Communicative Body
Communicative Body
The focal point of this past year, 2012, has been the presidential election. After twelve months of being bombarded with every and all types of political advertisements, debates, and analysis it brings to mind a single question: just how do the presidential candidates use the power of communication, through its many forms, to connect and gain the votes of the constituents? It may seem as though there is a straight forward answer to this particular question, and to a point there is; however to take a closer look would unfold the true craft of a politician. To master the verbal and non-verbal forms of communicating to reach across the wide spectrum of the American public, to be able to create a new vision and future for our country. This is what we look for in our quest for a great leader, the ability to use the power of communication. We all have an inherent need to communicate with each other, in todays modern society we are able to communicate in a multitude of ways. Of all the forms of communication body language may be the most important-most insightful. While we are able to create whole images and arguments of persuasion with our words, by looking at someone's body language we can discover the subconscious or "true feelings" underlying what is said verbally. "In 1971, Albert Mehrabian published a book Silent Messages, in which he discussed his research on non-verbal communication...the prospects studied assigned 55 percent of their weight to the speaker's body language and another 38 percent to the tone and music of their voice. They assigned only 7 percent of their credibility assessment to the salesperson's actual words(http://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=2043156)"
Not all are adept at mastering body language that give away certain feelings which may contradict what we are trying to say; however politicians are artists within this skill set. Looking at past political speeches of importance we can see how the body language
The focal point of this past year, 2012, has been the presidential election. After twelve months of being bombarded with every and all types of political advertisements, debates, and analysis it brings to mind a single question: just how do the presidential candidates use the power of communication, through its many forms, to connect and gain the votes of the constituents? It may seem as though there is a straight forward answer to this particular question, and to a point there is; however to take a closer look would unfold the true craft of a politician. To master the verbal and non-verbal forms of communicating to reach across the wide spectrum of the American public, to be able to create a new vision and future for our country. This is what we look for in our quest for a great leader, the ability to use the power of communication. We all have an inherent need to communicate with each other, in todays modern society we are able to communicate in a multitude of ways. Of all the forms of communication body language may be the most important-most insightful. While we are able to create whole images and arguments of persuasion with our words, by looking at someone's body language we can discover the subconscious or "true feelings" underlying what is said verbally. "In 1971, Albert Mehrabian published a book Silent Messages, in which he discussed his research on non-verbal communication...the prospects studied assigned 55 percent of their weight to the speaker's body language and another 38 percent to the tone and music of their voice. They assigned only 7 percent of their credibility assessment to the salesperson's actual words(http://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=2043156)"
Not all are adept at mastering body language that give away certain feelings which may contradict what we are trying to say; however politicians are artists within this skill set. Looking at past political speeches of importance we can see how the body language