Impression management strategies employed by former Muslims on social media

Hashmi, U.M. and Ab. Rashid, R.A. and Abu Bakar, M.A. (2021) Impression management strategies employed by former Muslims on social media. In: 7th International Conference on Web Research, 19-20 May 2021, Online.

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Abstract

This article aims to provide insights into the impression management strategies employed by Malaysian former-Muslims in their postings on social media. Data was generated from extended observation of their postings for 10 months from July 2019 to April 2020. A total of 294 relevant postings were gathered and analyzed thematically using impression management strategies by [1] and [2] as an analytic framework. The analysis revealed that supplication emerges as the primary strategy employed by the former Muslims, followed by self-promotion, exemplification, and ingratiation. The study argues that the former Muslims' social media postings are not a mere expression of interests, experiences, or criticism of the religion; instead, these postings serve as a means of negotiating impression of them; and as a collaborative attempt of building their new self-image.

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