THE DYNAMICS OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE 2024 WONOGIRI REGIONAL ELECTION DEBATE THROUGH AN ANALYSIS OF SPEECH FUNCTIONS, TOPICS, AND ARGUMENTATIVE DEFENSE STRATEGIES

Abstrak

Political debate is an important instrument in political communication because it functions as a means of conveying programs, exchanging ideas, and evaluating the capacity of candidates by the public. This study aims to analyze the dynamics of political communication in the 2024 Wonogiri Pilkada Public Debate based on the function of utterances and message topics using the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse developed by Benoit. The study uses a quantitative approach with a content analysis method on 237 utterance units obtained from the transcript of the 2024 Wonogiri Pilkada Public Debate. Data are coded using the categories of acclaim, attack, defense, policy, and character. The results show that the acclaim function dominates with a frequency of 108 utterances (45.6%), followed by defense with 83 utterances (35.0%), and attack with 44 utterances (18.6%). In terms of topics, policy is the most dominant topic with a frequency of 191 utterances (80.6%), while character appears with 44 utterances (18.6%). Further analysis showed that the future plans category dominated policy discussions with 159 utterances (83.2%), while the past deeds category only accounted for 32 utterances (16.8%). Regarding character, the ideals category was used more often than personal qualities, indicating that candidates more often emphasized values, principles, and commitment to public service than personal qualities. Comparisons between candidate pairs showed that Candidate Pair Number 1 (Tarso–Teguh) tended to use attack strategies more often, while Candidate Pair Number 2 (Setyo–Imron) used defense strategies more often to maintain the legitimacy of existing policies and government performance.