This section is designed to provide an overview and introduction to some of the issues that arise when embarking on investigations in the field. Field research can be an essential and integral aspect of your overall strategy.
First-hand viewpoint
Field research is an extremely valuable way to gather new information and documentation – helping to make your issue strong and credible. It is one way to bring your issue to life and reflect the reality, in situ, of how problems are affecting people and the environment.
So much information is available on the internet that there can be a temptation to limit yourself to desk research, but in doing so you are missing a highly valuable source of new information, facts, ideas and opinions.
Talk to the people close to the source of a problem, workers, government employees and others can provide essential information upon which you can base a campaign. Field research can, in many situations, be the best – sometimes the only – way to gather new visual materials that provide evidence of a problem and bring your issue to life.
- Be prepared for each trip to raise new ideas, suggestions and locations that you may want to cover in the future. As your strategy unfolds you will probably have to make return trips to gather new information and keep your message up-to-date.