
Muhammad IttefaqJames Madison University | JMU · School of Communication Studies
Muhammad Ittefaq
PhD
About
64
Publications
63,985
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Introduction
Ittefaq's research examines the ways in which people consume and interact with information through new technologies, including how they interpret scientific messages, make decisions related to health and climate, and support policies related to science. He investigates how different populations are influenced by the information ecosystem and messages surrounding scientific issues.
Additional affiliations
August 2019 - July 2022
August 2018 - June 2019
Education
August 2019 - August 2022
October 2016 - July 2018
September 2013 - December 2015
Publications
Publications (64)
This study investigated the memorable messages about mental health that international students (N = 199) received from various sources since arriving on campus in the U.S. Utilizing the memorable messages framework, we examined the types of messages (normalizing, strategizing, minimizing) they received and their association with message satisfactio...
The impacts of climate change on human health are a critical public health concern, with previous studies highlighting its clear effects on well-being. Understanding how state and territorial health agencies (STHAs) are addressing these emerging risks is important. This study conducted 26 in-depth interviews across the U.S. to explore the perceptio...
This study examined the coverage of artificial intelligence (AI) in newspapers from 12 countries by analyzing news articles (N = 38,787) collected from 12 mainstream English newspapers, between 2010 and 2023. We used LDA topic modeling to identify prevalent frames in the news articles and SentiStrength to examine sentiments in the news headlines. F...
This study analyzed 1432 questions asked in 19 surveys (N = 43,014) on COVID-19 vaccines between January 2020 and August 2022 using dimensions including (1) information sources about COVID-19 vaccine, (2) information about the access, effectiveness, and side effects of COVID-19 vaccine, (3) COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy (i.e. false perception, skeptic...
Using a computational approach, this study analyzes and compares news coverage of the novel coronavirus in six major newspapers (i.e. China Daily, The Korea Times, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, and The Times) from four countries (i.e. the U.S. the UK, South Korea, and China) that were severely affected in the beginning of the r...
This study explores the motivations behind "liking" an image on Instagram and the frames of reference that shape what a "like" signifies. It also examines the process of "liking" through the lens of relationship development theory. Our findings reveal that key motivations for liking images on Instagram include reciprocity, relationship-based motiva...
As cities in South Asia, especially Pakistan and India, choke under hazardous
smog, governments continue to struggle to find tenable solutions.
Muhammad Ittefaq makes the case for harnessing ‘city diplomacy’ and
‘science diplomacy’ in tandem to address this annual scourge in the future,
when predictions suggest increased urbanisation across the wor...
While journalism scholarship has extensively investigated the actors shaping news content, there is a paucity of research on how different factors influence newspaper editorial agendas for sustainable development issues. To bridge the gap, this longitudinal study examines newspaper editorials during two distinct periods in a developing country: T1,...
The Global South (or Low-Income Countries, LICs) long has been advocating for the establishment of a Loss and Damage (L&D) Fund to address vulnerability and limited adaptation capacity in response to disasters exacerbated by climate injustices, which finally gained international recognition of late. This essay focuses on two key moments that led to...
For fact-checks to be effective, they must first and foremost reach people. Yet, little is known about what determines engagement with fact-checks and how to enhance their reach. We conducted a pre-registered online survey experiment in Pakistan (N participants = 302, N observations = 1208) investigating the effectiveness of fact-checking, and the...
Polio vaccine hesitancy remains high in Pakistan due to various socio-political, religious, and economic factors. To address this, the government of Pakistan and its international partners such as UNICEF have devised a multipronged communication strategy to counter resistance to polio vaccine in hard-to-reach areas of the country. In this strategy,...
On April 22, 2019, false rumors regarding the side effects of the polio vaccine quickly spread across various social media platforms, including Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), WhatsApp, and YouTube. This rapid spread of misinformation had a detrimental impact on Pakistan's efforts to eradicate polio. This essay sheds lights on two critical...
This chapter examines the current state of cross-border journalism (CBJ) in South Asia with a specific focus on India and Pakistan. The discussion pertains to political, economical, ethical, and legal determinants of cross-border journalism in the region while taking stock of different attempts to promote such practices. This chapter also assesses...
