Why and how does the media use research?

Market research - target audience, competition, distribution, funding, content, sponsorship and advertisers
Good research to begin with can save money later on and is attractive to advertisers.

Audience Profiling (demographics)- gender, age, occupation, ABC1(social class) , average budget, sexuality, living arrangements,
Psychographics (personality and interests) - often a magazine will create their ideal person with specific details naming and designing a lifestyle

Social media research - is being used to listen to customers and ask them questions. products are starting to be launched based on social media research. social networking sites such as facebook and twitter can largely contribute to questionnaire responses. social media research is only beneficial to companies whose target audience engages with social media. social media research doesn't reach all of the intended market so some traditional research techniques may also be necessary. by using social media research, fans of the product can easily contact the company to share their views on a product and suggest changes or improvements they might wish to see. this is also a much more cost effective way for companies to get instant feedback from consumers.

Hargrave, 2010, Social Media Research, accessed on 09/09/10

i like the use of social media research as i think its a good way to keep in touch with their target audience specifically, especially with the likes of facebook as consumers specifically 'like' the group and are therefore changes made to the product will directly affect them as a consumer of the product.
there may be a few drawbacks to social media research. for example, your target audience may not be accessible meaning a different research method would need to be used.