The role laughter plays in politicians' identity construction in political interviews.
What is it about?
This article examines the uses and functions of Alexis Tsipras' laughter during the openings of three out of the four one-on-one interviews he gave during in the 2012 pre-election campaign. At that point in time, Alexis Tsipras was a new player in Greek politics. I argue that his laughter at the very beginning of the interviews examined, assisted him in building a 'cool but aggressive' persona for the ears of the electorate.
Why is it important?
Laughter was mostly examined as a means to indicate the laughability of the previous turn and to project a dissafiliative response. In my dataset laughter is also used to counterchallenge (attack). Doing so, from the very beginning of an interview helps politicians build a specific identity, something that has not explicitly discussed so far.