Visual Communication Through Body Movement
Nonverbal behaviour plays an important role in journalism because of its heavy reliance on visual forms of communication. In the first section of this chapter, academic research on nonverbal behaviour is discussed in terms of the following topics: the communication of emotion and interpersonal relationships, the synchronization of nonverbal behaviour and speech, deception detection, and communications skills training. The second section focusses on the use of visuals and nonverbal behaviour in two specific journalistic contexts: print journalism and the television news. Illustrative examples are discussed, based on the impact of photographs of the Vietnam War and the dead Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi; celebrity photographs are also considered. There follows an analysis of the television news, focussed primarily on recent changes in audiovisual editing techniques, and this is illustrated by a case study—an analysis of audiovisual news coverage of the British parliamentary expenses scandal of 2009.