PPBM’s media exposure has been on a decreasing trend

Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) announced that it will amend its constitution in July before the party leadership election. The date of the election will be determined during the party’s Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) which is due to take place on July 20.

As a fairly new party, established in September 2016, PPBM does not really has a strong presence in the mainstream media. It is also noticeable that the party’s media exposure has been on a decreasing trend since February 2019.

Additionally, PPBM shares a similar trend with Amanah, a splinter party of PAS founded in September 2015. Meanwhile, older parties like PKR and DAP have a stronger presence in the mainstream media. On a side note, PKR and DAP also have more seats in the Dewan Rakyat compared to PPBM and Amanah.

Amongst the four component parties of Pakatan Harapan, only the topic ‘Amanah’ was not led by its top leader for the past one year. The top influencer for Amanah was Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, while its president Mohamad Sabu was at the number two spot.

PKR, DAP and PPBM were led by its respective leaders; Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Guan Eng and Mahathir Mohamad.

On the other hand, PKR was often mentioned by Mohamad Hasan and Hadi Awang, while DAP was frequently mentioned by Najib Razak and Hadi Awang. For PPBM, the party caught Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s attention for the past one year.

With the return of Ahmad Zahid Hamidi as UMNO president, UMNO might be more aggressive towards PPBM in the future.

In terms of media share, Malay-language medium, Sinar Harian, was more inclined in providing coverage for Amanah and PKR, while DAP and PPBM received more attention from The Malay Mail, which is an English-language medium.

It is also interesting to note that both Sinar Harian and MalaysiaKini were absent from the top 10 media list for PPBM, but not for PKR, DAP and Amanah. This indicates that both medium provide lesser coverage on PPBM compared to the rest of the component parties in Pakatan Harapan.

This is not a good sign for PPBM as Sinar Harian and MalaysiaKini are prominent media with a significant number of followers.

With the upcoming EGM and party election, PPBM will undoubtedly receive higher media exposure than before. But it will just be an incidental spike. Will the party change its strategy after its EGM and party election to have a strong and consistent presence in the media?