12 EEJ 7 (1) (2017) English Education Journal http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/eej POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN OFFICIAL FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS OF CNN, TWSJ AND NBC ON OBAMA VISITING HIROSHIMA Ima Fitriana Rosyidah, Ahmad Sofwan English Language Education Postgraduate Semarang State Univesity, Indonesia Article Info ________________ Article History: Recived 23 January 2017 Accepted 10 May 2017 Published 17 June 2017 ________________ Keywords: Politeness Strategy, Politeness Scale, Facebook Comment. Abstract ___________________________________________________________________ The purpose of this study was to identify and to count the percentage of the politeness strategies used in the comments of official facebook account of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC on Obama’s visit to Hiroshima. Then, it tried to find the politeness scale in the utterances of people toward Obama as the President of the United States at that time. Besides, it also tried to compare the politeness strategy that is often used in those three facebook accounts. In this study, the data analysis reveals research findings as follows: (1) there were positive politeness strategies used in the comments with the highest data was performed by the strategy 7 (presuppose) - 26.7%; and the lowest was performed by the strategy 3 (intensify interest) - 0.9%. Meanwhile, in the negative politeness strategy the highest data was performed by the strategy 7 (impersonalise speaker and hearer) - 55.7%; and the lowest was performed by the strategy 5 (give deference/humble oneself) - 0.7%, (2) the scale of politeness were determined by politeness factors, and the highest level was performed by the ranking of imposition, and (3) the politeness strategies and politeness scale mostly appeared in the NBC’s official facebook account. © 2017 Semarang State University Correspondence Address: Kampus Pascasarjana Unnes, Jalan Kelud Utara III Semarang 50237 E-mail: imafitriyana@gmail.com p-ISSN 2087-0108 e-ISSN 2502-4566 Ima Fitriana Rosyidah & Ahmad Sofwan. / English Education Journal 7 (1) (2017) 13 INTRODUCTION Language is the most important device in communication which helps people to express their ideas, feelings, and emotions. According to Holmes (2001: 317) language is what is produced by the member of society to determine what people notice, to show their belief, perception and behaviour. Language that people express can be delivered in the spoken and written form. Both spoken and written language can produce communication between people to share their thought. The use of language shows people’s relationship and attitude toward others. To deliver their ideas, feeling, and emotions on written text, people may use many media, such as newspapers, magazines, and books. Nowadays, they may also write their thought on the online media, such as blog, twitter, instagram, and facebook, and people are getting braver in expressing their thought, particularly in social media such as facebook. Power is one of politeness factors which strongly influences people in performing politeness. As it has been known that Obama is the former President of the United States, he certainly had power toward his people and people around the world when he was on duty as a president. Meanwhile, it has been known that not all of the societies support him and his leadership. It seems that nowadays people are lack of respect for his leadership. By analyzing the politeness strategies from the comments of official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC, one can show the scale of facebook user politeness in doing communication with society. METHODS In this study, the researcher used qualitative method to study the problem. The interpretation, explanation, and description were used to identify the subject matters, and supported by mathematical calculation to find the result. It is a library research which has an aim to collect the data and some information by any sources at library such as books, documents, magazines, notes, and the others. To analyze this study, several steps were followed, such as: coding, identifying, classifying, comparing, leveling, interpretation, and drawing conclusion. