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PurposeWith infographics emerging as key communication tools on social media platforms, this study explores the visual literacy of governments in creating effective infographics, especially during crises. Using the Kuwaiti government during the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study, the investigation evaluates the government’s visual competency and strategy in its infographics on X.Design/methodology/approachFor competence, AI-based techniques were employed to analyze the proportion of text region size to total infographic size, word count per infographic and the most prominent colors used. Regarding strategy, the study utilized the crisis and emergency risk communication (CERC) model as a framework to examine how the Kuwaiti government integrated crisis communication response strategies into infographics.FindingsWhen communicating complex messages, the government resorted to text-heavy infographics instead of creative visualizations, casting doubt on its visual competence. The inconsistent use of colors further undermined a recognizable visual identity. Regarding strategy, infographics on crisis updates were most frequent, supporting CERC’s emphasis on reducing uncertainty. Yet, prioritizing bolstering strategies above empathy and action steps goes against the advice of existing literature.Originality/valueWhile crisis communication research is widely based on textual analysis, this study extends the literature by examining visuals, specifically infographics. Additionally, focusing on Arabic infographics from Kuwait, the study expands the crisis communication literature, which has mainly concentrated on Western countries and the English language. Given the lack of consensus on the best methods to measure visual literacy, this study’s AI approaches contribute to the literature.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2024-0172

This research explores the ongoing debate on whether social media sentiment analysis can replace traditional polling and advocates for the combined use of both methods to capture nuanced public perceptions expanding the geographic and linguistic scope of public opinion literature, this study focuses on Kuwait and the Arabic language. It examines public reactions to the Ministry of Higher Education's decision on June 9, 2023, to suspend scholarships for medical students at universities in Jordan and Egypt. The goal was to assess how data from both social media and traditional surveys can aid the government in understanding public opinion towards various policies. A significant contribution of this study is the development of the first multi-label emotion-classification tool specifically designed for Kuwaiti Arabic. This tool's unique capability to interpret and analyze the intricacies of the Kuwaiti dialect provided invaluable insights into local contexts and sentiments, setting a new benchmark for cultural and linguistic specificity in emotion-classification tools. The findings indicate that, while social media alone may not fully convey actual public opinion on political issues, adding survey data yields a richer, multi-dimensional perspective. This approach emphasizes the importance of integrating both methodologies to inform policymaking. The study further highlights the critical role of public opinion in shaping government policies and suggests that using both methods could lead to more informed decisions, enhance public trust, and reduce the likelihood of electoral sanctions.

Kuwaiti students intending to major in mass communication face a long process that begins in high school. A survey of students at Kuwait University examined whether the process led to disillusionment of the mass communication field and/or mass communication education. Findings show that all respondents viewed the field of journalism positively. Respondents also viewed journalism education in a positive light. Students majoring or minoring in journalism differed from majors in other disciplines in several ways: They were more likely to be female and younger, and were more likely to agree with statements that mass communication is a good field for women, journalists make a good living, the field is highly respected, and friends would support their decision to major in mass communication. This is a significant finding because it demonstrates that mass communications is considered a safe industry for women even when the role of women in the public sphere does not have many decades of precedent. The results also suggest that the more active the students were in selecting a major, the more positive they felt about mass communications education. Students who had published works or internship experience were more likely to declare a major in mass communications. All students agreed that their education increased their appreciation for the field of mass communications. These findings demonstrate that journalism education can be beneficial even in nations where the media system is not completely free.

Objectives: Arabic language is primarily represented in two varieties: Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Dialectal Arabic (DA). With the advent of social media, there has been a shift from the predominant use of MSA in writing to the incorporation of DA, thereby generating extensive resources for dialectal text studies. Kuwaiti Arabic (KA), a sub-variety of the Gulf dialect and one of the five principal Arabic dialects, differs significantly from MSA in all linguistic aspects. KA is an under- resourced language with a notable deficiency in language resources. The development of emotion classification tools relies heavily on the availability of resources such as annotated corpora. This study introduces TweetSentKW, a multi-label emotion annotated corpus for KA. Method: TweetSentKW was developed by collecting tweets and selecting relevant emotional classes for the annotation process. Each tweet was annotated by three independent annotators. Results: The TweetSentKW corpus comprises 40,000 manually labeled tweets across various topics. Besides constructing the corpus, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of annotator behavior and the co-occurrences of emotions. The corpus is anticipated to significantly contribute to sentiment analysis research, a crucial method for gauging public opinion. Conclusion: The widespread use of social media platforms, such as Twitter, has led to continuous and uninhibited public expression of opinions on diverse issues. The public and archived nature of these opinions presents a rich opportunity for researchers to analyze and understand public sentiment and perspectives.

Objective: Using institutional theory as the theoretical framework, this study aims to provide new knowledge about the social roles of Kuwaiti companies in terms of social responsibility concepts and themes that are reflected in their reports. Methods: The study relied on quantitative data collected from 490 annual and corporate social responsibility reports of leading Kuwaiti companies from 2010 to 2019. This study analyzed how these companies communicate their social roles in terms of concepts and themes that are prevalent in the literature and their statistical association with each other, type of industry, and the 10-year timeframe. Results: The study provided empirical insights demonstrating that corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a concept is dominant and institutionalized in the social responsibility discourse of Kuwaiti companies, while corporate sustainability and corporate community involvement compete to be part of that discourse and are in the process of being institutionalized. An analysis of the salience of the social themes in the reports showed that issues related to the environment and community are increasing at an exponential rate. The findings showed that the banking and telecommunications industries represent the leading sectors of the social responsibility scene in Kuwait, and that industry type is not relevant to CSR efforts. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to institutional theory, public relations, and strategic communication.

At a time when Aljazeera is figuring prominently in media debates because of its extensive coverage of the Arab Spring, along with cable company efforts to prevent it from broadcasting nationally, this is one of the first studies to look at how the American public reacts to news coverage from Aljazeera. Through the literature behind the hostile media effect, this experiment tried to find out how factors like attitudes toward and interest in the Arab World influenced perceived credibility of Aljazeera. Moreover, with the rising global use of YouTube™ for news, this study‘s goal was to shed light on the prospects of YouTube™ in giving global media companies like Aljazeera a chance to compete with the U.S. media monopoly. Two videos from the Aljazeera YouTube™ channel were manipulated to look like CNN. Each of 447 participants watched one of the four videos, and results indicated that when viewers judge source credibility or choose to use online interactivity, it made a difference whether viewers saw the Aljazeera or CNN logo on the news clip, even though the content was identical. Aljazeera was generally viewed as less credible than CNN; the most negative responses came from people with unfavorable attitudes toward Arabs and high interest in Arab topics. However, participants reacted more positively as they showed more interest in using YouTube™‘s interactive functions when the videos were attributed to Aljazeera. The most interest came from those with favorable attitudes toward Arabs and from participants who were active YouTube™ users. Results showed two conflicting opinions of Aljazeera: an offline view and online one. While a segment of the population viewed the Arab news organization in an unfavorable manner and will probably be against it being available on cable in the United States, another segment of the population viewed the channel favorably and showed more interest in spreading its name using the interactive functions of online technology. Also, this was one of the first studies to test and confirm that some concepts of the hostile media effect theory—such as partisanship, involvement and source—do trigger how people choose to use the Internet‘s interactivity functions in response to a certain media stimulus. (Full text of this dissertation may be available via the University of Florida Libraries web site. Please check http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/etd.html)