An Analysis of Communication Strategies Used in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Talk Show

Abstract

This thesis analyzed the types of communication strategies used in the “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” Talk Show and found the most and least frequent communication strategies. In analyzing the data, the theory of communication strategies proposed by Celce-Murcia was used to identify the types of communication strategies found in the Talk Show. This research employed a descriptive qualitative method. The data of this research were words, phrases, and sentences from the transcription texts in the Talk Show’s video entitled "Most-Watched Interviews - Season 10: The Tonight Show". The source of data in this research was a video recording from Facebook Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The results of this research showed that there were 91 communication strategies found on the Talk Show. They were 5 types of topic avoidance, 1 instance of message abandonment, 4 instances of circumlocution, 2 instances of approximation, 14 instances of non- linguistic means, 9 instances of restructuring, 17 instances of fillers, 32 instances of self and other repetition, 2 instances of self-rephrasing, and 5 instances of meaning negotiation. The most frequent strategy used was self and other repetition, categorized under Stalling or Time-Gaining Strategies, with a percentage of 35%. The least frequent communication strategy was message abandonment, with a percentage of 1%.