A Qualitative Research Paper Critique

Research Problem

The topic under study aims to discuss the role of social media strategies in preventing issues with teenage gambling. It is a burning issue and is related to every society of the globe. Hence, the researchers have selected a very important social research problem that focuses on the activities related to the young stratum of society, and very few researches have been conducted on this topic in past.

Significance of the Study

Since gambling serves as a great social problem, which has left obnoxious impact on the individuals belonging to different groups and communities of society, prevention from gambling problem maintains imperative significance in its fold. In addition, the researchers have particularly concentrated upon the social marketing, which looks for striving for the betterment of society at large. Social marketing, Andreasen (1995:31) submits, is the application of commercial marketing technologies to the analysis, planning, execution, and evaluation of programs designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences in order to improve their personal welfare and that of their society. In other words, the main objective of the social marketing is working voluntarily for the benefit and uplift of the individuals at large. Moreover, it is also a reality that the young people are the future builders of a society, proper education and training of which is one of the most formidable responsibilities of all members of asocial set up. If the youth is not discouraged and prohibited from participating into the social evils including drinking, smoking and gambling etc, the future prospects of the society would be in grave jeopardy for the future years of come. In addition, it has aptly been observed that gambling leads the young people towards other nefarious activities including drinking and sex etc, which may challenge their health condition. Hence the social problem, selected by the researchers, is very important in its scope and exposure, and carries wide scope and depth in its nature. The researchers are quite justified in choosing the research problem related to social marketing, which looks to strive for the wellbeing and safety of the young people on the basis of the findings of the study, as well as the suggestions made on the foundations of the findings of the present research. 

 Research Questions 

The study, under-analysis, is interested in exploring the answers to the following questions:

Whether positively or negatively the gambling prevention campaigns, being launched by the government and non-governmental organizations at various media platforms, influence the minds of the young people

What is the magnitude of the influence of prevention ads on the young minds?

Which of the positive impacts of the prevention ads could be found among the youth involved in gambling and drug addition?

Which alterations should be made in the media campaign to discourage the youth from gambling and drug consumption?

Which age-group and gender is most affected by the social evils of gambling and drinking etc, and which type of campaign could prevent them from adopting these condemnable ways?

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Hypotheses

The researchers have conducted their research on the basis of following three hypotheses:

   The more discouraging the prevention ads launched at media, the more the probability of the young people to get involved into gambling and drug addiction

    The younger the age of the individuals, the lesser the fear regarding the consequences of an act or behavior in the future years

    The more startling the media campaign against the social evils, the brighter the chances of the young individuals in respect of indulging into perversion and deviant behavior. 

Directional and Non-Directional Hypothesis

 Directional hypotheses are those hypotheses that predict the direction through the comparison between the variables. On the contrary, non-directional hypotheses do not describe the magnitude of divergence between two or more variables by making comparison of the concepts and variables. The hypotheses established in the present study are directional in nature as they clearly make comparison between the variables determined in the present study i.e. the more the discouraging ads increase the probability of involvement into gambling activities in youth.  

Null and Alternative Hypotheses

 Social and physical researches are supported by statistical tests in order to accept or reject the hypothesis established for the research. Consequently, research findings are measured and estimated through statistical tests. Null hypothesis (H0) represents the very fact that hypothesis would be accepted, and Alternative hypothesis (H1) shows that the statistical test does not accept the proposition determined for the research. The specific process of hypothesis testing, Jupp (2006:138) views, usually involves testing the the null hypothesis that there is no connection between the variables defined. If the present study has been an inferential one, the following Null hypotheses could have been determined:

1. H0: Prevention ads do not discourage the youth from getting involved into gambling activities.
2. H0: At young age, the impact of warnings and threats is least on individuals.
3. H0: The horrible presentation of social evils augments the deviancy levels among the youth.

  But since it is not an inferential research; rather, it is a descriptive research in which null or alternative hypotheses are not involved. So, the three hypotheses established in the present study are research hypotheses.

