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manner, which, for action analysis, could include filming, photography,
drawing, or simply observing and note taking, or a combination of any of
these. It can also include the researcher undertaking the actions himself.
Two major advantages of this kind of primary research is that any material
gathered or generated is very specific to the researcher's questions and needs,
and it is entirely owned by the researcher, who is then free to do with this
material as she will.
However, primary research can be rather time consuming and, depending on
the subject, could prove rather difficult to undertake. Primary research into
fish behavior, for example, may entail actually getting into the water. Primary
research into shark-feeding behavior may also present the researcher with
some interesting demands. Obviously, this kind of research is not always
practical nor indeed the most effective or efficient method of research.
Secondary Research
Secondary research is a term used for acquiring information that already
exists and is available to the researcher. This may entail collecting data from
a number of sources and, having gathered it, making a further study of it in
such a manner that results cast new light on the subject. The researcher may
make a review of the findings of other research or information and, as part
of the secondary research, undertake the synthesis of this information and
publish it in a new form.
Unlike primary research, which may involve fieldwork, much of this secondary
research may be undertaken from within a studio or office environment.
In recent years the greatest source of material for secondary research has
been the Internet. This is a very rich seam of material, but the researcher
does face certain difficulties in this type of approach. For a start, the sheer
volume of material available on the Internet demands a degree of editing and
collating, sifting the relevant from the irrelevant. Establishing the veracity of
the information you find may also be problematic. Just because the material
is widely available does not mean it's accurate. The quality of the available
information is highly variable and the sources might not always be reliable.
In addition, the information acquired during secondary research may originally
have been generated for very different purposes from our own needs, which
means that it might not be entirely suited or appropriate to our immediate
research investigations. It is likely that this secondary research will not be as
well controlled or as well targeted as primary research. Still, this may be the
only practical manner of getting the necessary material. But swimming with
hungry sharks to study feeding behavior might not be everyone's cup of tea.
By comparison to those pioneers of animation, we are in a very privileged
position to be able to access such a vast wealth of material, so we should
make the most of it.
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