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Politeness Strategies The politeness strategies in netizen utterances are briefly analyzed using Brown and Levinson’s (2000) theories of negative politeness strategy and positive politeness strategy. In this study, the data are analyzed by positive politeness strategy and negative politeness strategy. The analysis of politeness strategies reveals there are some sub-strategies performed in the utterances of the comments of official CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC facebook account about Obama’s visit to Hiroshima. As it is already known that CNN and NBC have a pro-Democrate bias (Humphrys, 2012) and The Wall Street Journal has a pro-Republican bias (Black, 2014), it definitely influences the political orietation of those media. From the data, there are 14 positive politeness sub-strategies appeared in the comments of official CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC facebook account about Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, as it is shownin the following table. Tabel 1. Distribution Of Positive Politeness Strategy Ima Fitriana Rosyidah & Ahmad Sofwan. / English Education Journal 7 (1) (2017) 14 Based on the table,the highest precentage of positive politeness strategy useis commonly performed by strategy 7 which is presuppose/ raise/ assert common ground. On the other hand, the smallest number of positive politeness strategy use is performed by strategy 3 which is intensify interest. Meanwhile, strategy 14 which is assume/assert reciprocity is not performed because there is no cooperation between writer and readers in communication. Then, the performance of positive politeness strategies is shown in the following table. Moreover, the data also shows the highest precentage of negative politeness strategy use that is commonly performed by strategy 7 which is impersonalise speaker and hearer. In contrast, the smallest number of negative politeness strategy use is performed by strategy 5 which is give deference/humble oneself.Meanwhile, strategy 4 which is minimise imposition and strategy 9 which is nominalise were not performed in the data. Strategy 4 was not occured because it was only happen in verbal communication, and strategy 9 was not occured because the researcher can not found any utterance which show the nominalize of informal to formal language.Then, the performance of negative politeness strategies is shown in the following table. Tabel 2. Distribution Of Negative Politeness Strategy Politeness Scale According to Brown and Levinson (2000), there are three factors in classifying politeness scale: relative power, the social distance, and the ranking of the imposition. The first is relative power, it relates to the negative politeness because it expresses difference status to an addressee, demands others’ respect and avoids interferences Holmes (2001). In this factor, people who have the lower to the higher power tend to use formal language in conversation. In this study, the amount of relative power appearance is the lowest because the netizens’ position are under Obama, the President of the United States at that time. It means that netizens actually have the lower power against Obama. Second, social distance relates to the positive politeness. Because the positive politeness is solidarity oriented, each speaker may determine how he/she shows and shares friendly attitudes and respects to others Holmes (2001). In this study, the amount of this factor is higher than relative power and lower than the rank of the imposition. It is happened because in the social media like facebook, netizens are mostly in the same level no matter what they are. It causes they can share their though each other without need to worry. Third, the ranking of the imposition relates to the concept of ‘face’ - positive face and negative face Wardhaugh (2006). In this study, the scale of ranking of the imposition is the highest of all. It is realized by the FTA that were threatening to hearer’s negative face-want. Negative face shows the need to have freedom of action and freedom from imposition. Therefore in the utterances netizens shows that they are free to share their opinion, their thought, and their feeling toward others, especially to Obama as the former President of the United States. Indeed, they have the right to share all of them to people by using any media. Nevertheless, they should remember that there are norms in society that have to be obeyed. Then, the performance of face threatening act is shown in the following table. Tabel 3. Distribution Of Face Threatening Act Ima Fitriana Rosyidah & Ahmad Sofwan. / English Education Journal 7 (1) (2017) 15 The Difference of Politeness Between Comments of Official Facebook Accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC The difference of politeness strategies’ application appeared between comments of official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC about Obama’s visit to Hiroshima. The performance of those differences is shown in the following table. Tabel 4. Summary Of Positive Politeness Strategies Application Based on the table, it can be concluded that the use of positive politeness strategy was commonly performed by the strategy 7 which was presuppose/ raise/ assert common ground, with the appearance 26.9% for CNN, 25% for The Wall Street Journal, and 28.7% for NBC. Therefore, the highest number of positive politeness strategy was realized in the official facebook account of NBC. Furthermore, the use of negative politeness strategy was commonly performed by the strategy 7 which was impersonalise speaker and hearer (pronominally/ passive voice/ indefinites/ reference terms/point of view distancing), with the appearance 55.6% for CNN, 40.6% for