THE USE OF POLITENESS STRATEGIES BY PRABOWO SUBIANTO IN NAJWA SHIHAB’S YOUTUBE INTERVIEW “PRESIDEN PRABOWO MENJAWAB”

Abstract

This study investigates the politeness strategies used by President Prabowo Subianto in a political interview with six senior Indonesian journalists. Using Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness theory, the study aims to identify the strategies used and the social factors influencing their use. A descriptive qualitative approach was employed to analyze President Prabowo’s utterances from a publicly broadcast interview on the Najwa Shihab YouTube channel. The data were collected through observation and note-taking and analyzed using Miles and Huberman’s (1994) interactive model. The findings show that all four politeness strategies were used, with Positive Politeness being the most frequent (28 occurrences), followed by Negative Politeness (21 occurrences). Bald-on-Record and Off Record strategies were used less frequently. Among the social factors, Social Distance had the strongest influence, followed by Rank of Imposition, while Relative Power had the least influence. The findings also indicate that journalists’ questions influenced the choice of politeness strategies. Overall, politeness in political interviews involves managing authority, solidarity, accountability, and face during ongoing interaction and public scrutiny.