Gesture in Political Communication: A Case Study of the Democratic Presidential Candidates During the 2004 Primary Campaign

Abstract

In this article, I investigate forms and functions of hand-gestures in two Democratic Party primary debates during the 2004 presidential campaign. I argue that in an age of televised politics, the study of “politics as cultural practice” (Schudson, 2001) should include the descriptive analysis of bodily expression. This analysis could form the foundation for studies of audience responses and media effects. Analysis of hand gestures made by the Democratic Party candidates shows that the candidates enacted a shared code of pragmatic gesticulation, using hand gestures to mark speech acts and display aspects of information structure and thereby providing viewers with visual structure that facilitates the parsing and processing of speech. The one exception to this shared code was Howard Dean, who mainly enacted a single, repetitive hand gesture—a raised index finger—which embodied a hierarchical address of the audience. The article seeks to integrate a classical perspective—that of Quintilianus (1922/100)—with modern microanalysis.

Notes

I wish to thank Kathleen Feyh and Sae Oshima for their particpation in some of the research, and Curtis Le Baron, Siri Menus, and several anonymous reviewers for their feedback on an earlier draft.

1 Much more has been written, for example, on the movement styles of politicians during the Renaissance and early modern period (Burke, 1992).

2 See also Cienki's (2004) study of conceptual metaphors in Bush's and Gore's language and gestures during the 2000 presidential debates that focuses on their use of family metaphors (cf. Lakoff, 1996).

3 A precise account of the total number of gesture types performed must of course address the difficult methodological issue of how movements that inevitably show minor variations can be subsumed under a common type; the numbers given are mere approximations. A more detailed reckoning will await further examination.

4 McNeill (1992) has called this use of gesture beats.

5 Gestures 1 and 6 are not shown because no sharp images can be extracted from the videotape.

6 Sharpton began preaching at age 4 and was ordained as a minister when he was 9.

7 The New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof (2003) summarized the contrast between Dean's and G. W. Bush's communication styles in this way:

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You get the feeling that if Mr. Dean and Mr. Bush were stuck together in a small Missouri town, Mr. Dean would lecture farmers about Thomas Paine's writings, while Mr. Bush would have the café crowd in stitches by doing impersonations of Mr. Dean. (p. A31)

8 For example, the town-hall format provides very different opportunities and risks for interaction between politician and voters (Denton & Holloway, 1996).