1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study Prime time television program is the most favorite television program for most of its viewers. The time slot is designed to entertain viewers after their full day at work or out of the house doing some earns. Prime time television shows genre is mostly drama, whether it is a romance, action, thriller or crime and police procedural sub genres. In Indonesia, the last two genres mentioned are commonly broadcast through paid television broadcast because the shows are mostly produced by American production houses and aired on American television network. In television program, genre is recognized as sets of how certain show or program is classified and identified as belonging to a certain genre. Crime drama genre is a sub genre of drama genre and it is sometimes combined with the police procedural genre with a little romance twist. Other genres mixing in crime drama are cops and robbers; the gangsters; the western; the private eye; the classic whodunit; the heist; and the noir (Taylor & Willis, 1999, p. 57). This kind of genre mixing is common in television drama series. It will be dull and bland series if the writer and producer do not add sub genres to the basic genre. The difference between television shows and film are the missing epic landscapes as it is in films, does not have the narrative closure and it would end in a resolution of each episode plot (Taylor & Willis, 1999, p. 63). Watching crime drama can give answer for some of the viewers about their curiosity on crimes and for the others, it is likely to give another reason of how violent and scary the world is (Sparks, 1992, p. 82). Crime drama is one of popular and favorite genre; crime genre itself is an enduring cinematic entertainment. It is well popular in many literature products from novels, theatre, films and television. Discussing crime drama is nonetheless related to the detective story. In the early twentieth century, hard-boiled detective fiction was created as one of the American sub- genre. This type of genre was popular due to its storyline, which is mostly about gender, ethnic and cultural appropriation in crime drama.
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Most television crime drama is fictional recreation of real-life crime narration. Fictional as in fiction is the separation from reality or real life events. The purpose of crime drama in television is to share the realism effects for the viewers of crime as if experiencing the crime first hand. The fictionalization of crime drama in television is made as alike as the real event (Hall, Evans & Nixon, 2013, p. 336). The barometer of how good is a crime drama on television is measured by how engaged the viewers to the show in believing the characters and the worlds created by them (Van Raalte, 2012, p. 3). A classic whodunit crime drama series is a very serious genre because of the plot and the content of the story itself. Different from the classic, a new twist sub-genre in crime drama series emerged. These new sub genres offer twist in its storyline, plot or sometimes through its conversation style. With crime drama fictionalized the real life, then it is widely known that in the past, women did not stand a chance to apply as a police officer. It was late nineteen century to early twentieth century that police force began to accept women who were interested in becoming police officers. For more over than three decades, television viewers are watching male character as the heroic one. The idea of women as a police officer – the leading character – in a drama series is rather considered as anomalies. The representation of police or detective as the crime solver and the leading character is usually male, white, and heterosexual. It is hardly ever that the viewers were introduced to a female detective or at least female officer in a crime drama genre (Feasey, 2009, p. 83). In honoring feminist movements, there is a shift of how female is represented in crime drama series, from just as props of the male crime solver to being the leader of a crime solver team (Mizejewski, 2004, p. 1). Both male and female characters have the same contribution in solving the criminal cases. A notable prime time crime drama series is NCIS: Los Angeles is the follow up of the previously broadcast version that is NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) which itself is also a follow up of similar drama series called JAG (Judge Advocate General). The drama series NCIS: Los Angeles is drama series of mixed genres that is crime, action, Military and police procedural.
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Shane Brennan created the show and it was first aired on September 22, 2009 on CBS network and continually aired weekly every Monday at 22.00 hour. NCIS: Los Angeles is a drama series about a group of criminal investigator whose job is to investigate crimes done by or happens to military officers and also to investigates crimes that is threatening United State National security. The location based for this crime drama series is in Los Angeles based Office of Special Projects (OSP) (http://www.cbs.com). The group of crime solver consists of two sets of team of field Agents; the first team is Special Agent G. Callen and Special Agent Sam Hanna. The second team is Special Agent Kensi Blye and LAPD liaison Detective Marty Deeks. There are also Computer Analyst Eric Beale and Nell Jones whose job is to give technical assistance for the field team. The operational manager for Los Angeles Office of Special Project is Henrietta Lange preferred to be called by “Hetty” and the office’s link to Washington, Assistant Director of NCIS - Owen Granger. The crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles is not a classic whodunit crime drama genre where the plot of the series is only on how to solve a crime and apprehend the criminal. This crime drama series is not focusing on the scientific analysis of the evidence of the criminal cases, it does not focus on the gory of the crime act and it does not focus on the crime doers’ motive and analysis. However, there is a twist in this crime drama series through its conversation style. The spotlight of the conversation style throughout the series is the banters among the characters. The banters conversational style used in this series are categorized into two major styles based on its topic; there are “car banters” and “partnership banters”. Banters are witty and sharp intelligent wordplay (Stavvers, 2012); in a crime drama series, it is uncommon to thread the spotlight mostly on the banters between the characters. Supposedly in crime drama series the banters are only a small portion of the conversation. Different from the situational comedy genre, which the banters is the show’s highlights. The type of banters can be humorous for teasing purposes or it can be very sarcastic and ironic.
