ESCENA SEXTA

This study relied on naturalistic methods relating to humans, including in-depth interviews and focus groups. Consequently, there were moral principles and ethical factors that needed to be addressed (Christians, 2000; Christians, 2011; Denzin and Lincoln, 2011b), which included informed consent, non-deception, respect for the privacy and the confidentiality of participants, and the need to collect and present reliable and valid empirical data.

3.5.1 Informed consent

According to the ethical code of Newcastle University concerns ‘the confidentiality and personal data must be collected and used fairly, stored securely and not unlawfully disclosed’

(Newcastle University, 2015). Informed consent was therefore significant for this research as the study related with the advertisers, alcohol marketing directors and the people who consume the alcohol beverages. Consequently, informed consent or the participants’ agreement was secured before allowing them to be involved in the in-depth interviews and the focus groups. The researcher also took the requisite action to avoid causing any deception or harm while accessing and obtaining the data. Furthermore, appropriate action and steps were taken to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the advertisers, the alcohol marketing directors and agency executives, and the focus group participants.

To comply with the ethics of qualitative research, a signed agreement or consent form was collected from each person who participated in the in-depth interviews and the focus groups (a draft consent form is attached in Appendix A6). Before asking approval from the participants, the researcher had explained the purpose of the study and the whole process of the study so far as it involved the participants, and informed them of the reasons why participants are requested to join the discussion. The participants were also given the commitment that their privacy and confidentiality would be protected. If a participant was not comfortable during the conversation, they were allowed to withdraw from the activity. Furthermore, if the participants wanted to hear/see the tape/video recording, the transcribed notes or any related data, this information was provided to them.

Another ethical consideration was the provision of remuneration and thank you gifts if this is considered necessary. Thank you gifts from the UK was provided for the Singha and Chang executives that provided cooperative in-depth interviews. Also, remuneration was provided for focus groups’ participants for travel and food costs, as well as for their time and as a thank you for their cooperation.

3.5.2 Reliability and validity

Ethical considerations are also related to the accuracy and reliability of all the data collected and the presentation of that data, as this demonstrates the quality, trustworthiness and validity of the research. Therefore, a methodological triangulation process was used to cross-check data validity and reliability. In order to qualify the trustworthiness and validity of a research project, triangulation is a strategy that decreases bias or that can cross-check and verify the validity of the qualitative analysis applied (Patton, 1990). As Denzin (1978) noted, ‘the logic of triangulation is based on the premise that no single method ever adequately solves the problem

of rival casual factors, because each method reveals different aspects of the empirical reality, multiple methods of observations must be employed’ (p.28). The methods referred to include data triangulation, investigator triangulation, theoretical triangulation, methodological triangulation, and environmental triangulation. With this regard, this study apparently applied the data triangulation and methodological triangulation to affirm its validity and trustworthiness, as discussed in the following.

Firstly, it is apparent that this project used data triangulation. It can be seen that this study applied several sources of data to explain how alcohol brands applied masculinities for brand promotions. For instance, the advertising airing in television was the first data that applied to investigate how the alcohol brands used the masculinities for selling their products. Then, it was followed by the data from the message senders such as Singha and Chang executives to explain the process of how the masculinities were created and promoted. Lastly, the data from the consumers or media audiences was applied to explain how the media receivers perceived the forms of masculinities that were represented. Obviously, this demonstrates that different findings from each data source were applied for an investigation cross-check of each other.

Secondly, as Denzin (1978) emphasised earlier that ‘no single method ever adequately solves the problem of rival casual factors, because each method reveals different aspects of the empirical reality, so that multiple methods of observations must be employed (p.28). Therefore, it could be argued that this study had applied the methodological triangulation method, since this study applied three research methods to explore the issues. For example, the key objective was to explore how the masculinities were created, represented and perceived by audiences, therefore content analysis was applied as a means of investigating the masculinities represented in TV alcohol advertising. It provided what occurred in the media messages. However, it could not explain how the masculinities were created, therefore in-depth interviews were applied to investigate the media senders of how they created or produced the masculine representations. In the other words, the in-depth interviews supplied a perspective missing from the content analysis. Furthermore, focus groups were used to examine how the receiver or audience of the TV alcohol adverts perceive or decode them. This method completes the triangulation of content analysis and in-depth interview methods. This reflects the methodological triangulation, as several research methods were used to exploree the same issue. Consequently, triangulation serves to demonstrate the reliability of the research. Since, it is beneficially argued that triangulation could ‘increase confidence in research data, creating innovative ways of

understanding a phenomenon, revealing unique findings, challenging or integrating theories, and providing a clearer understanding of the problem’ (Thurmond, 2001, p. 254).