Question 1: Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of focus groups.

The answer to this question for the benefits of focus groups would be it can be conducted in a
limited time as it allows up to a maximum of 12 people to interview in two hours, several groups
can be identified, recruited and interviewed within about a week, a good moderator is able to
gather valuable data by energizing the focus group members as it could lead to get accurate
results and within an academic setting, they are affordable, as costly, apart from transcribing
expenses, it is borne by academic researchers using their time and institutional resources. The
drawbacks of focus groups might be they cannot be used to discuss controversial issues as they
can lead to disagreements causing unpleasantness or conflicts between group members, they lack
the naturalness of everyday conversations, even though they are expected to gather people's
opinions and attitudes in everyday conversations, members may express extreme views because
they normally will not express due to being carried away by the discussion or the captive
audience and finally using audio-visual technology to record the discussions could distract
members or lead to reactivity of participants because they behave in a way different from
normal.