The investigator appoints local agents or correspondents in different places to collect information under this method. These correspondents collect and transmit the information to the central office where data are processed. This method is generally adopted by newspaper agencies.
Correspondents who are posted at different places supply information relating to such events as accidents, riots, strikes, etc., to the head office. The correspondents are generally paid staff or sometimes they may be honorary correspondents also. This method is also adopted generally by the government departments in such cases where regular information is to be collected from a wide area. For example, in the construction of a wholesale price index numbers, regular information is obtained from correspondents appointed in different areas. The biggest advantage of this method is that it is cheap and appropriate for extensive investigation. But a word of caution is that it may not always ensure accurate results because of the personal prejudice and bias of the correspondents.
As stated earlier, this method is suitable and adopted in those cases where the information is to be obtained at regular intervals from a wide area.