This commentary explores the critical issue of air pollution policies and public engagement in Pakistan, a nation consistently ranked among the world’s most polluted. Prolonged exposure to diverse pollution sources leads to severe health consequences, making public education and engagement pivotal for successful environmental policy implementation....
Science journalism in Global South is hindered by several factors, including the absence of local science stories, insufficiently trained science journalists, and a communication gap between communities of scientists and journalists. Drawing on observations from South Asian science journalism and employing the communities of practice framework, thi...
The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges for frontline healthcare professionals globally. Despite the varied challenges encountered by frontline healthcare professionals, the difficulties faced by public health communication officials in particular has remained an underexplored area of research. This study examined the specific challeng...
This study investigated the experiences of communication officials at local health departments (LHD) in the US Midwest regarding the correction of health misinformation on Facebook during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through interviews with communication officials, this study examined how and why they corrected health misinformation, the challenges they...
In the 21st century, research on climate journalism has received exponential growth globally. However, the media’s ethical role in covering climate change has not sufficiently been explored enough. In this chapter, we provide a broad overview of climate change journalism in Pakistan, the role of stakeholders that are directly involved in this crisi...
During the Indian independence movement, the Urdu-language ethnic newspapers played a significant role in instigating resistance against colonial authorities within local communities. However, later on, Urdu journalism underwent a transformation, shifting from the ‘advocate-journalist’ model to one dominated by corporate ownership in Pakistan. Thes...
This study examines the induction of information technology and the use of image-repair focused crisis response strategies on social media by Pakistan Railways amid a recent crisis. A mix-method based content analysis (i.e., qualitative and quantitative) to investigate whether and if so, how Pakistan Railways used Benoit's suggested image restorati...
One of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, Pakistan, is facing a variety of cases of climate and environmental ethics violations by a number of local and regional actors. Advocacy journalism has the potential to publicize these violations and injustices, stimulating democratic dialogue among the public audience that can eventually push leade...
Several factors have contributed to the formation of this fund, but the global voices on climate justice that were raised in the backdrop of Pakistan’s Summer 2022 floods played a crucial role. The injustice was initially highlighted by foreign political, social, and scientific communities, which helped break the self-imposed spiral of silence by t...
Prescription drug misuse and opioid overdose have become one of the most serious health crises in the US health system. In this study, we examined Last Week Tonight as hosted by John Oliver in order to explore topics, sentiments, and reactions by referring to online comments on YouTube. Using an unsupervised machine learning approach, we analyzed 3...
The COVID-19 pandemic has added significant stress to international students in the United States who already face myriad challenges in adjusting to their host country. We used a mixed-method approach combining survey and interview research to analyze how international students’ social media use and perceived social support/adjustment are associate...
News media is one of the main sources of information for many people around the world on climate change. It does not only increase awareness among the public but also have the potential to sensitize people toward climate change impacts. Till date, few studies focus on media coverage of climate change in the low-income countries such as Pakistan whi...
This systematic literature review was conducted to provide insights into how online readers' comments have been studied in the context of health over a 10-year span. About 593 studies published between 2010 and 2020; of these, 34 met the research criteria for inclusion. Our findings reveal that 60% of the studies focused on the United States, and a...
Being among the world's most affected countries by climate change, Pakistan is facing a variety of cases of climate injustice committed by internal and external drivers. Waisbord's referred "Advocate-journalist" model carries a good potential to advocate these injustices to stimulate democratic dialogue among the audience that eventually pushes lea...
This mixed-method study investigates the state of media and information literacy education in Pakistan by underlining the availability of relevant courses and trained teaching and research faculty at both public and private universities. Using United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) framework, this study explores...
Objective: This study examines how those who were born outside the United States and migrated to the country in the past decade used social media and other online sites to deal with uncertainties around the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. In particular, we examine how they used digital communication technologies to tap into online resources and...
The present study used a stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theoretical framework to examine the relationship between theme park tourists’ experience, brand identity, brand satisfaction, and brand loyalty in China. By using the structural equation model (CB-SEM), this paper illustrates the process of forming destination brand loyalty for sustainabl...
