According to the Information & eGovernment Authority in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Bahraini youth (aged 15 to 35) represent 33.1% of the total citizen population, amounting to 245,102 individuals. Including children and adolescents under 15, the figure rises to about 62% of the Bahraini population under 35 (452,625 people), highlighting the Kingdom’s predominantly young and vibrant demographic profile (Information & eGovernment Authority, 2025).

These statistics underscore the significance of the government’s initiatives that aim to empower Bahraini youth to develop their talents. Oloo Ong’ong’a (2025) argued that Youth-driven innovation has emerged as a topic of significant debate in recent times, reflecting the dynamic role that young people play in driving societal progress. However, there is a lack of studies that highlight the empowerment strategies used by youth initiatives in Bahrain. Thus, this paper aims to explore the role of digital media in promoting youth empowerment strategies at various empowerment levels used in Lamea, the national project for talented youth empowerment.

The National Project Lamea is Bahrain’s flagship platform, launched in 2021 to discover, upskill, and spotlight elite young talent to build a highly capable leadership pipeline for the Kingdom of Bahrain (Lamea Association, 2026). Derived from the Arabic word meaning “bright” or “shining,” the initiative operates under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Representative of His Majesty the King for Humanitarian Works and Youth Affairs. The project is managed by Lamea Association under the umbrella of the Bahrain Ministry of Youth Affairs. H. E. Shaikha Dwa bint Khalid Al Khalifa is the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Lamea Association. The initiative aims to identify and nurture a new generation of exceptional youth, motivating them to elevate their performance and potential both professionally and personally. It also aims to empower them to participate in various training activities and projects (Ministry of Youth Affairs, 2026).

Although youth empowerment is a significant research topic, few studies explore youth empowerment strategies in the Arab Gulf in general and in Bahrain in particular. Moreover, empowering talented youth is still an under-researched topic, despite its significance to the socio-economic development of the country.

Furthermore, based on Grunig’s two-way symmetrical communication model, this research aims to explore the role of social media in establishing an open-access environment where talented youth can interact with Lamea’s empowerment strategies. This aligns with Grunig’s Excellence Theory (2008), which stresses the value of public relations in facilitating mutual relationships with stakeholders. Hence, the contribution of this research is that it is the first study that provides a comprehensive analysis of youth empowerment strategies used in the digital media of the Lamea National Project in Bahrain. Moreover, the research aims to study the role of digital public relations in employing empowerment strategies at different levels.

The paper seeks to achieve the following aims:

To analyze the empowerment strategies used in the Instagram account of Lamea Association.To compare the differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of the forms of digital content.To analyze the themes of digital empowerment used in the Instagram account of Lamea Association.To analyze the key digital youth empowerment strategies used in the Instagram account of Lamea Association.To analyze the key empowerment actors used in the Instagram account of Lamea Association.To analyze the empowerment levels employed in the Instagram account of Lamea Association.To analyze the forms of interaction of the audience with Instagram’s posts.

The research aims to answer the question: “How was digital media used to promote youth empowerment strategies on Lamea’s Instagram account?”

To answer this question, sub-questions were raised:

What are the differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of the forms of digital content?What are the differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of themes of digital content?What are the differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of youth empowerment strategies?What are the differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of the empowerment actors?What are the differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of the empowerment levels?What are the differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of forms of interaction?

Based on the research questions, several hypotheses are raised as follows:

Hypothesis 1: There are statistically significant differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of the forms of digital content.

Hypothesis 2: There are statistically significant differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of themes of digital content.

Hypothesis 3: There are statistically significant differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of youth empowerment strategies.

Hypothesis 4: There are statistically significant differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of empowerment actors.

Hypothesis 5: There are statistically significant differences in the use of the Instagram account in terms of empowerment levels.

The researcher uses content analysis to analyze the digital empowerment strategies employed by the Lamea Association. The researcher develops a coding scheme to categorize content based on thematic elements. Based on Zimmerman’s empowerment theoretical framework (2000), the research coding includes the following:

1) FormsofDigitalContent: Photos/Images, Videos, Infographics.

2) DigitalContentThemes: Talent attraction, Leadership Empowerment and Spotlighting, Partnership & Institutional Collaboration, Community Visits & Initiatives, Skill development & Training, Expansion & New Programmes.