The Wall Street Journal, and 63.5% for NBC. Therefore, the highest number of negative politeness also performed in the official facebook account of NBC. Besides, there were also found the difference of FTA’s application appeared between comments of official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC about Obama’s visit to Hiroshima. The performance of those differences is shown in the following table. Tabel 5. Summary Of Face Threatening Act Based on the table, it can be concluded that the highest amount of face threatening act usage was performed in the official facebook account of NBC followed by CNN, and then the lowest amount is performed by The Wall Street Journal. Most of them showed high number of the FTA that were threatening to hearer’s negative face-want and low number of the FTA that were threatening to speaker’s positive face- want. Discussions This research had purposes to identify the politeness strategies and to find the scale of politeness that was performed in the utterances. The research was conducted to 368 utterances in the comment of official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal and NBC on Obama visiting Hiroshima. The finding of data analysis showed the percentage of positive politeness sub strategies. The findings are P+1: 3.1%,P+2: 2.6%,P+3: 0.9%, P+4: 17.5%,P+5: 6.6%,P+6: 10.1%,P+7: Ima Fitriana Rosyidah & Ahmad Sofwan. / English Education Journal 7 (1) (2017) 16 27.2%,P+8: 8.3%,P+9: 3.5%, P+10: 3.9%, P+11: 5.7%, P+12: 1.8%,P+13: 3.1%, and P+15: 5.7%. From the result, it can be seen that the highest percentage was performed by strategy 7 (P+7). It was happened because the communication was not directly happen between netizens and Obama. It caused netizens can not directly talk and confirm the purpose of Obama’s visit to Hirosima. Therefore, netizens had their own presuppose about Obama’s agenda to Hiroshima. Then, the lowest percentage is performed by strategy 3 (P+3). This strategy included story that supported utterances of netizens who interested in Obama. In this research, some of netizens share their though without made any story. Besides, the finding of data analysis also shows the percentage of negative politeness sub strategies. The findings are P-1: 2.9%,P-2: 18.6 %,P-3: 12.1%,P-5: 0.7%,P-6: 2.1%,P-7: 55.7%,P- 8: 2.9%, and P-10: 5%. From the result, it can be seen that the highest percentage is performed by strategy 7 (P-7). It was happened because the conversation occured in facebook as social media where people cannot talk each other directly. Therefore, they had no close relationship. It caused they uttered their language in general to impersonalise both writer and readers. They commonly involved both writer and readers in utterance by using pronouns ‘we, one, someone, everyone, somebody’ rather than ‘you’. Then, the lowest percentage is performed by strategy 5 (P-5). It was happened because most of netizens were not calling the other by their title to treat readers as superior. Meanwhile, the utterances produced by netizens in the comments of official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal and NBC on Obama visiting Hiroshima is determined by politeness factors, which are relative power, the social distance, and the ranking of the imposition. Relative power relates to the negative politeness; and social distance relates to the positive politeness. First, the data showed that number of positive politeness strategy was 228 utterances. In this study, the amount of relative power appearance was the lowest because the netizens’ position were not higher than Obama, the President of the United States at that time. It meant that netizens actually had the lower power against Obama. Second, the amount of relative power was higher from the social distance that was only 140 utterances. It was and lower than the rank of the imposition. It was happened because in the social media like facebook, netizens were mostly in the same level no matter what they are. It caused they can share their thought each other without need to worry. Third, the data also showed that number of ranking of the imposition was 234 utterances. Therefore, the level of ranking of the imposition is highest than the level of relative power and social distance. From the data analysis of ranking of the imposition, the finding showed the percentage of face threatening acts. The findings are Threaten H’s (-) face: 64%, Threaten H’s (+) face: 30.1%, Threaten S’s (-) face: 3.8%, and Threaten S’s (+) face: 2.1%. From the result, it can be seen that the highest presentage is performed by the FTA that were threaten hearer’s negative face want and the lowest presentage is performed by the FTA that were threaten speaker’s positive face want. It was happened because negative face showed the need to have freedom of action and freedom from imposition. Therefore in the utterances netizens showed that they were free to share their opinion, their thought, and their feeling toward others, especially to Obama as the former President of the