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Crime drama has over the private sphere, the plot evolving only in the public sphere of the character. In Crime Drama, the viewers rarely have the chance to see the character with their own personal agenda. What are presented to the viewers are things that are happening with the characters in the office, in a crime scene and at places gathering up info. In crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles, the banters between the characters seem to convey a deeper meaning besides just being humorous. These banters are representing their personal spheres and their personal opinion about certain things. The crime drama is noted as manly genre since the main character of its genre is often portrayed as male. The emergence of female in crime drama genre such as in NCIS: Los Angeles is considered as anomaly. The female crime solver even if she is very diligent and capable on her duty; she might still receive some negative judgement from her co-workers. There are possibilities of stereotyping of female crime solver from the male co-workers. Some crime drama series may explicitly show the stereotyping of its female characters, some are not explicitly but through the implicit meaning conveyed in the characters’ conversation style, like banters. After seeing how banters are used in the conversation among characters in crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles, I am interested in understanding more about banters and the female stereotyping intention conveyed in it. The use of banters in NCIS: Los Angeles crime drama series are not only just as humorous lines, but also perceived hidden perception between the characters that produced the banters and the context of the banters, which sometimes contains implicit intention of stereotyping. Using Critical Discourse Analysis perspective provided by Norman Fairclough, I am able to analyze the use of banters in Crime drama series. Critical Discourse Analysis is not a new approach in the Linguistics sphere. Altough Critical Discourse Analysis is widely known from 1990s but, Norman Fairclough had been using Critical Discourse Analysis in his analysis since the early 1980s. His way of analyzing problems and Critical Discourse Analysis perspective then followed by the other Linguists such as Teun A. Van Dijk, Gunther Kress, Ruth Wodak and Debra Tannen.
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The Critical Discourse Analysis perspective is mainly used to analyze study language and its relation to society. The analytical framework in Critical Discourse Analysis perspective is mainly used to study how language can influence the social cognition of the society and also builds up a perspective over certain issues in the society’s social cognition. The issues discussed in Critical Discourse Analysis is usually concerning inequality, power and ideology. The relation between language use and the sociocultural dimension as seen through the textual dimension of the language.
1.2 Statement of the problem Many of crime drama series focus on the crime, the crime solving method, the crime doer and the crime solver. However, the crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles focuses not only on how the crime is solved but most importantly also focuses on the partnership relation. Based on the frequent spotlight over the partnership relation, especially its conversational style, I focus my research on the banter as the most frequent style used in the show. There are two problems emerging in order to understand the implicit and explicit intention in the banters used in the crime drama series NCIS; Los Angeles. Firstly, I want to know the correlation between the humor intention and its conveyed meaning in the banters in the crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles. Secondly, I also want to know how Kensi Blye’s colleagues represent her in crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles. Hopefully, by finding answer to those research questions, I will have a better understanding about banters in the crime drama series being studied and their conveyed meaning.
1.3 Purpose of the study The purpose of this research study is to reveal the type of banters used in the crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles and determine the stereotyping conveyed in the banters. This research reveals how Kensi Blye as female character in crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles is represented through her colleagues’ use of banters. By doing this research will hopefully give a
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contribution in the correlation between humor intention of the banters and the stereotypes conveyed behind them.
1.4 Significance of the study The significance of this research is to provide insight into the importance of banters in conversation especially in crime drama series. Even give the nature of banters as humorous conversational style, banters can sometimes be harmful because they convey explicit and implicit meaning of stereotyping.
1.5 Scope and Limitation of the study The scope of the research is on the television crime drama series titled NCIS: Los Angeles. This research study only focuses on the banters produced by Kensi Blye’s colleagues about her in the television crime drama NCIS: Los Angeles. The focus of this research is on the type of the banters and the stereotyping conveyed in the banters produced in the crime drama series NCIS: Los Angeles. With the in order critical discourse analysis perspective, these banters will be analyzed further to reveal the hidden perception of female stereotyping. The limitations of this study does not discuss how the characters of the show solve the crime and the discussion among the characters regarding the criminal case. The utterances produced by the characters that do not fit the banters characteristics are therefore excluded. Banters produced by the characters that do not discuss about Kensi Blye are therefore excluded.
1.6 Definition of Key Terms For the purpose of clarification, the important terms used in this research have been defined, as follows: Banter is an intelligent word play or verbal jousting which supposed to be playful, fun, harmless with humorous nature (Stavvers, 2012). Critical Discourse Analysis is an approach or perspective that can be used to analyze discourse and provide answers to questions on language, society, power, identity, ideology, politics and culture (Van Dijk, 2008).
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Crime Drama Series is the sub genre from drama genre, which consider as one of the most enduring type of genres (Edgerton & Rose, 2005). Correlation shall be a relation existing between phenomena or things; the relationship between things that happen or change together. (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary). Female Stereotyping is the practice of ascribing an individual woman specific characteristics or roles based on the condition of her membership in a social group (Brannon, 2011). Humor Intention is a spontaneous conversation lines that can stimulate enjoyment and has its own idea or intention (Martin, 2007). Representation is the production of meaning of the concepts in people’s mind through language. It is how people give meaning to things through language in order to make sense of people, objects, and events (Hall, 2013, p. 3).
1.7 Organization of the study This thesis is divided into three chapter. Chapter one is the introduction, which consist of background of the study, research question, purpose of the study, significance of the study, definition of key terms and the organization of the study. The following chapter is the review of the related literature that discussed further about previous studies in critical discourse analysis, crime drama series, female representation in crime drama series, banters, humor intention, feminine characteristics and van Dijk’s Triangle of Discourse. Chapter three will be the approach and methodology of the research, which discuss how the data is obtain and the level of critical discourse analysis is conducted to produce the textual data and its analysis. The discussion of the findings and research questions will be discussed in Chapter four. The conclusion of the analysis will be discussed in Chapter five.
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