MH370 crisis: image repair strategies used by Malaysia Airlines

• Main Authors: Abdul Karim, Aina Sahira, Abdul Latif @ Bapoo, Lilisuriani, Sulaiman, Abdul Kadir
• Format: Proceeding Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Kulliyyah of Languages and Managements (KLM), International Islamic University of Malaysia Pagoh Campus In collaboration with: Office of Jamalullail Chair,IIUM Gombak Majlis Agama Dan Istiadat Melayu Perlis (MAIPs) Kulliyyah of Education (KOED), IIUM Gomb 2021
• Subjects: PE English
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/94974/1/94974_MH370%20crisis%20image%20repair%20strategies.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/94974/

Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) is a state-owned airline controlled by the Government of Malaysia. On March 8, 2014, one of its flights, MH370 disappeared from the radar while flying 12 crewmembers and 227 passengers of 14 nationalities from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. To date, the cause of the tragedy as well as the plane’s whereabouts still remain unknown. This study focuses on the image repair strategies used by MAS in their written press conferences and press releases during the MH370 search and rescue operations. Based on Benoit’s Image Repair Theory, content and thematic analyses were carried out to identify the image repair strategies and the main themes used in the strategies. The findings show that the main types of image repair strategies applied by MAS were corrective action, bolstering, and mortification while collaboration in search and rescue operation, support for the victims’ families and transparency in information updates were prominently used as their image repair themes. Even though this study offers some insights on how image repair strategies were applied by an organization when handling an international crisis, further studies on the language discourse of image repair strategies are needed as they would be useful for language teaching and learning.