United States. Furthermore, it was found that there were differences of politeness between comments of official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal and NBC on Obama visiting Hiroshima. The finding of data analysis showed the amount of positive politeness strategies. The findings are CNN: 78 utterances, The Wall Street Journal: 56 utterances, and NBC: 94 utterances. All of them were represented by the usage of strategy 7 which was presuppose/ raise/ assert common ground, and it was shown the most by NBC’s official facebook account. Ima Fitriana Rosyidah & Ahmad Sofwan. / English Education Journal 7 (1) (2017) 17 The findings of data analysis also showed the amount of negative politeness strategies. The findings are: CNN: 45 utterances, The Wall Street Journal: 32 utterances, and NBC: 63 utterances. From the result, it can be seen that the highest amount is performed by NBC’s official facebook account. Moreover, all of those facebook accounts were mostly performed strategy 7 which was impersonalise speaker and hearer (pronominally/ passive voice/ indefinites/ reference terms/point of view distancing). Besides, there were also found the difference of FTA’s application. The findings are CNN: 86 utterances, The Wall Street Journal: 51 utterances, and NBC: 94 utterances. From the result, it can be seen that the highest amount is performed by NBC’s official facebook account. It was happened because NBS is a broadcasting company that prefer to support the Democrates party rather than the Republicans party. Furthermore, the most FTA’s application in those three facebook accounts was performed by the FTA that were threaten hearer’s negative face want. Moreover, the differences of politeness between official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC can be seen on the following diagram. Diagram 1. The Difference Of Politeness Between Comments Of Official Facebook Accounts Of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC CONCLUSION Based on the data analysis, there were fourteen positive politeness strategies and eight negative politeness strategies performed in the utterances. Therefore, there were twenty two strategies of politeness performed in the comments of official CNN, The Wall Street Journal and NBC facebook accounts on Obama visiting Hiroshima. Based on the data analysis the data of positive politeness strategy showed the highest amount is strategy 7 (presuppose/ raise/ assert common ground) with a precentage of 27.2%.It was happened because the communication is not directly happen between netizens and Obama. Therefore, it caused netizens can not directly talk and confirm the purpose of Obama’s visit to Hirosima and ledthem to have their own presuppose about it. Then, the lowest amount was the strategy 3 (intensify interest) with a precentage of 0.9%. This strategy includes story that supports utterances of netizens who were interested inObama. The data of negative politeness strategy showed the highest amount was strategy 7 (impersonalise speaker and hearer) with a precentage of 55.7%. It was happened because people did an indirectly communication in facebook. Most of them were not in close relationship and it caused they utter in general.Then, the lowest amount was strategy 5 (give deference/ humble oneself) with a precentage of 0.7%. It was happened because there was only one netizen who called Obama by ‘Mr. President’ before the she shared her feeling to treat Obama as superior. Besides, the data showed that number of positive politeness strategy was 228 utterances. It was higher from negative politeness strategy that was only 140 utterances. Furthermore, the data also shows that number of ranking of the imposition was 234 utterances. Therefore, it can be concluded that the scale of ranking of the imposition was the highest. It was realized by the FTA that were threatening to hearer’s negative face-want that needed to have freedom of action and freedom from imposition. Moreover, the data showed that the highest amount of positive politeness strategy was performed by NBC’s official facebook account that was presuppose/ raise/ assert common ground strategy. Then, the highest amount of negative politeness strategy was also performed by NBC’c official facebook account which was impersonalise speaker and hearer strategy. Also, the data shows the highest Ima Fitriana Rosyidah & Ahmad Sofwan. / English Education Journal 7 (1) (2017) 18 amount of FTA’s application performed by NBC’s facebook account shown by the FTA was threatening hearer’s negative face want. REFERENCES Black, Aaron. 2014. Ranking the media from liberal to conservative, based on their audiences.(Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/t he-fix/wp/2014/10/21/lets-rank-the- media-from-liberal-to-conservative-based- on-their- audiences/?utm_term=377bf6720251). Brown, Penelope and Stephen C. Levinson.2000. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Holmes, Janet. 2001. