Therefore I was at an advantage in that all of my research came from primary sources that were reputable.

Accuracy

At AS level it can be seen that the feedback I received from my peers was more thorough than at A2. This can be seen because at AS my pitch was produced in front of the class and questions were asked and I could gather various opinions on my work. Second, my AS blog was followed by more people than my A2 one and thus more comments were left from my peers at AS than at A2. At A2 however, I was disadvantaged in that less people followed my blog and therefore there was less scope for comments to be left from my peers. Therefore the only feedback I received was from my teachers. One advantage of the feedback that I received at both AS and A2 is that of how my class were all within my target audience and therefore any feedback I received could be considered relevant.

Bias

The textual analysis that I completed for AS can be considered balanced in that I used a variety of magazines from which to conduct analysis and research. However, it could be said that it was not biased as the research I conducted came predominantly from magazines of the same genre. At A2 my research could be considered balanced as I sued a variety of artists and songs from which to conduct research. However the variety could be considered biased as it was all conducted from the same genre. However this could be considered relevant as it was the genre I was using for my own coursework.

Validity

Within the AS coursework it is obvious that numerous elements of the research conducted was included in the final product. For example the feedback from the pitch influenced the final name of the magazine and that the pictures I took for the drafts heavily influenced the style of photography I used for my final product. In the A2 course work it is obvious that certain elements of the research and planning was included during production. For example we used the same apparel that had been mentioned to be fitting with the Mise en scene. Second, the use of storyboard showed how our planning was incorporated into production, with minimal changes. However, there were elements which were not included. For example we did not include a huge number of features from the music videos we had analysed. Instead we used originality in the video.