Politeness strategies of the comments in BLACKPINK's X Post

This study aims to analyze the politeness strategies used in the comments on BLACKPINK's posts on the social media platform X regarding their performance at Coachella 2023. In the post, there are various comments, including praise, criticism, and requests directed at BLACKPINK and their management. Therefore, the main focus of this study are (1) to identify the types of politeness strategies from the comments on BLACKPINK's X posts (2) to find out the functions of politeness strategies in these comments.
This research used a qualitative descriptive method. The research data in this study were comments posted on one of BLACKPINK's X posts. In data collection techniques, the researcher opened BLACKPINK’s official X and selected a specific post uploaded on April 25, 2023, which featured their performance at the Coachella music festival. The data were limited to English comments only, focusing on expressions such as praise, criticism, support, and requests directed at BLACKPINK or their management. The researcher used screenshots to document comments that potentially contained politeness strategies. These comments were then analyzed based on Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness strategies theory. The first finding in this study revealed that there are four types of politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson in the comments of BLACKPINK's X post: bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record. Meanwhile, in the second finding, each strategy serves a distinct communicative function. Bald on record strategies function to convey urgency or dissatisfaction clearly: positive politeness functions to strengthen emotional bonds and social solidarity; negative politeness functions to reduce imposition and maintain respect for the hearer’s autonomy; off record strategies function to communicate implicitly and avoid direct confrontation.