Qualitative research is essentially information gathered from interviews and questionnaires, the difficulty with this style of research is the unreliability of it. Because it isnt fully backed with hard facts its difficult to have a give a true representation with this style of research.
Quantitative research on the other hand is a more solid type of research. It is backed up with facts figures and statistics. You can be more definitive with this style of research and it is often the more reliable style, out of the two.
For example, in the documetary The Union they use different styles of research to present different types of information. Initially they begin opening with a spate of quantitative research. They present to the viewer a tirade of facts, stats and figures with in the opening 10 minutes of the film. This, i think, is to get the viewer on board initially with unarguable facts, it almost forces you to be more open to the rest of the ideas in the film but giving you information that simply cant be argued with, its factual.
Later on the film the research techniques begins to shift, as the film makers begin to expand on their angle they recruit the help of professionals, experts and entrepreneurs. While these people are held in high esteem within their respective fields the information that they are giving, while potentially factual is dispelled in the form of an opinion and presents qualitative data . This makes it harder to just accept, hence the reason for building credibility earlier in the film with the more factual side of it.
The film has a good mixes of the two styles and uses them to good effect. It gets the point across without the boredom of just a stat attack but personal opinions in the mix as well. I think as an ensemble it works extremely well.
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