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics Second Edition. New York: Longman Inc. Humphrys, Mark. 2012. The Media Bias for Obama. (Retrieved from: http://markhumphrys.com/media.obama. html). https://www.google.co.id/search?hl=id&tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Penelope+Brown%22 https://www.google.co.id/search?hl=id&tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Stephen+C.+Levinson%22 https://www.google.co.id/search?hl=id&tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Stephen+C.+Levinson%22 http://markhumphrys.com/media.obama.html http://markhumphrys.com/media.obama.html The purpose of this study was to identify and to count the percentage of the politeness strategies used in the comments of official facebook account of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC on Obama’s visit to Hiroshima. Then, it tried to find the politeness scale in the utterances of people toward Obama as the President of the United States at that time. Besides, it also tried to compare the politeness strategy that is often used in those three facebook accounts. In this study, the data analysis reveals research findings as follows: (1) there were positive politeness strategies used in the comments with the highest data was performed by the strategy 7 (presuppose) - 26.7%; and the lowest was performed by the strategy 3 (intensify interest) - 0.9%. Meanwhile, in the negative politeness strategy the highest data was performed by the strategy 7 (impersonalise speaker and hearer) - 55.7%; and the lowest was performed by the strategy 5 (give deference/humble oneself) - 0.7%, (2) the scale of politeness were determined by politeness factors, and the highest level was performed by the ranking of imposition, and (3) the politeness strategies and politeness scale mostly appeared in the NBC’s official facebook account. Introduction Language is the most important device in communication which helps people to express their ideas, feelings, and emotions. According to Holmes (2001: 317) language is what is produced by the member of society to determine what people notice, to show th... The use of language shows people’s relationship and attitude toward others. To deliver their ideas, feeling, and emotions on written text, people may use many media, such as newspapers, magazines, and books. Nowadays, they may also write their thought... Power is one of politeness factors which strongly influences people in performing politeness. As it has been known that Obama is the former President of the United States, he certainly had power toward his people and people around the world when he wa... METHODS In this study, the researcher used qualitative method to study the problem. The interpretation, explanation, and description were used to identify the subject matters, and supported by mathematical calculation to find the result. It is a library resea... RESULT AND DISCUSSION Politeness Strategies The politeness strategies in netizen utterances are briefly analyzed using Brown and Levinson’s (2000) theories of negative politeness strategy and positive politeness strategy. In this study, the data are analyzed by positive politeness strategy and ... From the data, there are 14 positive politeness sub-strategies appeared in the comments of official CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC facebook account about Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, as it is shownin the following table. Tabel 1. Distribution Of Positive Politeness Strategy Based on the table,the highest precentage of positive politeness strategy useis commonly performed by strategy 7 which is presuppose/ raise/ assert common ground. On the other hand, the smallest number of positive politeness strategy use is performed ... Moreover, the data also shows the highest precentage of negative politeness strategy use that is commonly performed by strategy 7 which is impersonalise speaker and hearer. In contrast, the smallest number of negative politeness strategy use is perfor... Tabel 2. Distribution Of Negative Politeness Strategy Politeness Scale According to Brown and Levinson (2000), there are three factors in classifying politeness scale: relative power, the social distance, and the ranking of the imposition. The first is relative power, it relates to the negative politeness because it expr... Second, social distance relates to the positive politeness. Because the positive politeness is solidarity oriented, each speaker may determine how he/she shows and shares friendly attitudes and respects to others Holmes (2001). In this study, the amou... Third, the ranking of the imposition relates to the concept of ‘face’ - positive face and negative face Wardhaugh (2006). In this study, the scale of ranking of the imposition is the highest of all. It is realized by the FTA that were threatening to h... Tabel 3. Distribution Of Face Threatening Act The Difference of Politeness Between Comments of Official Facebook Accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC The difference of politeness strategies’ application appeared between comments