Faiswal Kasirye

Purpose: This study investigates how content creators repair their public image after unintentionally spreading misinformation, analyzing how geographic, professional, gender, and audience factors shape their strategic responses. Method: Structured in-depth interviews with 19 content creators (1.3K–1.1M followers) from 13 countries were conducted in late 2024. Data were analyzed using the phronetic iterative approach to identify patterns in strategy use across global and professional contexts. Findings: Four image-repair strategies were identified: corrective action, reducing offensiveness, mortification (apologizing), and evasion of responsibility. Global North creators favor institutional transparency and structured retractions, while Global South creators more often use deletion and personal reflection. Veterans prioritize long-term trust through public accountability, whereas novices favor immediate deletion. Female creators tend to lean toward a transparent apology, while male creators adopt a mixed approach. Audience size shapes strategy: smaller creators (1K–10K) opt for deletion, while the largest creator (1M+) favors clarification to preserve an “objective record.” Implications: The findings underscore creators’ dual role in misinformation propagation and mitigation, offering practical guidance for creator education, platform design, and ethical communication frameworks that address cultural and structural disparities. Originality/Value: This study pioneers a global application of Image Repair Theory to creators’ misinformation management, moving beyond Western-centric frameworks. It develops a context-sensitive typology of repair strategies and demonstrates how platform affordances, audience scale, and the Global North-South divide shape accountability performances online.

This study investigates how follower size influences social media influencers’ sourcing behavior and credibility assessment rigor when producing content for their audiences. Grounded in Social Capital Theory, this study examines the tension between popularity as a form of social capital and its limited capacity to predict rigorous credibility assessment using a global quantitative survey of 500 social media influencers across multiple languages and regions. The findings suggest that influencers with larger follower sizes utilize more diverse sources; however, follower size does not correlate with credibility assessment rigor. This underscores that follower size functions as a symbolic rather than epistemic resource, where source diversity often serves as a visible signal of professionalism rather than having a deeper verification. Additionally, credibility assessment rigor is not a significant predictor of source diversity, and platform type and content genre did not moderate the relationship between follower size and source diversity. These findings contribute to the influencer marketing literature by challenging assumptions linking popularity with higher scrutiny of content credibility. The study holds implications for platform policy, media literacy education, and influencer–brand collaborations. Recommendations are provided for improving transparency and source vetting among digital content creators in increasingly flooded social media platforms.

The study proposes a new Islamic model for advertising agencies that embraces a normative perspective framed by Maqasid Al-Shari’ah. The phenomenological research design was adopted through semi-structured interviews carried out on 25 advertising industry practitioners and academicians well-versed in Maqasid Al-Shariah. The findings reveal that advertising agencies applied various Maqasid Al-Shari’ah principles in their codes of conduct, but they did not adhere to the same set of standards whilst academics recommended that Maqasid Al-Shari’iah elements be embedded in a standardised code of conduct and implemented in an ecosystem that ensures professionalism and sustainability. The study is significant as it examined both advertising agency and academic perspectives giving birth to the Model of the Implementation of the Advertising Codes of Conduct using Maqasid Al-Shari’ah that visualises how best to implement Maqasid Al-Shari’ah.

Learning through online systems is currently being used by universities to help students continue to engage in their studies for knowledge acquisition. The core function of web‐based learning platforms is to help students worldwide continue receiving their education even in situations like the current COVID‐19 crisis. This study examines the factors influencing the usage of web‐based video conferencing platforms for knowledge acquisition by determining the relationship between the following topics: types of web‐based video conferencing platforms, exposure to web‐based video conferencing platforms, awareness of web‐based video conferencing platforms, perception of web‐based video conferencing platforms, attitude toward web‐based video conferencing platforms, and behavioural usage toward web‐based video conferencing platforms when acquiring knowledge among students. The study utilises the theory of reasoned action to explain the relationships between the study's variables. A quantitative research design using the survey as the method and the questionnaire as the tool for data collection was used in this research. 290 respondents from a public university in Malaysia participated in the study. The study's findings reveal that attitude, perception, and awareness are the most influential factors that lead to students’ usage of web‐based video conferencing platforms for knowledge acquisition. The study's results also reveal that attitude is the best predictor of the platform's usage for knowledge acquisition. Additionally, students tend to consider specific web‐based video conferencing platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, and more as their preferred platforms for online learning to acquire knowledge. The findings also show significant relationships among the study's variables. The theory of reasoned action is also supported in this study.

Poor time management is increasing among students by the day, yet it is an essential factor that helps people from all walks of life become professionals, trustworthy, and reliable in what they do. This study aims to examine the cultural background differences of international students related to time management. In addition, this study aims to determine the differences between gender, age, and nationality in time management among international students at IIUM. This study utilizes the ABC time management model to explain the differences between the study's variables. A quantitative research design using a survey method with a questionnaire as the tool for data collection was used in this research. A sample of 282 international students at a public university participated in the study chosen through simple random sampling. The study findings reveal that students have high levels of time management. The study further reveals no statistically significant differences between male and female international students, their age groups, and their nationalities in time management. Additionally, international students noted that they regard time management highly because they are always in charge of how their time is used, prioritize essential tasks, meet required deadlines, complete tasks before they are due, do their tasks according to planned schedules, prepare daily or weekly to-do lists and concentrate on doing essential tasks. Therefore, the ABC model of time management is supported in this study.

The authors have requested that this preprint be removed from Research Square.

Through the marketing mix, there are many ways of promoting a business, such as a supermarket or a mini-mart. The core function of the marketing mix in the current commercial world is to satisfy the customers' expectations and needs. Therefore, organizations offer promises through the marketing mix using tools such as the product, price, promotion, and place to attract customers and fulfill their expectations. Companies and organizations tend to give affordable prices on top of the quality products they sell to their customers. This study, therefore, aims to examine the Impact of the 4Ps of marketing on students' purchase decisions in university mini-marts. Specifically, the study assesses the levels of product quality, price, promotion, place, and purchase decision amongst IIUM university students. In addition, correlation analysis is run to determine whether there is a relationship between product quality, price, promotion, and place with purchase decisions among university students who shop at university marts. The study utilizes the Theory of Planned Behaviour to explain the relationships between the variables. The quantitative research design and survey method with a questionnaire as the tool for data collection were used in this research. A total of 170 IIUM students participated in this study. The study findings reveal that students tend to consider price and place as essential tools in buying from the university mini-marts. In addition, the students also revealed that they do not consider product quality and promotion when deciding to purchase from the university mini-marts because of the factors highlighted in the study. The Theory of Planned Behaviour is also supported in this study.

Coined in the early 1940s by Katz and Blumler (1974), the uses and gratifications theory deals with understanding why people use certain types of media, what needs do they have to use them, and what gratifications do they get from using them. Historically, the theory was first introduced to understand why people chose to consume the various forms of media that were present at the time in 1940s.

This conceptual paper deals with how the public depends on the media during a crisis like the current COVID-19 pandemic, whether they prefer traditional media for information or would go with the new media trends for their information seeking and sharing regarding the COVID-19 crisis at hand.

This paper reviews the two prominent research approaches (mixed and multimethod). it gives the pros and cons of each and distinguishes what each one means and why it should be chosen and used in research studies.