3) EmpowermentStrategies: Competition Strategy, Mentorship & Leadership Connection, Partnership & Collaboration, Recognition & Visibility, Training and Knowledge Development, Connection to Community and Humanity Values.

4) EmpowermentActors: Government/Leadership, Private Sector Partnership, Peer-to-Peer Empowerment.

5) EmpowermentLevels: Psychological Empowerment, Organizational Empowerment, Community Empowerment.

6) FormsofInteraction: Likes, Mentions, Reposts, Comments.

The researcher developed a systematic codebook to analyze the data (Table 1).

Table 1. A systematic codebook of the content analysis.

The research uses a purposeful sample of Lamea Association’s Instagram account for several reasons. First, Lamea Project was intentionally selected for its unique goal of using technology to empower talented Bahraini youth. Besides, it is a national project that was supported by both governmental and private sectors in Bahrain. Moreover, the project has achieved regional acclaim, winning the award for the “Best Arab Government Project for Youth Empowerment” received at the Arab Government Excellence Award (November 2024) in recognition of the project’s outstanding role in youth empowerment. Additionally, it received the Community Excellence Medal in September 2026 in recognition of its strong results in qualifying and empowering Bahraini youth and increasing their national participation. Furthermore, it offers a data-rich environment for exploring the use of youth empowerment strategies.

The research uses a purposive sample of the feed posts published during a full calendar year from October 1^st, 2025, to September 30^th, 2026, on the project’s Instagram account (Lamea_association). The content analysis’s sample consists of all 160 feed posts published on Lamea’s Instagram in the last year. The decision to analyze the Instagram feed posts in a full calendar year was to ensure the results’ accuracy and to avoid bias. For every retrieved entry, the process extracts the unique post publication date, format type, and public engagement metrics (likes, reposts, mentions, and comments). Instagram Stories are excluded due to their 24-hour ephemeral nature, which prevents standard engagement tracking. To ensure data accuracy, actions by the organization itself (@lamea_association) were completely excluded in the coding process. Any mentions or reposts created by the Lamea Association did not count. A “Mention” was only counted when an audience member wrote an @username tag in the comment section. Similarly, a “Repost” only counted when the audience shared the post onto their own profiles or stories.

Several procedures were used to enhance research reliability. First, the coding sheet was developed based on the theoretical framework of Zimmerman’s Empowerment theory (2000). Then, the coding sheet was revised based on academic peer feedback. Next, a pilot test was conducted using a second coder to test the categories on a sample of posts.

This process involved a second coder applying the coding categories to a sample of posts. To achieve structural objectivity, the coders worked completely independently and in isolation during the evaluation process. From the total census pool of 160 eligible posts retrieved from the @lamea_association account, a pilot sample of 30 posts (representing 18.75% of the total dataset) was extracted using a random sampling method executed via a digital random number generator. Based on Holsti’s formula, the pilot test reveals the following variable-specific consistency rates:

FormsofDigitalContent: Holsti’s CR = 0.96 (High consistency)DigitalContentThemes: Holsti’s CR = 0.88 (High consistency)EmpowermentStrategies: Holsti’s CR = 0.84 (High consistency)EmpowermentActors: Holsti’s CR = 0.91 (High consistency)EmpowermentLevels: Holsti’s CR = 0.81 (High consistency)FormsofInteraction: Holsti’s CR = 1.00 (High consistency)

The findings yield an overall average consistency rate of 90% across all dimensions. Since all the dimensions exceed the standard academic threshold of 0.80 for Holsti’s formula, this demonstrates the reliability of the results.

The research focuses on analyzing quantitative data of the Lamea Project’s strategic communication on the Instagram account during one academic year rather than demonstrated empowerment outcomes or participant reception. Thus, a critical distinction must be made between the communicated empowerment strategies observed in this research and the actual demonstrated empowerment outcomes experienced by the youth. This study is limited to analyzing “the youth empowerment strategies” used on Instagram and the youth interaction metrics (likes, reposts, mentions, and comments), not “the outcomes” of this process. Hence, future research should expand the research findings and explore the “outcomes” of empowerment strategies on Bahraini youth.

