METHODOLOGY

This research aims to study the attitudes and behaviors of Thai female adolescents towards the feminine image of Japanese male singers. This topic is quite new in Thai society. Therefore, in order to illustrate the phenomenon clearly, the statistic results or numbers may not be enough to understand the situation clearly, because knowing only the numbers and statistics cannot tell much on what actually has happened or the detailed information that would not be told. Since it is aimed to explain and explore more than what they think and do, simply and basically in statistics, this research is therefore designed to be a qualitative research because it will give more opportunity to explain the situation.

3.1 Research Method
Qualitative research is a research model developed primarily in the social sciences by anthropologists and sociologists as a way to learn about the social world, and has been applied to educational inquiry in recent years. This model is usually called “qualitative” or “subjective” because it relies on human powers of observation rather than on measurement instruments. Qualitative researchers seek to understand a phenomenon by focusing on the total picture rather than breaking it down into variables. The goal is a holistic picture and depth of understanding, rather than a numeric analysis of data. Qualitative researchers try to study all elements present in the setting in which the inquiry takes place. They look not only at what people do but also at how they think and feel, and experience what happens to them. The result is a narrative report so comprehensive that it reveals the social reality experienced by the participants. Furthermore, because researchers do not know in advance how natural reasons will unfold or what variables may be important, they do not begin a study with a hypothesis.

3.2 Population
Sampling group
Before studying the phenomenon, it is important to select the sampling groups first. As the nature of qualitative research does not deal with a large group of people, it is completed with small sampling groups (วัลลภ, 2547). The plus point of using a sampling group is that it saves time, expense and is easy to control. Researchers can collect data in deep and up-to-date detail. More importantly sampling groups are necessary for research that has to be done within a special group (อุเทน, 2549). This fact supports this research because the topic of this study is quite specialized in specific fields and not familiar to people in general. Accordingly if no sampling is made and random selection is used, the result may not be meaningful enough. Moreover, the researcher thinks that people who are not involved in anything about the topic will not be able to understand the topic clearly and it may lead to misunderstanding and ineffective results.

Therefore, there are some qualifications for the sampling groups. The researcher has set some qualifications as below;

1. Thai female adolescents aged between 15-22 years old
2. They are fans who like and favor Japanese music and singers, especially the Japanese feminine male singers.
3. They are willing to participate with this study

Most of the Japanese entertainment consumers are in this age group and are in junior high school up to university level. Although teenagers around 12-14 years old are also interested in Japanese entertainment, the researcher thinks that they are too young to answer some questions. The age range as described is gained from the direct experiences of the researcher after finding some information on the Japanese entertainers’ fan club.

The method used for choosing the sampling group is Non-Probability Sampling which is divided into three types: Accidental Sample, Quota Sample and Purposive Sample. The researcher chooses the Purposive Sample which means that the group will be selected according to the appropriateness with the topic’s purpose so the researcher can get a more appropriate target group that is most connected to the research topic (วัลลภ, 2547). After getting the primary sampling group, the researcher will use the Snowball Technique to find secondary sampling groups.

The Snowball Research Strategies
Basically this is the method used for identifying respondents who can refer the researcher on to other respondents. The use of snowball strategies provides means of accessing vulnerable and more impenetrable social groupings. The technique offers real benefits for studies which seek to access difficult-to-reach or hidden populations.

The snowball technique is mostly used with qualitative research, primarily through interview because it serves as an informal method to reach target populations. Moreover, the main value of snowball technique is that it is a method for obtaining respondents where some degree of trust is required to initiate contact. It is a technique of ‘chain referral’ that a researcher needs to share characteristics associated with being an insider or group member that will help the research to be more effective (Atkinson and John).

A technique used in finding a wider group of research subjects is when one subject gives the researcher the name of another subject, who in turn provides the name of the third, and so on. Snowball sampling can be placed within a wider set of link-tracing methodologies which seek to take advantage of the social networks of identified respondents to provide a researcher with an ever-expanding set of potential contacts. The process is based on a ‘bond’ or ‘link’ between the initials sampling target and others in the same target population.

The snowball technique has the good point that it develops positive and friendly feelings between the researcher and the sampling group so that it will be easy to ask for information. The sampling groups will feel more comfortable to give details and information to the researcher because they do not think that the researcher is an outsider but feel as if they were friends.

The researcher has started the study by finding information about Japanese entertainers, actors and singers especially male entertainers, in many media like television series, television programs about Japanese entertainment and magazines. However, one way of getting the information and getting to know the fan club directly is via the internet. The researcher found websites that are about Japanese entertainers using search engines such as Google. After having enough information about websites, the researcher browsed through them. The easiest way to know the fan club is on the web boards that are available in many websites. Most of the fans in the web board knew each other. The researcher knew some fans on the web board and gained information this way. And then the researcher could apply the snowball technique to reach other sampling groups.

3.3 Data Collection
The researcher used two ways of collecting data, by observation and in-depth interview.

Observation
Observation is the data collecting method that has been widely used by anthropologists to study human’s behavior in society in terms of ‘status’ and ‘role’. It is the method used to observe phenomenon systematically to know the group activity, circumstances and purposes. There are two types of observations which are Participant Observation and Non-Participant Observation (วัลลภ, 2547).

This research will use Participant Observation, which means the researcher needs to undertake group activities with the sampling group as a part of that group. It is usually an Unstructured Observation with only the main topic prepared in advance. The researcher should at least have some experiences, or be a member of, the sampling group. This method provides accurate information especially in regards to hard-to-find information (วัลลภ, 2547).

Interview
The interview will provide opportunities to gain information and understand the attitudes of the interviewees more than other kinds of data collecting. The factors that help enable effective interviews are:

1. The good attitude of the interviewee towards the interviewer which depends on the introduction of the interviewer.

2. The interviewee needs to feel that the research is worth giving information for, therefore the interviewer should explain it clearly that the interviewee’s attitudes and information are very useful to the research.

3. It is very important to explain the purpose of the study, the reason for choosing the interviewer and the interviewer’s status or background in case there might be some misunderstandings.

There are two main types of interview, the Structured Interview and the Unstructured Interview. The first type is done by the Interviewing Schedule that every interviewee will be asked with same pattern of questions. It can be used with both Individual Interview and Group Interview. Sometimes, it is called Formal Interview or Inflexible Interviewing.

The second type which will be used in this research is Unstructured Interview which is dependent on the interviewer’s experiences and technique to gain the expected information. Though no schedule is made, at least the interviewer should prepare some main points to ask. This is a more flexible way and sometimes called Informal Interviewing or flexible interviewing.

This kind of interview is often used for In-depth Interview in order to gain more detailed information. The important point of this kind of interview is the skill of the interviewer to create a friendly atmosphere with the interviewees (วัลลภ, 2547).