Interview Evaluation

Interview Evaluation

“Do the social activities in Banstead appeal to you as a teenager? Why?”

My first question asked the interviewee if they felt that the social activities in Banstead appealed to them particularly as a teenager; to which he replied with no due to the fact that it is a more family environment targeting families with young children. This highlights the fact that the facilities in Banstead have not targeted towards teenagers, only families with young children. This supports my general idea that teenagers do not feel as if Banstead is an age appropriate location for them to socialise.

“What type of social activities do you think there should be that would interest teenagers?”

After asking my interviewee what type of social activities Banstead could introduce that would interest teenagers, my interviewee responded with internet/social cafes, arcades, skate parks and shops that teenagers often buy from. These shops can include New Look, H&M and Topshop; teenagers will be attracted to these due to them being lower priced shops. These different activities can target both male and females.

“Do you feel that the lack of activities available can result in teenagers resorting to criminal behaviour, e.g. vandalism and drugs?”

I asked my interviewee if whether or not they felt that the lack of activities available could result in criminal behaviour, to which he replied with “Yes”. He also stated that he felt that teenagers could resort to this behaviour seeing as there is no other alternative (e.g. social clubs or arcades) for what a teenager can do; given that teenagers will be more likely to give in to peer pressure especially if they feel as if they have not got anything ‘better’ or ‘more important’ to do.

“Have you personally witnessed teenage drug use in your local area? (Banstead)”

I asked my interviewee this question as I wanted to see if someone else, apart from myself, had witnessed teenagers using drugs. As a response to this question, my interviewee said he had witnessed teenagers on a number of different occasions smoking cannabis in the local park. This provides me with substantial evidence that there could potentially be more witnesses of this particular behaviour; without assuming why these teenagers took drugs, this could highlight the suggestion that teenagers, apart from the lack of social activities, may be using drugs to escape from stressful situations as home life. Referring back to my secondary research where I found that there were a significant number of single parent families living in Banstead, teenagers of these families may feel upset from these situations.

“Do you believe that there is a link between teenage drug use and home issues?”

After asking my interviewee this question, they responded with “Yes”. They felt strongly about this question as they firmly believed that children and teenagers do feel stress and pressured from home life issues which then impacts their behaviour outside of home; at this point teenagers, may look for something to look forward to outside of home (e.g. activities or even jobs to take their mind off that stress at home) which could then leave them with no choice but to resort to criminal behaviour at some times. 

Written Report

Written Report

The purpose of my research revolves around finding the different types of activities that Banstead has to offer for teenagers who live there and how applicable they are to teenagers. Therefore, I plan to do my own documentary researching in to the different views and opinions of the lack of opportunities.

I conducted primary research using a range of different methods, firstly I created my own questionnaire, as it was a quick and easy method of gaining responses from a large amount of people, asking participants to rate the social activities in Banstead out of 10 and whether or not they are appealing to teenagers. Giving out questionnaires also provided me with the opportunity for respondents to list if they believe that the lack of social opportunities can lead to an increase in crime rate, to which the majority of the respondents said yes. Here are examples of a couple of my questions:

Do you believe that the lack of activities has/could lead to the increase in criminal activity?

Overall, 80% (8) people who answered my questionnaire had responded with ‘Yes’, whereas 20%, who represent the other 2 respondents, have answered ‘No’. This suggests that most people are convinced that the lack of social activities in Banstead can lead to an increase in criminal activity, especially as there are less considered activities for teenagers.

And

Do you feel that the attractions in Banstead are appealing to teenagers?

Another example of a question from my questionnaire is asking respondents whether that they feel that the attractions in Banstead are appealing to teenagers or not. The majority of the respondents, which is the 70%, responded with no. However, the rest of the 30% responded with yes although the majority of responses still suggests that my target audience believe that the attractions are not ideal for teenagers and should introduce more types of social activities. The questionnaire results enabled me to have a more direct approach when conducting my interview, such as the interviewees opinion on Banstead’s social and job opportunities and transport.

Secondly, I conducted a face to face interview with a teenager who does live in Banstead. This interview enabled me to ask a range of questions about what the interviewee’s opinions are on of whether or not the activities apply to her age group and whether or not if different social activities could be introduced. Through having a face to face interview this enabled me to obtain personal responses and opinions from the interviewee, this therefore helped me elaborate on my responses from my questionnaire in a more in-depth way. 

Another example of using primary research could be that I provided my target audience with a list of potential names for my documentary, 3 already belonging to existing documentaries, and 1 being my own. One of the important factors that will determine whether or not people will want to view your documentary will be based on its name, therefore I asked respondents to vote which name they prefer. Luckily, the respondents preferred the name of my choice.

