Analysis of my Sample Data

Analysis of my Sample Data


Face Threatening Acts in Kevin Keegan's "I'll love it if we beat them" Interview

My investigation was to see how football managers use their power during a live interview. I chose Kevin Keegan's famous "I'll love it if we beat them" interview on Sky Sports. From the transcript of the interview, I noticed that Keegan used a lot of FTA's (Face Threatening Acts) throughout the course of the interview. At the beginning of the interview, the pundits (Richard Keys & Andy Gray) have the upper hand as Keegan take a considerable amount of time before replying to the question. Eventually, Keegan begins to take a hold on the interview by saying "I think you gotta send Alex Ferguson a tape of this game haven't ya (.) Isn’t that what he asked for". This is an example of Negative Politeness, which means that Keegan will be imposing his demands on the listeners & there is a higher risk for embarrassment or awkwardness.  Keegan also use upward inflections at the end of his answers. As the interview progresses, Keegan continues to assert his authority, slowly progressing form negative politeness, to Bald-on record, an example of this would be when he says “when you drew that with footballers”  which he says with great urgency and efficiency as he believes it is needed to get his point across to Keys & Gray. He also uses great urgency when he dictates that Stuart Pearce “went down in his estimation”. At the end of the interview, Keegan ends by saying “I will love it if we beat them (.) Love it” with an even greater intensity than he did before.  Keegan also uses a lot of idioms such as “he went down in my estimation”, “we have not resorted to that” and “were still fighting for this title” which are common phrases that the audience, particularly football fans will understand to a greater degree. By then end, the whole interview has turned into an unequal encounter, where Keegan has much more power than Keys & Gray did at the start of the interview.