The use of Hedges by female politicians on CNN Youtube Channel

Sidik, Sabrina Amalia (2025) The use of Hedges by female politicians on CNN Youtube Channel. Sarjana thesis, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung.

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Abstract

In political discourse, particularly for women, language serves as a means of expression and a strategic tool to navigate visibility, power, and public expectations. In global digital platforms like CNN’s YouTube channel, female politicians often engage in unscripted dialogue, providing rich material for examining linguistic strategies in high-stakes, real-time communication. One rhetorical strategy often employed is hedging, a pragmatic device that softens statements and conveys caution in interaction. This study aimed to identify the types and examine the functions of hedges used by Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi in interviews on CNN’s YouTube channel. A mixed-methods approach was applied: the quantitative component utilized corpus linguistics, including AntConc software, to calculate hedge frequency and identify the top 50 most frequent content words to observe thematic tendencies, while the qualitative analysis was based on Meyer’s (1997) classification and Rabab’ah & Ruman’s (2015) functional model. The findings revealed 222 hedging instances, with modal auxiliary verbs as the most frequent type (104 data). Hillary Clinton used the most hedges (102), followed by Kamala Harris (73) and Nancy Pelosi (47), reflecting different rhetorical strategies. The most dominant function across all data was “mitigating claims by showing some kind of uncertainty,” appearing in at least 17 instances, indicating a deliberate effort to reduce assertiveness and present ideas more cautiously. Lexical frequency analysis further highlighted the speakers’ communicative styles and ideological focus. In conclusion, hedging was a strategic rhetorical choice shaped by gendered expectations, enabling female politicians to maintain credibility, manage public perception, and navigate high-stakes communication effectively.

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