Violations of Conversational Maxims in “American Murder: The Family Next Door” and Its Impact on Communication

Abstract

This research aims to identify and analyze violations of conversational maxims in the Netflix documentary American Murder: The Family Next Door and examine their impact on communication effectiveness. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative with non-participatory observation data collection techniques. Data were analyzed based on Grice's Cooperative Principle theory, which includes four maxims: quality, quantity, relevance, and manner. The research results showed that there were 38 violations of the maxim of conversation in the documentary, with the violation of the maxim of quality being the most dominant (47.4%). The impact of this violation includes decreased trust, the emergence of misunderstandings, and disruption of regularity in communication. This research provides insight into the importance of compliance with conversational maxims to maintain communication effectiveness, especially in the context of documentaries which are expected to present information objectively and clearly.