EVASION STRATEGIES BY POLITICIANS IN NEWS INTERVIEWS

Abstract

This article aims to explore the practice of evasion and its strategies between the local and international politicians in political news interviews. The data consists of six interviews with Malaysian and U.S politicians, both equally denoting three interviews each. Using the conversational analysis approach, this study attempts to analyze how politicians evade from answering the questions and what are the strategies used, whether it is covert or overt in nature. The Clayman’s (2001) work of evasion in news interview and its sub-genre is adapted as a framework of analysis. The findings are discussed in light of speech act theory (Searle, 1969) and face theory (Goffman, 1995) to explain how they evade and why they do it.