Team Paper – A Communication Plan for Malaysia by Team 2

No one could have predicted on March 8, 2014, Flight MH 370 would vanish off the face of the earth’s vast and sophisticated satellite network system without so much as a trace of physical evidence left behind. Tragically, it took the lives of 239 passengers and crewmembers within its chambers. To the families of these missing people, the youngest just 2 years old and the oldest just 76, the wait has been nothing short of a nightmare. While (an audience): of family members, a dozen countries with citizens aboard the flight, members of the world’s new media organizations and the rest of the world’s population, turned to the Malaysian Government Officials for answers, it became very clear, the government was ill prepared to handle a crisis of this magnitude. Malaysia reminds us why a communication plan matters. This crisis required (a goal): to carefully, caringly and consistently share credible information, even when there is little information to come by, for (the purpose): of comforting those in need, releasing only necessary and documented (communication messages): of what is known and admitting when something is unknown, through (channels): of confidential communications with family members and then using news and social medial to communicate non-sensitive information to the rest of the world, and in doing so, establishing trust with its targeted audience. This never happened and as a result, the Malaysian government caused added anguish to family members and lost face with the world. Team 2 decided to use the opportunity of this current and relevant tragedy as a vehicle to develop and implement a strategic communication plan of action for the Malaysian Government to follow to bring its diplomacy back on course.
Strategic Communication Goal/Purpose: To establish an effective communication’s plan for immediate implementation during this crisis, for Malaysian Officials to redeem public opinion and enable sound communications, from this point forward while considering the cultural beliefs of the country and their inexperience on the world stage. The Malaysian government, in a public mission statement, states a commitment to “Disseminating adequate and accurate information on Malaysia and the Malaysian government policy... acting as the focal point in the interaction of communication between the government and the Malaysian community”. (Corporate, 2014) It is unfortunate the government did not uphold this mission when it was really needed over the past 55 days. The fault here is partially due to a non-existent communication plan, the sheer fact that Malaysia never had the attention of the world before, and has an exceptionally strong cultural belief of “the concept of saving face” by promoting harmonious global relationships between themselves and other neighboring countries. By remaining calm, speaking privately only to one another about reporting errors, and unwilling to accept any type of blame, the Malaysian government failed terribly in public relations and proved they were inexperienced in global communications. The Chinese Government, which is most affected by the tragedy with 153 passengers aboard, is extremely vocal in its criticism of Malaysia. “Officials failed to understand the difference between the global media and the Malaysian press – the former demands transparency and answers: the latter is more compliant and forgiving” says journalist Zarina Banu of the South China Morning Post. She goes on to say “Malaysia’s handling of the MH370 tragedy has doled out a brutal lesson to the leadership in crisis communications.” To add further insult, a CNN web post on March 16, 2014 stated, “Even worse (then Malaysia avoiding blame) the golden time for saving possible survivors, if any, was generously wasted.” To reiterate our purpose, we plan to create a communication strategy for the Malaysian government in order to allow for proper communication internally and externally. The objective is to execute this plan clearly requiring immediate, reliable and consistent communication. Applying this plan can help eradicate a multitude of miscommunication incidents as well as eliminate potential global embarrassment. With all these valid criticisms in mind, we recognize Malaysia’s differing values for releasing and communicating private information and their inexperience in the same. Strategic Plan to meet our stated goal:
Develop a public relations team, lead by an experienced press secretary, under the leadership of a newly appointed Transportation Minister, who is first and foremost responsible for daily briefings through scheduled news conferences and responsibly relayed statements on social media to convey updated information relating to the investigation, location of the aircraft and search for passenger remains. The government will commit to surrendering information for the good of the investigation. Behind the secretary, develop a team of experienced aviation, satellite and military experts from experienced countries, to document and disseminate all information prior to it being released to the public to avoid relaying erroneous facts to the audience.
Appoint a contact person for one member of each family to have constant access to new and private news relating to missing passengers before it is communicated to the public. Send family members home from the Malaysian and Beijing hotels, ensuring them the investigation and family compensation is first and foremost a priority.
Audience Profile: Whom are we speaking to and why? Our internal audience includes the families of the 227 passengers and 12 Malaysian crewmembers on board. These people are our main focus as we remember their loss is immeasurable. These families need and deserve special handling including support, answers, and resources. Once they receive the information, the external audience will be updated. Our external audience includes (a) the twelve countries of origin of the missing passengers, including most notably, China, where the plane was scheduled to land (b) the world news media covering every angle of the story, in some cases, 24 hours a day, and (c) the world population following the story including those involved in the search effort.
Communication Messages: Our messages to our audience.
Establish our Baseline - Flight MH370 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the pilots on March 8, 2014 at 1:20 MYT. This was slightly less than one hour after takeoff. At 7:24, after a frantic international air control search, Malaysia Airlines reported the flight as missing.
Update the Baseline – It is with the upmost effort that we are using every possible resource to locate the missing airliner. We, as a nation, are employing help from neighboring and international countries to find out what happened in the crucial minutes when the plan disappeared from radar and analyze the pilot’s last recording with air traffic controllers. International intelligence, as well as Malaysian authorities are interviewing relatives of the pilots and any passengers of interest.