This section offers content analysis of Lamea’s Instagram account to explore its role in empowering Bahraini youth.

To start with, the analysis of the forms of posts used by the Lamea project on Instagram (Table 2) indicates a strong preference for photos/images (64.375%), followed by videos (34.375%), and infographics (1.25%). The emphasis on photos/images reflects the nature of Instagram, where emphasis is placed on visual elements. Moreover, the use of videos demonstrates the aim of the project to engage the youth with its interactive content. The limited percentage of infographics reflects the planners’ awareness of the young target audience’s preference for interactive media content.

Table 2. Forms of digital content.

The results of Lamea’s Instagram content analysis (Table 3) show that 25% of the posts focus on youth talent attraction, (20.625%) of the posts focus on leadership empowerment and spotlighting, (20%) focus on partnership and institutional collaboration, (15.625%) of the posts focus on community visits and initiatives, (12.5%) focus on skill development and training, and (6.25%) focus on expansion of new programmes. The focus on talent attraction demonstrates that empowering Bahraini youth to showcase their talents is a top priority for Lamea Association. Moreover, integrating various empowerment themes on digital media reflects the ongoing empowerment “process” adopted by Lamea Association.

Table 3. Themes of digital content.

The content analysis of Lamea’s Instagram (Table 4) indicates that the project uses various strategies to empower Bahraini youth. First, (24.375%) of the posts employed a competition strategy, followed by mentorship and leadership connection (21.875%), partnership and collaboration strategy (20%), recognition and visibility of talented youth (16.25%), training and knowledge development (10%), and connection to community & humanity values (7.5%). The use of multiple strategies highlights the role of digital media in empowering youth. The priority of the competition strategy reflects targeting the nature of the youth who prefer competition and challenge. Leadership connection and partnership strategies reflect the collective nature of the Bahraini society. Moreover, the use of other collective strategies such as partnership & collaboration, training & knowledge development, and connection to community and humanity values reveals that the project has addressed various psychological and collective empowerment strategies.

Table 4. Empowerment strategies.

Table 5 shows that 51.875% of the posts highlight “government/leadership” as the main empowerment actor, as the project’s activities are conducted under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Representative of His Majesty the King for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs. Moreover, H. E. Rawan bint Najeeb Tawfiqi, Minister of Youth Affairs, H. E. Ayman bin Tawfeeq Almoayed, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Youth & Sports, and H. E. Shaikha Dwa bint Khalid Al Khalifa, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Lamea Association, are key government empowerment actors. Moreover, 29.375% of the posts employ peer-to-peer empowerment, followed by 18.75% of the posts that focus on private sector partnership through cooperation with large private institutions in Bahrain. These findings indicate that several actors have played a significant role in youth empowerment.

Table 5. Empowerment actors.

Table 6 demonstrates that the project has implemented various levels of empowerment. The results show that 55.625% of the posts focused on organizational empowerment, 23.125% of the posts focused on psychological empowerment, and 21.25% of the posts focused on community empowerment. These findings emphasized that the project used multiple empowerment levels to address the needs of the Bahraini youth. This aligns with Zimmerman’s Empowerment Theory (2000), which stressed the need for multiple levels through the empowerment process.

Table 6. Empowerment levels.

Table 7 shows that the audience mostly interacted with the Instagram account via “likes” at 100%, followed by “mentions” at 99.375%, “reposts” at 80.625%, and “comments” at 78.125%. These high interaction results indicate that digital communication has established a highly interactive relationship with the audience.

Table 7. Forms of interaction.

Because this study analyzes a structured sample of 160 posts rather than the entire historical archive of the @lamea_association account, inferential testing via Chi-Square is methodologically required. The 160 analyzed posts serve as an empirical sample representing the account’s total content. Inferential testing is mathematically necessary to determine if the observed patterns in the sample can be confidently projected to the entire historical population of posts on the Lamea Association profile. Moreover, utilizing the Chi-Square test allows the researcher to mathematically establish whether the dominating communication themes and strategies found in the data reflect systematic institutional priorities. Thus, to verify the validity of the research hypotheses, the Chi-square test was used for differences between frequencies, as shown in the following tables in this section.

