Abstract
Ethnic polarization is a common and growing issue in Kenya due to heightened political contentions surrounding general elections held every five years. A popular media genre employed in political communication is the ‘political interview’ that involves the journalist (as the interviewer) and the politician (as the interviewee). Often, several politicians representing opposing factions are engaged. This article investigates the language of political news interviews in ethnic polarization in Kenya. Critical Discourse Analysis is used to determine the linguistic features of these interviews. Among the key findings of this research is the deployment of ‘naming and referencing’ strategies, mainly done by interlocutors, when describing themselves and their opponents. Similar strategies are widely deployed when foregrounding and/or backgrounding the ‘good traits’ (in-group’s) and the ‘bad traits’ (out-group) as well as the ‘bad’ or ‘good’ characteristics or actions of either faction. The result is aggravated ethnic polarization via the news media.
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