Little is known about public reactions to state security officials’ suicide in Muslim countries like Pakistan. To explore readers’ reactions in online comments, we analyzed 1,765 comments related to 10 news stories about suicide published in five mainstream English newspapers. The findings revealed six themes: stress, depression, and mental health...
The COVID-19 pandemic aggravated existing challenges for racial/ethnic minority immigrants in the U.S. in obtaining health information and seeking health care. Based on in-depth interviews with 49 racial/ethnic minority immigrants in the U.S. Midwest, this study examines how they navigated online health information related to general health issues...
Based on 15 in-depth interviews, the present study aims to understand the common challenges international graduate students face and the coping strategies they employed, types of SNS used, and social support sought from their relationship during graduate school. Common challenges faced are loneliness, stress, feeling overwhelmed with graduate schoo...
Prior research suggests that reliance on news media is dramatically increased during a public health crisis because people need more information to reduce their anxiety levels. This is an ideal situation for editorialists to influence the public policy-making process around certain social issues related to that health crisis, particularly if establ...
Historically, people with disabilities (PWDs) have been subjected to sexual segregation and sexual con nement, prohibited from engaging in sex, and sterilized under the notion of protecting them from pregnancy and sexual abuse. Such perceptions have been reinforced in the media by the frequent portrayal of PWDs as asexual with stereotypes such as P...
Objective
Over the last 10 years, an extensive body of literature has been produced to investigate the role of social media in health. However, little is known about the impact of cultural characteristics (e.g. masculinity, collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance) on social media use regarding health-related information, especially in developing co...
Prior research suggests that a country's national image is dependent on how effectively it keeps informed key stakeholders, and counter misinformation and disinformation being transmitted to both diaspora and foreign audiences during a pandemic. In the light of this argument, this forum article critically analyzed the Indian government's efforts to...
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, Asians, particularly those in Chinese communities, have faced increased discrimination and overt racism in addition to the virus itself. In this study, the authors examined social representations of COVID-19 in mainstream newspapers. We evaluated 451 articles from three major publications representing three coun...
COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has reportedly been rising in polio-stricken Pakistan. Prior research reports a variety of contributing factors including information sources, particularly the newspapers readers generally consult to stay abreast of vaccine roll-out developments. This viewpoint article argues that three commonly practised journalistic rou...
This study explores how regional journalists in Pakistan conceptualize journalistic professionalism, how they perceive their journalistic identities, and how local socio-political and economic realities shape their professional identification. Analysis of interviews with 33 journalists working in Pakistan’s Pakhtunkhwa province indicated a tension...
With the ongoing COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, it is a popular trend among vaccine recipients to share their vaccine selfies on their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. Individuals sharing their selfies are mostly laypeople, celebrities, political leaders, and healthcare workers. The selfies are either taken during or after the administration...
Scholars agree on the role of media and communication in mitigating climate change. However, the complex and scientific nature of climate change, particularly within a contemporary media setting that includes growing misinformation, has challenged environmental journalists. To better understand these challenges the present study uses the hierarchy...
Drawing on the theory of normative conduct, which suggests that
individuals get motivated by what most people do, this commentary argues that the COVID-19 vaccine selfies carry a reasonable
potential to encourage the vaccine acceptance behavior among
social media users. Despite having both its proponents and critics,
the COVID-19 vaccine selfie cou...
Sanitary workers are globally marginalized both in media and society. Such discrimination is often amplified when such essential workers belong to a religious minority in Muslim majority societies such as Pakistan. Drawing from the frameworks of social representation and social identity theories, this study uses the qualitative method of in-depth i...
Based on the hierarchy of influences model, we explored journalists’ understanding and perceptions about media convergence in Pakistan’s media industry and its influence on journalistic practices and routines. In-depth interviews with Pakistani news practitioners revealed several challenges hindering the successful implementation of media convergen...
Drawing from the literature of the internet as a public sphere, the present study investigates online news comments related to sexual reproductive health of people with disabilities (PWDs) published in The New York Times and The Guardian. We analyzed 3,633 online comments published between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2019, using thematic anal...
The COVID-19 pandemic signifies not only a global health crisis but has also proven to be an infodemic characterised by many conspiracy theories. Prior research informs us that belief in health-related conspiracies can harm efforts to curtail the spread of a virus. Therefore, as the global efforts of mass inoculation are underway, it is crucial to...