Research Hypothesis

Research hypotheses are, Dr. Price (2000: 4) opines, the specific testable predictions made about the independent and dependent variables in the study. Usually the literature review has given background material that justifies the particular hypotheses that are to be tested. (Retrieved from une.edu.au) Hypotheses are couched in terms of the particular independent and dependent variables that are going to be used in the study. The present qualitative research has defined three research hypotheses for the findings on the topic of role of media campaign regarding gambling prevention among youth.

Clarity of the Subject

 Theorists declare clarity of the topic and coherence between various procedures as an essential element in a research process, without which the research does not fulfill the criteria of a perfect study. “While conducting a research work”, Bailey states, “it should be kept in mind that the research carries a clear topic and well-designed procedure, which may not create any ambiguity while conducting the research.” (1998: 19) By critically examining the hypotheses established for the present research, it becomes evident that the researchers have covered different aspects of social marketing in a skilled way. The hypotheses portray the comprehensive scenario of the topic, by elaborating the purpose of the research on the one hand, and the units of analysis on the other, which reflect their command over conducting of qualitative social research. The hypotheses explain the magnitude of the topic, on the basis of which the study is going to be conducted.  

The Research Process

The present research, conducted by Messerlian & Derevensky (2007) is qualitative in nature. Before analyzing whether or not the present research is qualitative in nature, it would be appropriate to identify the characteristics of a qualitative research, which are as under:

1. Purpose of the qualitative research is the understanding of a social or scientific phenomenon with the help of generalized facts already identified.
2. Discovering the new realities in order to reject the previous concepts and accept the news ones, with the help of qualitative data.
3. Applying of subjective data from the group of respondents simultaneously under one and the same atmosphere by extracting their views, ideas and opinions through group discussion and with the help of open-ended questions.
4. Interpretation of results through in-depth interview or focus group discussion by exploring the liking, disliking and inner views of the respondents under somewhat controlled environment.
5. In a qualitative research, focus of the study is always holistic, i.e. it aims to emphasize and elaborate the significance of every aspect of the topic under study by discussing the aspects one by one in order to obtain maximum number of opinions regarding the topic of research.

 By critically estimating the present research, it appears to be obvious that the present study fulfills all the criteria attributed to a qualitative study. The researchers have chosen focus groups for their study, and have conducted their research work on the young school students belonging from 7^th to 10^th grade. The variety of answers and differences in opinion display the command of the researchers over the research process.

Research Methodology

Tool for Data Collection

The researchers administered the focus groups at school level in order to conduct their study. Interview schedule was the tool for the data collection from the school children belonging to various schools located in urban and rural areas of Ontario and Montreal. The researchers extended their study from 7^th to 10^th grade students belonging to both the genders i.e. male and female.     

The Strengths and Limitations of the Research

 The present research contains the following strengths and weaknesses in its scope:

