Having not yet completed a research-based subject, I am beginning to realise why it is so important to participate in one. Particularly when I first started this as a part of my Media and Communications, I was quite sure how it would fit in with the rest of the degree. Having completed much of it now, research and using that research as a communication tool is highly important no matter what professional field you enter into.

Firstly, knowing how to approach research in the initial stages can really change the direction it takes. When beginning to do the research, I didn’t know how much curiosity can aid the way you research, you need to be interested about the thing your researching, particularly if you are going to go through all the content the internet has, because there is a lot. I think as well although you should be willing to adapt to the possible challenges you might face in having to change research questions. Despite having stuck with my original curiosity idea, I never realised the importance of challenging and questioning original thoughts and opinions.

Although I had initial thoughts on the research having to be quite extensive and well planned, I had never really considered in-depth how important ethics are, and how consent forms must be drawn up at every point. To myself now, I definitely think my position has changed. I knew one had to be ethical, but I had never really had to approach it. Especially as it is such a difficult and hard to approach subject sometimes, it was good going into so much depth as we did in the research topic.

Whilst carrying out my research I felt as though my biggest challenge was gaining responses in the survey and interviews. Particularly as I had tweeted and retweeted quite often, it was hard to gain more than 30 responses. Although it would have been nice to have had more responses to use to make the results more credible, I do believe it still provided the opinion piece with some interesting finds.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed doing the research and collecting the data from interviewees and survey responses, especially as it was a topic, I was highly interested in.