Intensify the Baseline – We are extremely saddened to learn the last satellite ping detected by sophisticated sonar equipment puts the plane in the southern part of the Indian Ocean. After an extensive multinational search and recovery effort in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea, we have since decided to deploy all efforts off the coast of Perth, Australia and concentrate solely in the Indian Ocean
Show Time Appropriate Concern – The people and government of Malaysia extend their upmost condolences to family members of the passengers and crew. Please understand we have lost some of our own and we share your grief. We are here to support you in every manner possible and will continue to put forth every effort into locating the contents of the airplane until it is found. The safety and well-being of our citizens, our passengers and crewmembers is, and always has been, our first priority.
Communication Channels/Vehicles – How we will deliver our messages: With the world watching and judging, we will change the delivery of our messages from conflicting and chaotic press conferences, erroneous stories, shifting narratives and confusing tweets and we will immediately assign “a face of communications” (our press secretary) to a daily, scheduled news briefing to include unified information that was sourced and documented by a team of experts prior to the briefing being delivered. The briefing will take place in a controlled setting, in the conference room of the Malaysian Airline Headquarters, with a brief question and answer session to follow the briefing. Members of the world media are welcome, as well as, any family members wishing to attend. It is imperative our press secretary is educated in Malaysian culture, understands the culture of neighboring Asian countries and the importance of non-verbal communication such as facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language since this is a large part of how competency and confidence in the message is perceived. We will no longer allow family members to receive information for the first time by news conference or social media. We deeply regret the Malaysian Government’s mistake of notifying the world, including family members, by Twitter, “…we have to assume beyond any reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived” This is unacceptable and one member from every family will have a personal contact representative of the government responsible for communicating, in person when possible or by phone, the most recent information relating to the investigation before it is released in public. Only after the family members have been notified will breaking news be communicated with the world by press conference, by tweet or on the Malaysian Government website. The Prime Minister, or an appointed designee, will personally contact the related position of all countries affected by the disaster or assisting in the recovery efforts to notify of any breaking news prior to press briefings. These measures are necessary in regaining the trust of disillusioned family members, critical media outlets, international governments and worldwide opinions.
Communication Strategy Implementation - How to bring the messages and the communication vehicles together to regain the trust of our audience:
The Malaysian Government first needs to make sure they are unified and clear of the intended messages. The messages need to be accurate for the government to be considered competent and truthful. The delivery of the message must be culturally acceptable and dignified with respect given to the sensitivity of recovery efforts and missing bodies. The government will appoint specific representatives, educated in public relations and family relations, as a point of contact person for at least one member of every family affected by the tragedy. This family member will receive a daily briefing (method of their choice, either in person at the Malaysian Headquarters, by phone, by text or by email) and the family shall receive breaking news updates before the updates are released to the public. The family members will be asked to return to their homes and will be given fair and just compensation for the loss of their loved one(s). This information will remain confidential between the Malaysian Government and the families.
The Transportation Minister, or a designated government official, will make personal phone calls to the governments affected by the tragedy including the 12 countries with passengers on the airplane and the countries actively involved in the search whenever credible breaking news occurs.
The Malaysian Press Secretary will hold daily, scheduled press briefings at the Malaysian Airlines Headquarters for the world press to attend. They will hold a brief question and answer session after the briefing. The government will admit when they do not have the answers to the questions asked. The government will no longer give answers to ‘save face’ but will research the question and deliver the answer at the next briefing.
The Malaysian Government will update its website to include all of the information released during the briefing and will release breaking news by Twitter and the website only after family members and invested governments are notified.
Evaluation – How we measure our success: From day 55 to Day 90.
With the inclusion of major social media outlets and major news media, feedback from a global audience can be tracked and analyzed to determine how well our Plan of Action is working. Being able to review positive and negative ‘retweets’ or ‘article comments’, is a major indicator on the progress, or lack thereof, of our plan and will illustrate to the Malaysian Government whether or not the plan is enough to regain audience trust and reestablish credibility. At the end of 90 days, the Transportation Minister will request an official report of public opinion and feedback from family members to access the handling of the situation and make changes if necessary. Since the news media will be relaying the information communicated from the government, accurate articles giving personal and professional analysis of the Malaysian communication plan can be a candid display of how the world, both close to home and overseas, rate our new approach to crisis communication. A candid measure of success, from the vocal group of family members, can be obtained via written surveys. As our most important audience, the communication plan should ultimately leave them feeling satisfied with the Malaysian Government’s efforts even if little to no information is retrieved about the whereabouts of the missing plane. No plan, of course, will be enough to appease the grieving families but a solid plan will assure them all that is possible is being done to find out what happened to Flight MH370.
Our 90 day assessment will focus on how we utilized and better understood the Malaysian and Asian cultures for communication purposes and how we put the needs of the family members before government’s need to save face. We will assess our use of social media as a communication tool with the world. We will commit to our cause of a professional investigation into the cause of the plan’s demise and the whereabouts of the missing passengers. Finally, we will continue to publically express gratitude for the national governments assisting in our efforts and sorrow for those we lost.