EXPLORING POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN MEDIA INTERVIEWS (AN ANALYSIS OF CRISTIANO RONALDO'S INTERVIEW WITH PIERS MORGAN)

This study aimed to determine the kind of politeness strategies employed by
Cristiano Ronaldo and Piers Morgan during the interview titled ‘Full Cristiano
Ronaldo Interview with Piers Morgan’ based on Brown and Levinson theory and to
find out the differences of using politeness strategies between the speakers.
Descriptive qualitative was used as a methodology in the research. Subject of this
study focused on the interview video between Piers Morgan and Cristiano Ronaldo,
which served as the main source of data for the analysis of politeness strategies,
with the duration of 1 hours 31 minutes 8 seconds. Check-list table was the
instrument of this study. The analysis revealed that both Cristiano Ronaldo and
Piers Morgan employed all types of politeness strategies. The positive politeness
strategy was the most frequently used, followed by bald on record strategy as the
second most common, and negative politeness strategy was the third most common,
followed by off-record strategy as the least frequently used. The data clearly showed
that Cristiano Ronaldo, as a guest, used the strategy of bald on record more than
Piers Morgan, while Piers Morgan, known for his straightforwardness, used
positive politeness more. This might due to the topic being discussed during the
interview and the relationship between the speakers. Furthermore, this research
recommends that future researchers analyze more about politeness strategies based
on the participants' profession, cultural background, and other factors to gain a more
detailed and in-depth understanding. Additionally, interviews or talk shows are
more suitable for analysis than films or movies because they are unscripted and
spontaneous.
Keywords: Media interview, Politeness Strategies, Pragmatics.