Hypothesis1:TherearestatisticallysignificantdifferencesintheuseoftheInstagramaccountintermsoftheformsofdigitalcontent.

The results in Table 8 show statistically significant differences (0.001) in the use of Lamea’s Instagram account in terms of the forms of digital content.

Hypothesis2:TherearestatisticallysignificantdifferencesintheuseoftheInstagramaccountintermsofthemesofdigitalcontent.

The results in Table 9 show statistically significant differences (0.001) in the use of Lamea’s Instagram account in terms of the themes of digital content.

Hypothesis3:TherearestatisticallysignificantdifferencesintheuseoftheInstagramaccountintermsofyouthempowermentstrategies.

The results in Table 10 show statistically significant differences (0.001) in the use of Lamea’s Instagram account in terms of youth empowerment strategies.

Hypothesis4:TherearestatisticallysignificantdifferencesintheuseoftheInstagramaccountintermsofempowermentactors.

The results in Table 11 show statistically significant differences (0.001) in the use of Lamea’s Instagram account in terms of empowerment actors.

Hypothesis5:TherearestatisticallysignificantdifferencesintheuseoftheInstagramaccountintermsofempowermentlevels.

The results in Table 12 show statistically significant differences (0.001) in the use of Lamea’s Instagram account in terms of empowerment levels.

Table 12. Analyzing differences in the use of Lamea’s instagram account in terms of empowerment levels.

To sum up, Pearson’s chi-square tests were used to examine whether the observed frequencies across the coded categories differed from an equal-proportions distribution. Under the null hypothesis, each category was assumed to have an equal probability of occurrence, with expected frequencies calculated as Eᵢ = N/k, where N = 160 and k is the number of categories. This equal-proportions distribution served as a reference benchmark rather than an assumption that Instagram content is distributed equally across categories. The test statistic was evaluated against the chi-square distribution with k − 1 degrees of freedom. Thus, the findings reveal 2 degrees of freedom for forms of digital content, empowerment actors, and empowerment levels, and 5 degrees of freedom for themes of digital content and empowerment strategies. All expected frequencies exceeded five. Statistical significance was assessed at α = 0.05. Because the research employed a purposive sample of one year of the Lamea’s Instagram account, the findings reflect the characteristics of the selected sample and its specific context. They cannot be generalized to all Instagram posts or users. Any application of the findings to other posts, accounts, or time periods should be conducted cautiously, considering the sampling criteria, data-collection period, and independence of observations.

The research findings suggest a collective approach to address youth empowerment. The findings underscore the interrelated psychological, organizational and community empowerment strategies used by Lamea Project. These findings are consistent with Zhao, To & Chan’s (2025) argument that group and community dimensions should be addressed by looking at empowerment as a multi-level and relational process. The findings demonstrate that the Lamea Project has used various strategies at multiple levels of youth empowerment. The findings reflect “empowerment” as a “process” shaped by the collective efforts of the youth through peer-to-peer empowerment, the government through providing leadership support in addition to training workshops, and the community partnership. These results align with the study of Avelino et al. (2020), who conceptualized empowerment as the “process through which actors gain the capacity to mobilize resources to achieve a goal”. It supports the recommendation of Zhao, To & Chan (2025) that the temporal, relational, and contextual dimensions are interconnected in shaping how youth and practitioners understand and exercise youth empowerment. Consequently, future initiatives for youth empowerment must adopt a collective framework, viewing empowerment as an ongoing process driven by strategic partnerships and collaborative stakeholder engagement.

The results indicate that the project has implemented multiple levels of empowerment. The results show that 55.625% of the posts focused on organizational empowerment, followed by psychological empowerment and community empowerment. This aligns with Zimmerman’s Empowerment Theory (2000), which stressed the need for multiple levels through the empowerment process. Although past research criticized the youth initiative’s focus on psychological empowerment through personal control and self-efficacy, the Lamea project has succeeded in combining psychological, organizational, and community levels of empowerment. It is remarkable that organizational-level empowerment comes in first place, which reflects the role of organizations in empowering youth as a “structural vehicle for individual and collective transformation” (Zimmerman, 2000). Moreover, collective-level empowerment is essential to provide the youth with sufficient resources. Lamea Project has established collaboration and partnerships with various governmental and private institutions in Bahrain. This finding supports the recommendation of Fernández-Carrasco et al. (2026) to shift from individual empowerment outcomes to a multi-level process. Based on Zimmerman (2000), empowerment theory suggests that actions, activities, or structures may be empowering, and that the outcome of such processes results in a level of being empowered. Since the research focuses on the “process” of employing empowerment strategies on Lamea’s Instagram account, future studies should examine the “outcomes” of this collective process on youth empowerment.

