Malaysian Media Coverage of Palestinian Presidents’ Image during Crises 1996-2016

Abstract

Maintaining a good image of political leaders is significant to ensure their political life. The image of political leaders, including presidents of any country, is threatened when they are facing critical situations. This study examines the coverage by the Malaysian media, specifically New Straits Times (NST), on the Palestinian Presidents, Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas and their portrayal towards several crises. Both image repair theory and framing perspective were used to guide the study. A total of 2715 news stories have been found about Palestinian issues in the 21 year period covered from 1996-2016. A total of 531 stories were related to Palestinian Presidents, 456 stories were on crises. This study employing content analysis has revealed three main crises faced by the Palestinian Presidents, namely political, social, and economic crisis. The political crises included: peace process, internal conflict, foreign pressure, Israeli attacks, Israeli blockade, Palestinian attacks, Israeli threats, clashes, demonstrations, Israeli spying, kidnapping, and relations breakdown. The social crises included: corruption, information leakage, cheating, false information, Israeli rumours, and Israeli slanders. The economic crises included only financial crisis. Palestinian Presidents have used all the main image repair strategies, namely denial, evasion of responsibility, reducing offensiveness, corrective action, and mortification.