The China–Pakistan relationship has reached new heights through the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) worth $62 billion of Chinese investment in Pakistan. Since the commencement of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Beijing continues to invest more to enhance China’s soft power through a positive image in BRI partner countries including Paki...
This study aims to understand public discussions regarding COVID-19 vaccine on Parler, a newer social media platform that recently gained in popularity. Through analyzing a random sample (n = 400) of Parler posts using the hashtags #COVID19Vaccine and #NoCovidVaccine, we use the concept of echo chambers to understand usersʹ discussions through a te...
Social media’s pervasiveness has created new demands for openness, transparency, real-time communication, and public engagement in diplomacy. In this study, we analyze public engagement strategies for diplomacy on Twitter that were employed by a German ambassador. By applying a text analytics approach, we explored the ambassador’s tweets’ core them...
Pakistan's polio eradication program faces immense challenges, including misinformation on social media that resulted in an increased number of new polio cases in 2019, when viral misleading videos were shared online. In recent years, misinformation has played a critical role in shifting the public's attitude on polio vaccination acceptance in Paki...
Introduction
Polio, which is caused by poliovirus, is a contagious, potentially crippling, and deadly disease. Pakistan is one of the countries in which polio is still endemic in the 21st century. In 2019, 146 polio cases were reported across the country with some resulting in deaths. Following the spread of rumors insinuating that children were fa...
Journalists play a critical role in the dissemination of health information to the public. This chapter explores the challenges created by COVID-19 for journalists in Pakistan. It also examines how the pandemic has shed light on the disparities and safety risks in the Pakistani journalism and exposed fault lines in journalism practices in the count...
We aimed to see the status of the assessment of media reporting of suicide in the Muslim countries. We searched the prime databases. The search revealed a dearth of research assessing the media reports in Muslim countries. The findings of these studies show that the quality of media
reporting is poor in Muslim when compared with reporting guideline...
The COVID-19 outbreak, emerging from China, continues to pose serious threats to the world’s social, economic, and health systems. In this commentary, we discuss the current situation of COVID-19 in Pakistan and health-related misinformation. Specifically, we discuss misinformation spread through social media (Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and TikTo...
The current data from 537 Pakistani millennials tell us about their trust in different information sources, the use of news media, and the perception of misinformation regarding COVID-19 in Pakistan. The dataset includes variables such as age, marital status, gender, social class, residential area, trust in the source of information, use of news me...
Over the last couple of years, digital diplomacy has become a fascinating area of research among Mass Communication, Peace and Conflict Studies, and International Affairs scholars. Social media and new technology open up new avenues for governments, individuals, and organizations to engage with foreign audiences. However, developing countries' gove...
Over the last decade, extensive literature has been published regarding social media effects on real-life political participation. Many argue that social media stimulates online and offline political participation. This study investigates how online political activities impact political efficacy and real-life political participation among universit...
Suicide attempt rates are on the rise in predominantly Islamic Republic of Pakistan. However, there exists an indigenous academic apathy toward exploring media-suicide relationships. This study, using content analysis and interviews, examines the lack of compliance with international ethical guidelines for suicide reporting by Pakistani newspapers....
This paper explores social media conversations about Islam and Muslims through discourse analysis. The study looks into Facebook about the representation of Islam and Muslims. A discourse analysis of Facebook reveals that people are changing their perceptions, attitudes and opinions through the Facebook. Netizens like, comment and share the materia...
Objective: Social and mobile media are playing a significant role in the digitization of health sectors globally. New technology provides an opportunity for stakeholders (i.e., patients and healthcare professionals) to engage with each other in virtual environments to discuss health-related issues. This study examines the role of social and mobile...
This study reviewed the existing literature on news value theory and examined its validity and implications in the contemporary world. The study refers to digital journalists and academicians. Are the news selection criterion still the same as they were in the past or are editors, journalists, and media outlets changing their approach due to global...
Questions
Question (1)
Hello, I am looking for articles who used event-based media selection strategy in sampling? I am working on a paper and I am using event based media selection but needs articles for citation.