Strengths of the Research

The research has been conducted on the topic of social marketing, which reflects the intellect, dexterity and command of the researchers over the subject of research. In addition, the selection of such an imperative issue reveals how ingeniously the researchers have focused on the topic of gambling prevention among youth, which has rarely been chosen as the subject matter for conducting the social research. The researchers have taken the qualitative research method for his study. Since focus group discussion is the qualitative research technique, the same has been applied in the present study by Messerlian & Derevensky. One of the most important strengths of the study is the formation of open ended questions, which offer the probability of multidimensional answers to these questions. The prompting of the researchers during the research process in focus group discussion encouraged the students provide the replies of their own choice without any hesitation. The most formidable achievement of the researchers include bring the small children to terms regarding expressing of the use and affects of gambling, because the children try to escape and avoid disclosing of their personal and private matters, and especially conceal their deviant behavior from the olders because of the pressure from parents, teachers and elders. There appeared significant divergence in the responses made by the students of 7^th and 8^th grade on the one hand, and the students of senior classes on the other while conducting of the focus group discussion. The researchers displayed their command over the child psychology and cognitive behaviour among the adolescents, which they exercised on the innocent minds in order to draw out the accurate findings during the research process. In addition, the researchers were successful in extracting different responses from the senior students, who showed their extreme reservations regarding the way the media had adopted to keep the adolescents from indulging into gambling, drinking and smoking. The researchers have successfully exposed the negative role of the media, which projects gambling, drinking and smoking in an alluring and glamorous way, which is extremely attractive and fascinating for the young children, who try to imitate the footprints of the adults without having knowledge of the consequences of such activities. Messerlian & Derevensky have also shown, through the research findings, that children have least care of their life, health and future during adolescent; so even preventive measures are least bothered by the participants of focus group discussion. Moreover, newspapers, internet, TV and other media are selected to give complete representation to the present study. Drawing out of the children’s opinions regarding prevention campaign is highly supportive for the strategies devised by the media on the one hand, and for the conducting of future researches on same or similar topics on the other. Presence of two researchers and digital recording as well as taking notes make the research work an updated and well organized procedure.   

Limitations of the Research

One of the most imperative drawbacks or weak points of the present research include the too much divergence between the responses made by the students belonging to junior and senior classes. In addition, though the students are stated to be taking part in the research process on voluntary basis, yet the atmosphere of the focus groups seems to be very controlled one, as the students had been informed by the teachers and the school administration regarding the conducting of the research process. Another disadvantage of the present study is this that the overwhelming units of analyses (i.e. population) belonged to rural areas and small towns, which did not represent the urban population on equal basis. Since it is a great disadvantage of the qualitative research that its findings cannot be generalized on large population, confinement of the present research in rural areas make it more limited in scope and findings. The future researchers should conduct their research by giving both the areas equal representation.

Ethical Issues

The ethical issues applied in every qualitative research, Alejandra & Perez (2007: 6) state, include confidentiality, avoidance of harm, reciprocity and feedback of results. By closely examining the present study, it is obvious that the researchers have observed all these ethical values and morality while conducting their research process. They did not disclose the identity o the students, or forced them participate in the research without free consent or coercion. In addition, the researchers did not waste the precious time of the students, as the entire research was conducted in the school premises within the school hours. Moreover, the researchers also share their personal experiences with the students in order to sustain reciprocity. Regarding the feedback of results, the students were not informed as the results are not advantageous for the adolescents.

Conclusion

To conclude, it looks evident that the research has been conducted in a refined way, where the principles of qualitative research were kept in view by the researchers. In addition, though their hypotheses met with rejection, the study wide opened new horizons of knowledge and information to the researchers and the readers alike. It also concludes that the media must play more positive role while preparing and displaying the advertisements, so that the innocent children could escape the harms of such advertisements.

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References;

• Alejandra, Maria & Perez, Gonzalez 2007. Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI) (Retrieved from http://www.nuigalwaycki.ie/admin/documents/Ethical_Issues.pdf)
• Andreasen, A. 1995 Marketing Social Change: Changing Behavior to Promote Health, Social Development and the Environment. San Francisco: Jossey Bass
• Bailey, Kenneth D. 1998 Methods of Social Research 4^th Edition Collier Macmillan Publishers, the Free Press New York.
• Jupp, Victor. 2006 The Sage Dictionary of Social Research Methods SAGE Publications. ISBN 0-7619-6298-0
• Price, Dr. Ian. 2000 Depression in Early Adolescence: Relation to Externalising and Internalising Behaviour. Perceptual and Motor Skills University of New England (Quoted in
• http://www.une.edu.au/WebStat/unit_materials/c1_behavioural_science_research/research_hypoth_predict.html)
• http://philica.com/display_article.php?article_id=62
• http://socialmarketing.wetpaint.com/page/Definition+of+Social+Marketing
• http://intraserver.nurse.cmu.ac.th/mis/download/course/lec_566823_Lee%20-%20Jan%2019.pdf