A TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF PRESIDENT AQUINO'S INTERNATIONAL NEWS INTERVIEW ON THE TYPHOON YOLANDA DISASTER

Abstract

The late former Philippine president Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III has been known for his diplomatic, cordial demeanor and deliberate explanation of issues whenever he would speak either in front of audiences as guest speaker or on television and/or radio as an interviewee. He is also remembered for his straightforward and deliberate yet polite replies as well as his wry humor, which he would deliver in Filipino especially when interacting with audiences who are composed of either civil servants or the general public. The study explored the various transitivity processes in the context of his worldwide interview with renowned British-Iranian broadcast journalist Christiane Amanpour, which focused on the effects of Typhoon Yolanda and the government’s disaster response. The interview was part of Ms. Amanpour’s program on the international edition of Cable News Network (CNN). Ramos utilized as his theoretical framework the Transitivity Analysis Theory by Halliday (in Halliday & Matthiesen, 2014). The overall results of the research revealed that material and relational processes were the most prevalent of all transitivity processes. In terms of personality and ideology, it was revealed that President Aquino reflected inclusivity and forthrightness as two of his dominant characteristics.  The current study recommends that political interviews in the vernacular be utilized for further research on transitivity analysis and that a series of broadcasted interviews by the same president or other contemporary presidents serve as data to determine patterns in terms of transitivity processes as well as indicators of personality and political ideologies.

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