This research focuses on the analysis of power struggle and language styles because there are no research that combines the study of power struggle and the study of language styles in media. Most of the previous research that uses Critical Discourse Analysis approach also only analyze the power struggle and language styles of man and woman, therefore the subject of this research is a transgender woman.
This research was conducted to analyze the power struggle and language style of interviewee in television interviews. The objectives of this research are to find out the power struggle indicators employed by the interviewee; to examine the way the interviewee constructs her power verbally; and figure out the gender language style used by the interviewee.
This research is descriptive qualitative research. The data were collected by using purposive and criterion-based sampling. The sources of data of this research are three video of a transgender woman, Caitlyn Jenner, when she was interviewed in FOX News ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ – 24th April, 2017, WABC-TV ‘Live! with Kelly’ – 25th April, 2017 and ABC ‘Good Morning America’ – 24th April, 2017. The data of this research are the utterances from the interviewee that contain indicators of power struggle and language style in the interviews.
The results of this research are as follows. First, there are two kinds of power struggle indicators employed by the interviewee; power indicators exercised to influence the viewers (repetition, overwording, synonyms, positive and negative labeling, informal words, euphemism, assertion, the use of modality, descriptive-informative mode, pronoun you, pronoun we) and power indicators exerted to dominate the flow of conversation in the interviews (interrogative mode, interruption, refusal of interruption, controlling topic). Second, the interviewee does not allow the media broadcaster to constrain her in sharing her ideological power. Although the interviewers control the turn-taking system, the interviewee still tries to struggle the power. The interviewee also dominates the conversation when the interviewer is a woman. Third, the interviewee tends to uses male language styles rather than female language styles as a form of power to influence the viewers; however her main goal is in line with woman’s goal in interaction which is to create connections to other participants.
Keywords: power struggle, language styles, critical discourse analysis, television interviews,transgender
