Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Analysis of Criticism in COVID-19 Responses: KompasTV vs. CNN YouTube Channels
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18326/jopr.v8i3.972-1001Keywords:
Cross-Cultural Pragmatics, Criticism, Speech Acts, Politeness, YouTube CommentsAbstract
YouTube comment sections have become important platforms for public discourse, especially during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, where users often criticise government policies. Due to the differing cultural orientations of Indonesia (high-context) and the United States (low-context), netizens from each country are expected to use distinct pragmatic strategies when expressing criticism online. However, comparative studies of criticism in social media between Indonesian and American contexts remain limited. This study examines the forms and pragmatic strategies of criticism used by Indonesian netizens on Kompas TV and American netizens on CNN in response to their governments' handling of COVID-19. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study analyses 200 critical comments (100 from each channel) selected from the ten most engaged posts per account. Comments were classified using Searle’s taxonomy of illocutionary speech acts and analysed with Brown & Levinson’s politeness theory to identify strategies for mitigating face-threatening acts. The equivalence method (Sudaryanto, 2015 was used to interpret the linguistic data within broader socio-cultural contexts. The findings are expected to reveal distinct patterns of directness and indirectness between Indonesian and American netizens, reflecting their cultural values. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of criticism in digital communication and cross-cultural pragmatics and offers practical insights for media practitioners and linguists interested in online public discourse.
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