CONCLUSION
The purpose of this study was to investigate the Politeness Strategy used in a talk show
which is guided by the research question: “how is politeness strategies employed by the host of a
popular-based talk show to mitigate FTAs?” To reach the aim, 3 transcriptions of 3 different
sections of ‘HitamPutih’, an Indonesian popular-issue based talk show, was analyzed based on
Brown and Levinson’s (1987) theory. The findings revealed that the host (DC) used three
politeness strategies to structure his questions.
First, the host used Bald on Record. It can be seen through the way the host asks direct,
open, and clear questions to the guests without redressive action. It also can be seen when the host
used great urgency or desperation to one of his guest whom he got close to. It was an unexpected
result that interviewer used baldly questions to the interviewee since these kind of questions were
the most direct and threatening strategy. The second strategy used by the host was Positive
Politeness. It was shown in the way the host adding some statement to avoid disagreement before
he jumped to what he was intended to ask and the way in which the host exaggerated interest in
the hearer by adding a negative compliment instead of saying a rude word. It was also shown when
the host used a joke to alert his guest. The last strategy used by the host was Negative Politeness.
It can be seen when the host was indirect in questioning his guest, saying apologize before he
jumped to the next point of his question, and using obviating structures like statement of general
rules. It was done in order to respect the guests.
However, the findings of this study cannot be generalized into all contexts. It was due to
the limitation of this study in which the participant was a host of a popular-issue based talk show.
To enrich how Brown & Levinson’s (1987) politeness strategy can be described in different
situations, the writer then suggests other researchers who want to conduct a study on Politeness
Strategy to widening the scope of their research. It seems to be interesting to investigate the use of
Politeness Strategy with different setting and participant, for instance in the area of teaching and
learning. At last, the writer hopes that this study could be a useful reference to enhance the
