Iffat Ali Aksar

Data journalism has gained worldwide importance; however, its integration into journalism education in Malaysia remains limited. This study explores journalism educators’ perspectives on the current state of data journalism education and the conditions that shape its implementation in Malaysian higher education. After inductive coding and theme development, the study used institutional theory as an interpretive framework to examine how micro-level educator capacities, meso-level university structures, and macro-level regulatory conditions influence curriculum integration. Using a sequential qualitative approach, the study draws on nine in-depth interviews and an open-ended survey involving fifteen educators from public and private universities. The findings show that journalism curricula still emphasise traditional reporting, with only minimal inclusion of data journalism. Major barriers include rigid curriculum structures, accreditation and administrative procedures, limited faculty expertise, insufficient interdisciplinary training, resource shortages, and funding constraints. Student-related challenges, including weak analytical and numerical skills and limited interest in data-driven methods, further restrict integration. Malaysia’s restrictive media environment and limited access to data also affect the feasibility of teaching data journalism. The study contributes to the limited literature on journalism education in the Global South by demonstrating how educator capacities, university governance, and broader regulatory conditions interact to constrain curriculum innovation. It highlights the need for curriculum reform, faculty development, industry collaboration, and supportive policy frameworks to bridge the gap between traditional and data-driven journalism.

This chapter discusses Pakistan's film industry's milestones and changes, reflecting its issues and ambitions. It also presents Pakistan's cinematic history and how it shapes culture. Looking at notable films, industry dynamics, and artistic expressions reveals how cinema has mirrored societal changes, emphasising concerns, providing escapist solace, and linking with national identity. The chapter discusses how modern Pakistani filmmakers blend classic tales with fresh ideas from the golden age to the downfall, censorship, and comeback. After Partition, India's film industry became one of the world's largest. Since the 1990s, Pakistan's film industry has collapsed, with no films created in 2012. Pakistan's film industry's history after its height is scarce in academic and archival sources. The 1947–1997 era saw Pakistan's film industry expand and endure significant socio-political transformations. This historical backdrop is essential to understanding the industry's history and Pakistan's 'established' or 'traditional' cinema, termed old media.

Background: Despite technological, political and economic progress, Pakistan is still a traditionally patriarchal society, and cultural norms curb women’s freedom of socialization, which contributes to poor mental health. The digital technology spaces are rampant with male dominance, and offline cultural behaviours are replicated. Therefore, the current research in Pakistan intends to focus solely on women, their social media uses and the consequent impact on their psychological well-being. Furthermore, the mediation role of social capital is explored, which is linked to women’s socialization. In virtual communication, women can expand their connection or remain limited to known people. Methods: An online survey collected 240 responses from women social media users. The questionnaire was divided into demographics, social media use patterns like access, online time, frequency of use, social media uses, online social capital and psychological well-being. The obtained responses were statistically analyzed using Smart PLS. Results: Pakistani women use social media extensively; however, their uses are culturally influenced. The women use social media and socialize online but do not openly disclose their personalities and emotions to extend the connection. They seek information only from acquaintances and do not trust newly developed online contacts. Therefore, the mediation role of bonding social capital is significant, referring to the importance of close ties and trust in psychological well-being. Though virtual spaces provide an opportunity for bridging social capital, women use social media for socialization; however, it doesn’t contribute to women’s psychological well-being. Conclusion: Despite the higher penetration of digital technologies, cultural power still rules in developing countries like Pakistan. Social media uses are gender- and culturally specific, contributing to psychological well-being and developing social capital. The results from Pakistani society recommend ensuring a secure digital experience for women to get maximum benefits from social media and enhance their psychological well-being.

The current article reflects on the challenges of selecting and accessing participants from societies where power relations are gender-based. The paper discusses the methodological difficulties of gaining research access to professionally and educationally elite women in Pakistan's patriarchal society and suggests a strategy of "referral in-group" for recruiting interview participants. Drawing on the author's purposive sampling-based research in Pakistan, this article proposes a methodological strategy to recruit an elite population to participate in research interviews on a culturally sensitive subject, namely, patriarchal control over Pakistani women's digital lives. Furthermore, coupled with purposive sampling, this article contributes to the existing literature on elite interviewing and the growing literature on conducting research in challenging cultural environments, specifically for women.

As one of the major venues for articulating and disseminating national agendas and opinion discourse, national newspapers play a critical role in promulgating ideology. Underpinned by Intertextuality and Social Actor Theory, this study explores intertextual aspects of China Daily’s reporting of COVID-19 to unearth hidden ideology behind texts. The analysis reveals diversified voices from multiple actors around the globe, with China’s official leaders appearing most frequently. In the portrayal of social actors, some strategies like impersonalisation, and genericisation are utilised to add impersonal authority or power to an actor’s activity, actant’s engagement, and increase the trustworthiness of news. These reprsentational strategies belies a transformation in Chinese media discourse with a softer approach is used in wielding ideological intentions through journalistic practices of intertextuality. Our findings help to unravel how news texts draw on, echo, and bring together multiple intertextual resources realised in the forms of discourses. The circulations, dissemination and incorporation of these intertextual relations and practices construct specific understandings of ideology consolidation and public relations within the context of China and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One primary concern in researching journalistic practice and media production is the difficulty of gaining research access to media organizations and their media professionals. This paper theorizes Small World Sampling method for identifying and recruiting participants for qualitative research. Based on an ethnographic interview study involving 32 journalists at six different international news organizations, our Small World Sampling method created a direct research path into journalists’ professional occupational networks without having to negotiate indirect access through their non-journalist organizational gatekeepers (e.g. PR executives, HR department, managers). Small World Sampling allows the participant selection process to be guided by media practitioners’ expert and in-group knowledge of their professional network of media colleagues and acquaintances. More methodologically important, our Small World Sampling protocol offers a novel technique for demonstrating the qualitative reliability of the sampling process and for establishing the qualitative validity of the sample under study. Additionally, the paper introduces the concept of ‘contextual case studies’ offering additional nuance and insights enriching the conclusions drawn from the project’s main case studies. Beyond media and journalism research, we propose that Small World Sampling may also prove useful for other fields to facilitate research access into closed organizations, elite networks, and hidden communities.

The presentation and performance of women's selfhood and identity in Pakistan, in both the real and the virtual world, is dictated and shaped by the male-dominated cultural mores of Pakistan. Therefore, drawing upon Goffman's notion of self-presentation and everyday performance of selfhood, this paper explores digitally active Pakistani women's selfhood and identity presentation through qualitative interviews with ten Pakistani women from diverse backgrounds. Participants’ narratives revealed identity conflicts between their offline and online identities due to the control exhibited by the prevalent cultural norms and values. Similarly, offline cultural mores of the veil seeping into the online world operate as a patriarchal means of controlling women online akin to the male-protected family and home as a sacred sanctuary providing security to the family women. Pakistani women's experience of the online world is also defined in terms of “digital veil” and “digital sanctuary”. Findings reveal that Pakistani women social media users’ offline self-presentation clashes with their performance of selfhood in their virtual lives. This divergence and resulting identity crisis of selfhood is shaped by cultural regulation which adversely affects Pakistani women's lives. Extended research on social and cyber culture in offline and online identity formation with respect to psychosocial implications is recommended.