Another method of primary research I conducted was undertaking my own controlled observation on the same category of people I am researching about in my documentary. I listed 4 different activities within Banstead on table, and as I approached different respondents providing them with leaflets containing information about each activity I tallied up the interests and their general types of responses towards the activity. Here is a copy of the results I obtained after the observation. 

Generated from my results, most of the activities in Banstead appeal to families with younger children rather than teenagers, such as the Banstead Woods Nature Trail. Another issue I discovered was that Café Italia can be appealing to teenagers, however only to teenagers who have enough disposable income. This may be a restriction to most teenagers in Banstead as it is considered difficult to find jobs within the local area, which may be another reason as to why there could be an increase in criminal activity. After discovering about the lack of job opportunities for teenagers, I could have researched more into people’s opinions of jobs for teenagers within Banstead, which could be behind the reason why some teenagers may not prefer to go to pubs/bars or restaurants. 

A form of secondary research I conducted was researching into different directors of short films by looking at the amount of views, subscribers and likes they get on their YouTube and Facebook pages. From what I discovered, the more social media pages there are the more popular the director/short films are. 

I conducted audience research in order to research into the possible living situations of my target audience therefore I studied the different situations of adults and some teenagers. I started with socio-economic, where I studied how the economic activity affects their social courses. I researched into how much the average employment wage is for a household in Banstead to which I discovered is higher than most parts of the nation, overall it is more likely that my target audience can afford premium channels which does not restrict my target audience from viewing my documentary. After discovering the average employment wage, I realised the likeliness of my target audience viewing my documentary will increase if it was shown on channels at around evening time when everyone in the household will be back from work and school.  

Considering that my target audience are mainly parents and potentially some teenagers, I researched into the most popular products that are used by these age groups. Apple’s products are shown to have a large target audience to every age category.

Audience Research

Audience Research consists of:

Audience classification (socio-economic, geodemographic, psychographic, ethnographic, age, gender, sexual orientation, occupation, education); media preferences; product preferences; buying patterns.

Socio Economics

This studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social courses. It analyses how societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their local or regional economy, or the global economy.

My target audience is mainly the parents, and possibly some teenagers. Due to statistics, the average employment wage for a household in Reigate and Banstead is higher than most parts of the nation itself, which suggests that if my documentary were to be shown in cinemas or premium channels the adults of the households are more likely to be able to afford and view it. Therefore, the economic activity does not negatively affect households as their income is at a standard level.

There may be possible factors that can impact how many people view my documentary, such as the timing of when my documentary is shown and on which channel. If my documentary was to be shown during the day, due to statistics the majority of the residents are employed, people are more likely to be out the house. Ideally my documentary should be shown at a reasonable hour on a fairly popular channel in the evening when residents are more likely to watch television. I could also have my documentary be shown in cinemas as based on the average amount of income residents receive, they are more likely to often visit the cinemas which expands on the number of viewings my documentary receives. I believe that adults have more of an advantage than teenagers when it comes to job opportunities in Banstead as there are not many jobs going for young adults, whereas start-up businesses and companies are likely to be successful and generate more income for adults.

Geodemographic

Geodemographic research is a combination of demographics (age, income, sexuality), psychographics (personalities, lifestyles) and the geographical locations of your target audience. It is ideal to find out the personal interests and desires of your target audience especially based on their location.

Geodemographic research has been applied to my documentary as I aimed to find out the personal interests of those living in Banstead. My primary audience for my documentary are the parents that live in Banstead as they could be interested in the reasons as to why people of their children’s age group may or may not want to socialise in Banstead or even discover how little opportunities there are for teenagers to socialise. Parents may also want to see what the younger age groups resort to, such as an increase in drug use or alcohol consumption. Adults who view my documentary may also be interested in how Banstead has changed and what it really has to offer and the personal opinions of others who live there, whether they have recently moved to Banstead or have grown up there. 

Psychographic

Psychographics measures the personal interests, opinions, attitudes and lifestyles of your target audience.

My target audience may be interested in the personal opinions of people their children’s age and what activities they generally get up to, considering that not many parents may not have a general knowledge of what their children get up to, viewing this documentary will enable them to discover what activities their children’s age group do during their spare time and what they could possibly do, such as alcohol consumption, sports or drug use. 

Ethnographic

This describes the culture of your target audience, the aim of this is to understand different perspectives of people from different cultures.

