Objectives: The study aims to verify the impact of the Cultural Identity Theory in boosting National identity from the Palestinian Media Elites’ view. Therefore, the researchers employed Social Identity theory to study how digital platforms are employed by media elites to integrate individuals into groups in order to strengthen their National identity, in addition to employ identity theory for studying the use of Cultural Identity Theory to preserve cultural heritage and disseminate Palestinian culture. They also employed immunization theory to learn how to protect National identity from forgery and misinformation, and to confront negative messages against it. Methodology: The researchers followed the mixed approach that combines the quantitative approach and the qualitative one. Results: The study concluded that the impact of Cultural Identity Theory in strengthening National identity from the media elites’ view was significant in terms of the Arithmetic Average (3.88). Results showed that Cultural Identity Theory and media elites have a significant impact on foreign diplomatic activity, and that Social Identity theory contributes significantly to boost National identity through the use of digital diplomacy, and that the theory of cultural identity has a major role in boosting the National identity by preserving cultural heritage in particular, and heritage in general, and that the theory of immunization contributes to protecting and boosting the National identity among the Palestinian people, and denies false negative narratives against the Palestinian National Identity. Conclusion: The necessity to boost the role of Palestinian Media Elites in developing Cultural Identity Theory, and to encourage cooperation between the governmental bodies and media elites in order to boost their role in digital diplomatic communication, and work to study mechanisms for integrating social and cultural identity concepts into Cultural Identity Theory strategies, with determining methods for responding to negative content through the use of digital platforms.
KeywordsDiplomacyDigital DiplomacyCultural Identity TheoryNational IdentityPalestinian Media Elite
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