of official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC about Obama’s visit to Hiroshima. The performance of those differences is shown in the following table. Tabel 4. Summary Of Positive Politeness Strategies Application Based on the table, it can be concluded that the use of positive politeness strategy was commonly performed by the strategy 7 which was presuppose/ raise/ assert common ground, with the appearance 26.9% for CNN, 25% for The Wall Street Journal, and 28... Furthermore, the use of negative politeness strategy was commonly performed by the strategy 7 which was impersonalise speaker and hearer (pronominally/ passive voice/ indefinites/ reference terms/point of view distancing), with the appearance 55.6% fo... Besides, there were also found the difference of FTA’s application appeared between comments of official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC about Obama’s visit to Hiroshima. The performance of those differences is shown in the ... Tabel 5. Summary Of Face Threatening Act Based on the table, it can be concluded that the highest amount of face threatening act usage was performed in the official facebook account of NBC followed by CNN, and then the lowest amount is performed by The Wall Street Journal. Most of them showe... This research had purposes to identify the politeness strategies and to find the scale of politeness that was performed in the utterances. The research was conducted to 368 utterances in the comment of official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Stree... The finding of data analysis showed the percentage of positive politeness sub strategies. The findings are P+1: 3.1%,P+2: 2.6%,P+3: 0.9%, P+4: 17.5%,P+5: 6.6%,P+6: 10.1%,P+7: 27.2%,P+8: 8.3%,P+9: 3.5%, P+10: 3.9%, P+11: 5.7%, P+12: 1.8%,P+13: 3.1%, an... Besides, the finding of data analysis also shows the percentage of negative politeness sub strategies. The findings are P-1: 2.9%,P-2: 18.6 %,P-3: 12.1%,P-5: 0.7%,P-6: 2.1%,P-7: 55.7%,P-8: 2.9%, and P-10: 5%. From the result, it can be seen that the h... Meanwhile, the utterances produced by netizens in the comments of official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal and NBC on Obama visiting Hiroshima is determined by politeness factors, which are relative power, the social distance, and th... Relative power relates to the negative politeness; and social distance relates to the positive politeness. First, the data showed that number of positive politeness strategy was 228 utterances. In this study, the amount of relative power appearance w... Second, the amount of relative power was higher from the social distance that was only 140 utterances. It was and lower than the rank of the imposition. It was happened because in the social media like facebook, netizens were mostly in the same level ... Third, the data also showed that number of ranking of the imposition was 234 utterances. Therefore, the level of ranking of the imposition is highest than the level of relative power and social distance. From the data analysis of ranking of the imposi... Furthermore, it was found that there were differences of politeness between comments of official facebook accounts of CNN, The Wall Street Journal and NBC on Obama visiting Hiroshima. The finding of data analysis showed the amount of positive politene... The findings of data analysis also showed the amount of negative politeness strategies. The findings are: CNN: 45 utterances, The Wall Street Journal: 32 utterances, and NBC: 63 utterances. From the result, it can be seen that the highest amount is pe... Besides, there were also found the difference of FTA’s application. The findings are CNN: 86 utterances, The Wall Street Journal: 51 utterances, and NBC: 94 utterances. From the result, it can be seen that the highest amount is performed by NBC’s offi... Diagram 1. The Difference Of Politeness Between Comments Of Official Facebook Accounts Of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and NBC CONCLUSION Based on the data analysis, there were fourteen positive politeness strategies and eight negative politeness strategies performed in the utterances. Therefore, there were twenty two strategies of politeness performed in the comments of official CNN, T... The data of negative politeness strategy showed the highest amount was strategy 7 (impersonalise speaker and hearer) with a precentage of 55.7%. It was happened because people did an indirectly communication in facebook. Most of them were not in close... Besides, the data showed that number of positive politeness strategy was 228 utterances. It was higher from negative politeness strategy that was only 140 utterances. Furthermore, the data also shows that number of ranking of the imposition was 234 ut... Moreover, the data showed that the highest amount of positive politeness strategy was performed by NBC’s official facebook account that was presuppose/ raise/ assert common ground strategy. Then, the highest amount of negative politeness strategy was ... REFERENCES