Building identity in humorous media interactions

This article presents an analysis of conversational humour (Attardo 1994) occuring in two Romanian television shows with the purpose of demonstrating that journalists use humour to build their own identity in relation to their interlocutors and to their audience. The types of strategic moves identified in media situational humour are two-fold: one directed at a participant in the conversation, having the potential of biting; the other that is directed at an absent other (in this case, the audience), having the potential of bonding (Boxer and Cortes-Conde 1997, 275). A relational identity is developed among participants in conversational joking which can be identified and described in accordance with the communicative norms and expectations that are considered appropriate in the media context in which individuals interact.