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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 18:3 (2019) ► pp.420–440

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Laughter and identity construction in political interviews

ORCiD logo with link | Cardiff University
Published online: 13 February 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.17037.kan
Abstract
Previous conversation analytic work on the use and function of laughter in broadcast talk has mostly focused on its affiliative use as response to something the participants had constructed as humorous (Eriksson, Göran. 2009. “The management of applause and laughter in political interviews”. Media Culture & Society, 31(6): 901–920. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2010. “Politicians in celebrity talk show interviews.” Text & Talk 30(5): 529–551. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Ekström, Mats. 2009. “Power and Affiliation in presidential press conferences”. Journal of Language and Politics 8(3): 386–415. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2011. “Hybridity as a resource and challenge in a talk show political interview.” In Talking Politics in Broadcast Media, ed. By Mats Ekström, and Marianna Patrona, 135–155, Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Baym, Geoffrey. 2013. “Transformations in Hybrid TV Talk: Extended Interviews on The Daily Show (.com)”. In Media Talk and Political Elections in Europe and America, ed. by Mats Ekström and Andrew Tolson, 63–86. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Fewer studies have focused on its disaffiliative use as a response to something that has not been constructed as humorous (Clayman, Steven E. 1992. “Caveat orator: Audience disaffiliation in the 1998 presidential debates.” Quarterly Journal of Speech, 781:33–60. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Romaniuk, Tanya. 2009. “The ‘Clinton Cackle’: Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Laughter in News Interviews.” Crossroads of Language, Interaction, and Culture 71:17–49.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2013a. “Interviewee Laughter and Disaffiliation in Broadcast News Interviews.” In Studies of Laughter in Interaction, ed. by Phillip, J. Glenn and Elizabeth Holt, 201–220, London and New York: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2013b. “ Cracks in the glass ceiling? Laughter in politics and the gendered nature of media representations .” Unpublished PhD dissertation, York University, Toronto, Canada.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). This paper contributes to this second line of research by investigating the use of laughter by a specific politician, namely Alexis Tsipras, in interview openings in three out of four one-on-one election campaign interviews he gave during the 2012 double Greek general elections campaigns. I will argue that Alexis Tsipras’ laughter is not only disaffiliative, undermining the journalists’ questions and projecting either an evasive answer or a counterchallenge, but that it also establishes a “cool but assertive” persona for the ears of the overhearing electorate.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.What is laughter?
  • 3.Conversation analysis and laughter
  • 4.Previous research on the use and function of politicians’ laughter
  • 5.Data and methodology
  • 6.Alexis Tsipras’ laughter at election campaign interview openings
    • Extract 1
    • Extract 2
    • Extract 3
  • 7.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (40)
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Cited by one other publication

Myers, Greg
2024. The uses of laughter in epideictic radio interviews. In Structures in Discourse [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 345], ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo

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