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Article History

Received: 9 December 2024

Accepted: 15 October 2025

First Online: 2 December 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: This study was performed in accordance with the ethical principles of the declaration of Helsinki and confirmed that all research was performed in accordance with relevant guidelines/regulations applicable when human participants are involved. The study was granted ethical approval by the Research Ethics Committee of the Institute of Media and Communication Studies, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Pakistan. No.MASS/13/2023 dated 9/01/2023. Data collection for this study commenced only after formal ethics approval was granted by the Research Ethics Committee on 9/01/2023. The committee approved conducting this research involving human participants to safeguard their rights, safety, and well-being. Approval was granted after evaluating the study designs, data collection tools, and procedures to ensure informed consent, participant anonymity, and the right to withdraw at any stage without penalty. The data was collected after approval, and no changes were made after approval from the Research Ethics Committee.

: The informed consent was approved and endorsed by the Research Ethics Committee of the Institute of Media and Communication Studies, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Pakistan. No.MASS/13/2023 dated 9/01/2023 (Approval No. MASS/13/2023, dated 09/01/2023). Informed consent was obtained from participants in written form through an online consent form before the data collection (February-March 2023) and was administered by the principal researcher. All participants were adults capable of providing consent, and no vulnerable individuals or minors were included. Consent covered voluntary participation in responding to the questionnaire, the use of anonymized data for academic analysis and publication, and assurances of confidentiality, secure data storage in line with institutional and national research ethics guidelines, and the right to withdraw at any stage without penalty. Participants were fully informed that the research was interventional (quasi-experimental design and questionnaire), conducted for academic purposes only, carried no foreseeable risks, and guaranteed anonymity. The version of the consent form used was identical to the one approved by the ethics committee, and no changes were made to the protocol after approval.

: Not applicable.