There have been so many acts of terrorism connected to radical Muslims that it's not surprising Islam has a public relations problem. Pollsters, historians and other experts say that the West's collective instincts toward Islam have been shaped over decades by a patchwork of factors. These include demographic trends, psychology, terrorism events, foreign policy, domestic politics, media coverage and the Internet. Therefore, it is not surprising that Muslims are the most negatively viewed faith community in some countries as the United States. The objective of the current research is to review qualitatively the social media platforms of the hashtag #Notinmyname, initiated by renowned Muslim British Community namely Active Change Foundation as a successful model of social media activism combatting the worsening image of Islam. The major conclusion of this study is that hashtags launched by Muslim activists derive from the social media platforms exacerbating and unprecedented power to stir political and social movements especially, regarding controversial and stagnant matters. Posts, comments and shares on different social media platforms go viral, stir discussions and trigger public opinion. These #hashtags were not a launching base for a pro-Islam campaign only, as much as being an outlet breather for all pro and anti-opinions regarding Islam. Social media are now the pathway to mobilize the crowd online to take an action in the real world.
Since introducing the concept integrated marketing communications (IMC) in the communication field, researchers and practitioners admitted to the interdisciplinary nature of the nascent concept. The current chapter tries to further explore the interdisciplinary concept of IMC, through subjecting IMC into in-depth analysis of its origin disciplines (Communication, Marketing and Branding). Furthermore, the paper resides to synthesize IMC empirical research in a meta-analytic framework to assert on the interdisciplinary field research trends emerging from utilizing the concept as a dependent or independent variable in different research disciplines. Finally, a case study tackling the status of Egyptian tourism after the recent political turmoil post the uprisings was assessed had the designated authorities turned to executing Integrated Marketing Communications instead of relying on temporary unfeasible solutions. A conceptual framework was proposed as a permanent solution of this matter. Employing a theoretical method and a Meta analytical method of 135 research papers, findings proved IMC to be an interdisciplinary concept. IMC research trends could be traced to three development phases with the third phase being crucially related to interdisciplinary frameworks. Thus, IMC is proved to be a viable framework to study topics related to branding, education, services and tourism.
Due to the interdisciplinary complicated nature of the concept Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) that has only emerged in the communication field three decades ago and has ever since witnessed dramatic developments in itself and the related fields, the current research paper aims at: shedding more light onto the nature of IMC and the sciences that the concept emerged from; undergoing meta-analysis on a total of 122 Arabic and foreign research papers to track IMC research trends worldwide and discussing the notable gap between IMC research in the Sultanate of Oman and its practice. Findings indicated that IMC is an interdisciplinary relatively new concept combining communication and marketing, then evolved further to include branding as an independent discipline. A quantitative and qualitative gap between Arabic and international research literature concerning IMC was noted, due to the limitations and difficulties of conducting such research in the Arab World. IMC research in the Sultanate falls short, although serious attempts were made in the marketing and branding research fields. Practical wise, most companies working in Oman are practicing the concept without putting it into proper evaluation.
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