President Joko Widodo opens communication with Indonesian citizens through vlogs. Through the vlog, every citizen of Indonesia can convey various problems directly to President Joko Widodo and answers directly, as well. This paper aims to describe the politeness principles and strategies in the language used by President Joko Widodo when answering various questions from citizens of Indonesia who ask through a vlog entitled #JOKOWIMENJAWAB. The theoretical basis used is the principle of politeness from Brown and Levinson. The data source in this paper is vlog #JOKOWIMENJAWAB, while the data in this paper is the speech act of President Joko Widodo when answering questions via vlog. The data in this paper was collected by using listening and noting methods, whereas the data analysis used a pragmatics approach. The results of the data analysis obtained that President Joko Widodo in his speaking used a strategy that reflects the character of a head of state, namely, maintaining politeness in order to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts that arise. President Joko Widodo’s utterances used numerous politeness strategies that contain strong illocution and per locution force for the hearer (the citizens).
Keywords: citizens, politeness principles, politeness strategies, president, vlog