I have taken ethnographic research into consideration as, depending on their culture, my primary audience may not or agree with how Banstead is being portrayed. As my primary audience are the parents, they may not be open or agree to watching how teenagers of a younger generation socialise as it may entirely differ to their generation. Parents who have grown up in Banstead may also be interested in how the place they grew up in is being conveyed, whether it is accurate or not. However, parents may not agree with the statement that there is a lack of social activities in Banstead of teenagers, for example, older generations were able to go into pubs and bars at a younger age and socialise outside in green spaces, whereas now restaurants and bars are stricter on age, therefore they may not be interested in watching it and still be convinced that there are plenty of activities for teenagers to do. 

Age, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Occupation, Education

My primary audience will be parents of teenagers that live-in Banstead, this is because parents may be interested in how people their children’s age feel about the activities in Banstead, whereas my secondary audience will be teenagers that ages range from 13-18 of both genders. 

Media and Product Preferences

My primary and secondary audience mainly consume Apple’s products as they are targeted towards all ages. Adults can be targeted considering that the iPhone is effective for business as well as having resources for daily activities such as maps, internet connections, phone calls, text messaging and cameras. Teenagers can also be targeted as iPhones can be useful for school and college, such as note taking and organisation, as well as for free time such as text messaging. iPods can also be aimed towards teenagers as they can be used for music and social media access.

Buying Patterns

After looking at the percentage of internet users who watch Netflix, 65% of users are aged to 16-24 years (my target audience). In addition to this they will receive recommendations from Netflix on other shows that are a similar genre to what they currently watch, therefore if my target audience do choose to watch real life documentaries then it will be more likely that my documentary on teenagers living in Banstead will come up as a recommendation. 

References:

file:///C:/Users/Yasmin/Downloads/Quality_of_Life_in_Reigate_and_Banstead%20(4).pdf

http://www.statista.com/statistics/421839/netflix-internet-user-age-usa/

Observations

Observations

Controlled Observation

The researcher decides where, with who, when and how the observation will take place. Instead of writing a detailed description, it is easier to use a coding system. The information will then be organised into categories that measure the behaviour or characteristics, this will then make it easier to put the data into statistics. 

Naturalistic Observation

This is an unstructured observation where participants are in a natural environment the researcher studies the behaviour of wherever they are.

Participant Observation

The researcher becomes part of the group they are observing for research purposes. e.g. a mystery shopper. 

Evaluating Controlled Observation

I conducted a controlled observation to identify attitudes and discuss truths about how the social activities appeal to teenagers living in Banstead. I chose a controlled observation over natural as it was easier for me to discover participant’s reactions to the activities in Banstead that were on display. If I were to use any other form of observation, it would not have worked as well as the participants may not have voluntarily viewed the leaflets that were on display, it was also quicker for me to gain reactions at the right time rather than spending large amounts of time waiting for a reaction. Conducting a controlled observation was easier for me as I was able to approach participants and trigger a conversation with them about the suggested activities. Speaking to the participants directly enabled me to identify facial expressions, sarcastic remarks and a more in-depth response and opinion about what Banstead has to offer.

An example of a controlled observation that inspired me would be Pavlov’s Dogs, where before he fed his dogs he would ring a bell. He repeated this a few more times for a while and then tried ringing the bell without leaving out any food. After he rang the bell, the dogs began to salivate more as they were convinced they were about to be fed. This then gave me ideas to conduct a controlled observation as I wanted to observe and see the reactions for myself when I suggested the different activities to teenagers passing by.

On my observation table, I could have added an extra column and listed it ‘unsure/not much knowledge of’ in order to make my table much clearer and reliable. If another person were to conduct this observation with my table, they may not be sure where to write the response if the participant does not know much or is unaware of the activity. I also could have added a column that asked the observer to rate the reactions out of 5, rather than just have separate columns asking to number who is interested and uninterested. Perhaps I could have also included gender to columns to identify which gender are more interested in which activity.

In order to make my observation more valid, I could get a couple of other people to perform the same observation to make my findings less biased. Perhaps, I could have included more columns in order to categorise them and measure exact responses, such as making categories for specific attitudes rather than putting them into two different columns.

The strengths of my observation is that I was able to provide the participants I approached with my own chosen questions. This allowed me to identify participants exact thoughts on the activities in a much quicker time. However, the weaknesses of my observation were that I could have gained responses from more people. I also could have asked an equal amount of participants of both genders, that way I could have made a more specific link to the responses.

From both of these pie charts, participants are more interested in the restaurants and bars such as The Woolpack and Café Italia, whereas the ‘uninterested’ categories state that participants were uninterested in Banstead Woods Nature Trail and The Lavender Fields. This suggests that considering the age group of my participants, which were mainly 17-18 year olds, restaurants and bars appeal more to them rather than the outdoor activities.

