Survey Research!

For this week’s blog I will be focusing on the survey research method! And how the American Cancer Society uses this method to help improve their organization and help fight the battle against cancer! According to our textbook Advertising and Public Relations Research by, Donald W. Jugenheimer, Samuel D. Bradley, Larry D. Kelly, and Jerry C. Hudson a Survey is:

Survey:  

·         Is one of the most popular methods for collecting quantitative research for a topic

·         Surveys are commonly used by advertising and PR researches to provide information about populations to clients, government agencies, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and educators

·         The term “Survey” is used to describe methods of asking questions to respondents

o   Surveys are divided into two broad areas: questionnaires and interviews

o   The survey can range from 5-100 questions

·         Surveys can be  classified as cross-sectional or longitudinal

·         Survey is a vital tool for collecting data over a large population.

o   Due to technology and software, some forms of survey research by telephone or electronic methods may be automated with a pre-recorded messages, instructions and questions.

·         Surveys are customized to fit a specific research goal. Each question is developed to solicit information to expand knowledge about a particular issue.

·         The more specific you are in developing your goals, the easier it will be to collect quality data

·         Survey information and data are collected using standardized procedures for each question and project.

·         Each questionnaire must be pretested to confirm the accuracy of the question formatting

·         Researchers should protect the anonymity of respondents, and individually respondents should never be identified.

·         Reports of the data should be presented in such forms as numbers, percentages, and statistical tables and charts.

This made me think how the American Cancer Society uses the research method of Surveys to help their organization.  I went to ACS's website and found that they do a survey for every single cancer prevention study. This Link will show you all of the surveys which they have conducted for the different cancers.  For this research I found it very interesting to see the variety of surveys which the American Cancer Society has conducted over the years. This shows how the survey research method is a great tool for their organization.

November 1 Marks the start of Lung Cancer Awareness Month! Please visit American Cancer Society’s website and read about events such as The Great American Smokeout and facts and figures regarding Lung cancer in general.