The debate that analyzed in this thesis was held in the Magness Arena at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado. The debate was participated by
two presidential candidates, they are governor Mitt Romney and president Barack Obama. The debate was lead by a panelist, Jim Lehrer of the PBS
News Hour. The debate can determine appreciation and valuation of the people, because they can vote one of both candidates after the debate is over.
The debate can be watched in around the world because it was broadcasted live on TV or internet.Whoever wins the polling of the debate shows that his
missions or ideas are accepted well by the people in the U.S. The polling was surveyed by some U.S surveyer institutes.
From the explanation above, the researcher chose U.S presidential debate as the data in this study because the researcher is interested in
analyzing ethnography of communication in the presidential debate, and analyzing the way two candidate presidents tried to state their mission and
vision they want to apply to the country and to know the way both candidates struggle to maintain their ideas in order to get many votes from the people in
the U.S through the debate. Based on the explanation above, this study is entitled: Ethnography of Communication of the First Presidential Debate
between Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama 2012.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Based on the background above, the research focused on the ethnography of communication in the Presidential Debate between Governor
Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama. The researcher analyzed
ethnography of communication in the Presidential Debate. The statement of the problem in this study can be stated as follows: What are the elements of
ethnography of communication found in the First Presidential Debate between Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama?
1.3 Scope of the Study
This study concerned on ethnography of communication in the Presidential Debate between Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack
Obama. The study also just concerned with the utterances produced by President Barack Obama, Governor Mitt Romney and Jim Lehrer as a
moderator. 1.4
Objectives of the Study
This study is aimed at describing the elements of ethnography of communication found in the Presidential Debate between Governor Mitt
Romney and President Barack Obama by using Hymes‘ SPEAKING Grids.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The researcher hopes that this study would be able to: 1.
Give knowledge about linguistics studies, especially ethnography of communication.
2. Give advantage and knowledge for all students or everybody in
learning ethnography of communication. 3.
Give valuable contribution to Dian Nuswantoro University, especially for students of English Department of Faculty of Humanities.
4. Give interesting and good knowledge about the culture and custom
especially of US presidential debate.
1.6 Thesis Organization
To make this thesis systematic and easy to read, the organization of the thesis may firstly be explained in general. This thesis is organized in
the following chapters. Chapter I is Introduction. The thesis begins with introduction as the
first chapter. This chapter consists of background of the study, statement of the problem, scope of the study, objective of the study, significance of
the study, and thesis organization. Chapter II is Review of Related Literature. In this chapter, the
researcher tries to strengthen her thesis by putting forward several underlying theories.
Chapter III is Research Method. It covers the discussion of research method, unit of analysis, source of data, method of collecting
data, and method of analyzing data. Chapter IV is Data Analysis. In this chapter, the researcher
presents the result of data analysis, including the elements of Ethnography of Communication in the First Presidential Debate between Barack Obama
and Mitt Romney. Chapter V is Conclusion and Suggestion. This is the last chapter
consisting of the conclusion and suggestion of this study.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RERLATED LITERATURE
In this part, the researcher presents some theories used in this study. The theories are: Communication, communicative competence, speech
community, levels of communication, ethnography of communication and presidential debate.
2.1 Language as means of communication
