POLITENESS IN SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS: A CASE STUDY OF THE 2024 TEBING TINGGI REGIONAL ELECTIONS

Mahriyuni; T. Thyrhaya Zein; Emilia Ramadhani; Puan Maharani; Dian Marisha Putri

doi:10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i1.2026.6600

Authors

Mahriyuni Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Indonesia
T. Thyrhaya Zein Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Indonesia
Emilia Ramadhani Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Indonesia
Puan Maharani Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Indonesia
Dian Marisha Putri Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v7.i1.2026.6600

Keywords:

Campaign, Politeness, Political Communication, Pragmatics, Regional Election

Abstract [English]

This study aims to investigate language politeness in social media campaign in the 2024 Tebing Tinggi regional head election (TTRHE). This study departed from Brown and Levinson (1987), and Leech (2014) who developed the principles of politeness through the principles of language politeness or maxims. This study used qualitative content analysis design. The data consist of 100 social media posts distributed by candidate and deputy candidate pairs from the 2024 TTRHE collected from social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. The data collection time was from September 30 to November 10, 2024. Based on the results of the analysis, it was found that there are six maxims found namely: maxim of wisdom with 20 data, maxim of generosity with 20 data, maxim of praise with 20 data, maxim of humility with 15 data, maxim of approval with 15 data, and maxim of sympathy with 10 data. Of the 100 data points, most adhered to Leech's politeness principle; however, there were also 12 violations, including statements that emphasized personal gain, excessive criticism, or a lack of public sympathy. These violations generally occurred in statements that tended to emphasize personal achievements without balancing them with humility, thus contradicting the maxims of modesty and tact. Thus, this distribution shows that the majority of campaign statements attempted to maintain politeness.

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