Managing crises: hedging strategies in Malaysian diplomatic press releases

Diplomatic press releases play a significant role in presenting a nation’s position about global issues to the local and global communities. A nation’s stance and decisions communicated via press releases need to be mitigated and expressed tactfully and cautiously to avoid distress leading to confro...

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Main Authors: Maizura Mohd Noor, Muna Liyana Mohamad Tarmizi, Puspalata C Suppiah, S. Suchithra K. Sankaran Nair
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2023
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/23201/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/23201/1/TD%206.pdf
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author Maizura Mohd Noor,
Muna Liyana Mohamad Tarmizi,
Puspalata C Suppiah,
S. Suchithra K. Sankaran Nair,
author_facet Maizura Mohd Noor,
Muna Liyana Mohamad Tarmizi,
Puspalata C Suppiah,
S. Suchithra K. Sankaran Nair,
author_sort Maizura Mohd Noor,
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Diplomatic press releases play a significant role in presenting a nation’s position about global issues to the local and global communities. A nation’s stance and decisions communicated via press releases need to be mitigated and expressed tactfully and cautiously to avoid distress leading to confrontations. As a mitigating device, hedging has been identified as an effective pragmatic strategy in reducing potentially damaging reactions, therefore encouraging effective diplomatic communication. This paper presents a content analysis of 27 press releases on world crises by the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs between May 2020 and May 2022. The identification and coding of hedging items were completed manually by considering context and co-text using a framework of Identification Criteria of Hedging Devices. The identified hedges were analysed pragmatically to determine their functions in diplomatic communication. The analysis reveals that hedges in diplomatic press releases by the Ministry of foreign affairs serve several functions which highlight the influence of culture on diplomatic stance-taking. It should be noted that the absence of hedges in some of the press releases confirms various writing guidelines that the genre values factual, direct, and accurate information. These findings are beneficial for successful intercultural diplomatic communication and accordingly global peace.
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spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:232012024-03-14T07:57:18Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/23201/ Managing crises: hedging strategies in Malaysian diplomatic press releases Maizura Mohd Noor, Muna Liyana Mohamad Tarmizi, Puspalata C Suppiah, S. Suchithra K. Sankaran Nair, Diplomatic press releases play a significant role in presenting a nation’s position about global issues to the local and global communities. A nation’s stance and decisions communicated via press releases need to be mitigated and expressed tactfully and cautiously to avoid distress leading to confrontations. As a mitigating device, hedging has been identified as an effective pragmatic strategy in reducing potentially damaging reactions, therefore encouraging effective diplomatic communication. This paper presents a content analysis of 27 press releases on world crises by the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs between May 2020 and May 2022. The identification and coding of hedging items were completed manually by considering context and co-text using a framework of Identification Criteria of Hedging Devices. The identified hedges were analysed pragmatically to determine their functions in diplomatic communication. The analysis reveals that hedges in diplomatic press releases by the Ministry of foreign affairs serve several functions which highlight the influence of culture on diplomatic stance-taking. It should be noted that the absence of hedges in some of the press releases confirms various writing guidelines that the genre values factual, direct, and accurate information. These findings are beneficial for successful intercultural diplomatic communication and accordingly global peace. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2023-12 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/23201/1/TD%206.pdf Maizura Mohd Noor, and Muna Liyana Mohamad Tarmizi, and Puspalata C Suppiah, and S. Suchithra K. Sankaran Nair, (2023) Managing crises: hedging strategies in Malaysian diplomatic press releases. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 29 (4). pp. 82-98. ISSN 0128-5157 https://ejournals.ukm.my/jhadhari/issue/view/1608
spellingShingle Maizura Mohd Noor,
Muna Liyana Mohamad Tarmizi,
Puspalata C Suppiah,
S. Suchithra K. Sankaran Nair,
Managing crises: hedging strategies in Malaysian diplomatic press releases
title Managing crises: hedging strategies in Malaysian diplomatic press releases
title_full Managing crises: hedging strategies in Malaysian diplomatic press releases
title_fullStr Managing crises: hedging strategies in Malaysian diplomatic press releases
title_full_unstemmed Managing crises: hedging strategies in Malaysian diplomatic press releases
title_short Managing crises: hedging strategies in Malaysian diplomatic press releases
title_sort managing crises: hedging strategies in malaysian diplomatic press releases
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/23201/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/23201/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/23201/1/TD%206.pdf