Discourse Analysis of Interaction Engagements on Channels Television’s Politics Today

Abstract

Interaction engagements in political communication are the types of activity that politicians engage in, 
to articulate their ideologies and manifestoes and account for their stewardship. Most of the existing 
studies on political discourses have focused largely on textual patterns that address forms, content and 
diction, almost to the exclusion of interaction engagements in television-based political interviews within 
the Nigerian political space. This study, therefore, investigated interaction engagements in the discourse 
of Channels Television’s Politics Today (CTPT) by identifying different engagements involved in by both 
the guests and the anchor, to describe the importance of these engagements to sustainable political 
development in Nigeria. The study adopted Conversation Analysis (CA) and Speech Acts Theory as 
frameworks. Eleven episodes of Politics Today spanning between the years 2011 and 2015, which 
featured major political events, were purposively selected and downloaded from the official website of 
Channels Television Station. The data were transcribed and subjected to content-based qualitative 
analysis by identifying and describing the interaction engagements in the selected data through the 
tenets of Conversation Analysis and by tracking the functions of the engagements through the tenets of 
Speech Acts Theory. Eight interaction engagements characterise the discourse of CTPT. Electioneering 
manifests primary elections, election campaigns and the general elections; political appointments 
feature criticisms; parliamentary issues describe the happenings in the National Assembly; political 
defection illustrates how and why politicians defect to another political party; opposition is about 
criticism; security covers national security challenges; corruption manifests illegal behaviour of people in 
authority; while economy features the relationship between production, trade and the supply of money 
in Nigeria. Dialogic discussion of these identified engagements by politicians and political analysts keeps 
the public informed of the political happenings in Nigeria. Based on this information as well, the Nigerian 
populace is equipped with what they need to do to ensure sustainable political development in the 
country.