The findings reveal high interaction with the digital content of the Lamea Project via “Likes”, “Mentions”, “Posts” and “Comments”. This high interaction positions “youth empowerment” as an outstanding issue in digital media. Oloo Ong’ong’a (2025) argued that despite the significance of Youth-driven innovation, these innovations often fail to garner adequate attention within the media landscape. The results indicate that digital communication has established a highly interactive relationship with the audience. The powerful impact of social media was stressed by Schlicht et al. (2026), who emphasized that social media has played a central role in adolescents’ lives and influenced their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. Thus, to achieve youth empowerment, more attention should be given to developing strategic digital media campaigns and projects to target the youth. Leveraging digital platforms offers new opportunities to develop youth empowerment strategies. Additionally, these findings reveal how digital media can support more collaborative, multi-level youth empowerment campaigns and projects. Furthermore, based on Grunig’s two-way symmetrical communication model, this research highlights how social media has shifted public relations from traditional, one-way press agentry toward direct, real-time dialogue between organizations and youth. This modern interactive landscape aligns with the Excellence Theory, which Grunig (2008) notes establishes the value of public relations by focusing on socially responsible management and development of quality stakeholder relationships.

The findings emphasized that the youth play a considerable role in youth empowerment. Digital media employment transforms youth from passive recipients into active actors. The findings reveal that 29.375% of the posts used peer-to-peer empowerment, which reflects the role of the youth in the empowerment process. Furthermore, digital media enables the youth to participate in the empowerment process through various interaction forms (likes, reposts, mentions, and comments). This finding is consistent with Ile & Boadu’s (2018) argument that to achieve inclusiveness in any social intervention programme, the policy process should be all-embracing, sharing knowledge and active stakeholders’ participation, which includes the youth. Moreover, the findings support the discussion of Ratriyana, Setiawan & Yudarwati (2022) that during development, youths can be agents of social change and drivers of development. Hence, youth empowerment initiatives should enable target youth to become active empowerment actors by providing resources and employing digital media to establish interactive, participatory relationships. Hence, future research should focus on the “outcomes” of this interactive process from the perceptions of youth.

The findings highlight the role of training and knowledge development in innovation empowerment through providing psychological and collective resources for talented youth to develop their talents. This finding goes along with Bhaat & Kim’s (2017) recommendation for the need for expert teachers and innovation in teaching and learning practices, as applying innovative and advanced education is the foremost requirement for today’s generation. Moreover, Ouko, Ogola, Ng’on’ga & Wairimu (2022) highlighted a critical need for tailored entrepreneurial training, alongside government-backed initiatives like developmental funds, start-up capital for graduating students, and the establishment of agricultural incubation centres. The findings stress the need for national projects that would employ multiple empowerment strategies for talented youth across different cultures. Hence, tailored youth training programmes should be developed to advance youth talents as part of a collective youth empowerment approach.

The findings highlight the immediate need for further research that explores collective approaches to youth empowerment. Moreover, future studies should integrate empowerment strategies across different cultures using a multi-level empowerment model. This aligns with the recommendation by Eisman et al. (2016) to utilize theoretical models of empowerment. Besides, Khan (2022) argued that utilizing co-production strategies can empower young people to share their expertise flexibly, fostering collective cultural citizenship that challenges, rather than affirms, the dominant white institutional frameworks governing them. In addition, future studies should shift from focusing mainly on health empowerment to multiple socioeconomic issues related to youth empowerment. Furthermore, the research recommends developing interdisciplinary studies that connect youth empowerment research to strategic communication and public relations scholarship. Additionally, future investigations should explore the role of digital media in developing creative empowerment strategies at multiple levels of empowerment. Moreover, further studies should expand research findings by exploring the “outcomes” of the empowerment “process” from youth’s perspectives.