Digital platforms have empowered individuals and communities to re-negotiate long-established notions of religion and authority. A new generation of social media influencers has recently emerged in the Muslim world. They are western-educated, unique storytellers, and savvy in digital media production. This raises new questions on the future of Islam in the context of emerging challenges, such as the openness of technology and the often-perceived closedness of religious and cultural systems within Muslim societies. This paper uses a multiple case research design to examine the roles of social media influencers in reimagining Islam and reshaping spiritual beliefs and religious practices among young people in the Gulf Region, the Arab world, and beyond. We used thematic analysis of the Instagram and YouTube content of four social media influencers in the Gulf Region: Salama Mohamed and Khalid Al Ameri from the United Arab Emirates, Ahmad Al-Shugairi from Saudi Arabia, and Omar Farooq from Bahrain. The study found that social media influencers are challenging traditional religious authorities as they reimagine Muslim identities based on a new global lifestyle.

In the context of the global climate change debate, the integration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in higher education institutions (HEIs) has been identified as one of the top priorities. This paper presents the CoDesignS ESD Framework (hereafter “Framework”) focused on HEIs, though the Framework is applicable to other types of educational institutions. The Framework introduces transformative pedagogies and teaching methods that extend beyond typical ESD competencies, encompassing cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioral domains for a holistic design and delivery. It was evaluated using a focus group and interviews among sustainability practitioners and academics, learning and curriculum designers, students, and government officials involved in ESD. The evaluation demonstrates key stakeholders’ engagement with the Framework and appreciation of its potential to integrate sustainability into university curricula across different disciplines. The findings suggest that the Framework is easy to use, making sustainability explicit in the curriculum and actively developing the competencies students require to bring about change beyond the classroom. The feedback received has helped the further development of the Framework, including the CoDesignS ESD Toolkit Planner and Dashboard, which provide a more effective way of integrating the learning design and ESD components embedded as part of the CoDesignS ESD pillars.

Purpose: With the conceptualization of the blockchain as a socio-technical assemblage, this study aims to critically examine the blockchain initiatives in Korea in terms of the opportunities, risks and challenges embedded in their development. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyzes blockchain design and development from socioecological views: social, technological and cultural phenomena that represent the strategic interaction among people, technology and society. The qualitative data were collected from a variety of sources and diverse means. Findings: The results imply that blockchain needs a close socio-technical examination to avoid simplistic assumptions of its promises and pitfalls. The development of blockchains in Korea will need to consider a range of socio-technical issues to facilitate the best outcomes for blockchain in society. Research limitations/implications: Despite proactive drives, new risks, such as security, privacy and transparency, emerge as critical concerns of the social implications of the blockchain and their impact on the new digital environment. Questions are raised as to how to govern blockchains, and how to address the unexpected outcomes that such a policy choice may have on society and industry. Originality/value: The sociopolitical implications of Korean blockchains are examined to identify key concerns and issues as the country progresses rapidly toward a blockchain-driven society.

While there is a growing body of literature on the use of algorithms in journalistic principles and professional practices in general, there is a gap in the literature regarding the adoption of AI, algorithms, and automation in the journalistic field in the United Arab Emirates. This paper explores the journalistic field by providing empirical perspectives on algorithmic adoption and its relationship between journalistic values and algorithmic innovation. Through semi-structured interviews, we explore how AI adoption amongst journalists explains the gaps between journalistic values and journalistic practices empowered by algorithms. The findings suggest that, in large part, the journalists and news organizations have recognized the strategic value of AI for journalism and journalistic quality. However, the future of AI journalism depends on balancing algorithms with editorial and ethical parameters. To maintain the integrity and trustworthiness of the content, news organizations and journalists themselves need to be able to define how AI is used in the field.

This paper examines the emergence of a news ecosystem, focusing on Hespress, Morocco’s first, largest, and most popular news website and its current economic success. My analysis investigates Hespress’s emergence and growth into a significant source for news content, reaching an unprecedented number of readers in Morocco and abroad. This paper argues that the success of Hespress’s business model is grounded in a particularly well-developed understanding of social media, the changing habits of digital readers, and a strategic combination of investigative reporting and curated user-generated content. My findings, then, show how Hespress used a strategy that can serve as a sustainable revenue model which was diversified to include other sources of revenue such as e-commerce, branded events, and native advertising, combined with distribution strategies that rely heavily on social and other digital platforms.