With this research, it will help me with my documentary as I can research more into the different interest in activities between younger and older teenagers. The possible restriction may be that the younger teenagers might not want to do the outdoor activities, whereas they are too young for the restaurants and bars in Banstead. Younger teenagers may also not be able to afford to go to such attractions, therefore they are limited as to what they can do in their free time. This will help me in my documentary as I can find out what alternatives teenagers are more likely to do when they do not want to visit these attractions, as well as receive opinionated responses as to why Banstead is not an ideal location for teenagers to socialise.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html

Survey

Evaluation of Survey Results

Considering that all of my respondents were aged between 16-18, it narrowed down my research into a particular age category as opposed to finding out the opinions of younger teenagers aged between 13-15. However, after asking respondents what their preferred location is out of The Woolpack, The Lavender Fields and Café Italia, 4 responded with The Woolpack and 4 responded with Café Italia, with the last 2 responding with The Lavender Fields. This suggests that the particular age category that I will be observing in my documentary prefer social activities that involve alcohol rather than a family environment (The Lavender Fields). 

Another question I asked respondents was for them to rate the current activities in Banstead out of 5, to which none of my responses rated higher than 3. Due to four rating 1, three rating 2 and three rating 3, I believe that teenagers aged 16-18 are fairly unsatisfied with the type of activities Banstead has to offer especially for teenagers. After reviewing these statistics, it could suggest that teenagers may find another alternative due to boredom, which could be a result of drug/alcohol use and/or vandalism. 

I also asked respondents whether or not they think that the current activities in Banstead are appealing to teenagers, to which 6 responded with No and 3 responded with yes. Considering that the majority said that the activities are not appealing to their age category, it has furthered my conclusion that teenagers may often resort to an alternative activity, whether it is crime or antisocial behaviour. 

My final question asked respondents whether or not they believed that the lack of activities has/could lead to the increase in criminal activity, to which eight responded with Yes and two responded with No. This provides me with another popular topic I can research more into and discuss with as I could find out whether there is a link between boredom/lack of general activities and criminal activity in teenagers.

Overall after gathering my responses I have come to the conclusion that my target audience do have a strong belief that the teenagers situated in Banstead may feel ‘bored’ and resort to underage drinking/drug use or vandalism. I could also research into why my teenagers prefer social activities that involve alcohol, whether they witness this behaviour at home or are under levels of stress and pressure for particular reasons; I could validate my results by looking into why the majority of teenagers no longer enjoy social activities in a family environment.

Qualitative Research (Secondary)

Qualitative Research - Secondary

Forums

I have found an online forum called singletrackworld.com, after filtering it to banstead I discovered that residents can register and start up a chat forum with other residents. After looking at the posts I have discovered that the residents already living in Banstead are unhappy with the lack of trails around the area. You can see from this that residents are pushed to go out of the Banstead area to enjoy biking activities. This could also apply to teenagers considering that many teenagers like to ride their bikes but often have to travel to find a good place to do so. 

I also found another forum site called gingerbread.org, this particular forum has a fair few responses on a forum asking if there are any single parents in the Banstead/Tadworth area. This suggests that there are a fair few single parent families in the Banstead area which could affect why some teenagers may not be able to afford to visit social activities often due to minimal household income. Some teenagers may also feel unhappy at home due to certain reasons which is another topic I can research more into. 

TripAdvisor

I looked online on the TripAdvisor website and looked at the reviews people have left on the things to do in Banstead. Although there are not many social activities, it was still worth retrieving people's views and opinions of what they thought of each attraction. 

"This is a great place for all of the family to explore and enjoy." 

The above review is about Mayfield Lavender Farm, which is a great place for teenagers to visit during the summer to meet up and socialise with friends. Ideal for all ages. 

"We have returned here time after time and always are well looked after the food is good and fresh and the welcome always warm."

This review is about Cafe Italia, which can be a good meeting point for teenagers, especially above 18s, to meet up and socialise. 

"Popped in for beer and a snack. Very pleasant pub with good beer."

This review is about the Woolpack which is located at the top of Banstead High Street, again it is another attraction for over 18s to enjoy as it is a great place for an alcoholic drink and food. 

References:

https://gingerbread.org.uk/forum/default.aspx

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/banstead-surrey#post-3684929

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g1069786-Activities-Banstead_Surrey_England.html

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g1069786-d2201190-Reviews-The_Woolpack-Banstead_Surrey_England.html

Readership Circulation Figures

Readership Circulation Figures Surrey