Bumps and Tears on the Road to the Presidency: Media Framing of Key Nonverbal Events in the 2008 Democratic Election

Abstract

Two nonverbal “events” leading up to the nomination of the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2008 election, Hillary Clinton's “tears” and Barack and Michelle Obama's “fist bump,” were the subject of news media discussion. This discourse provides a sense of the diverse ways the media framed these nonverbal cues, their communicative functions, and the social commentary implied in these framings. We found one common frame in the discourse of both events: an informative frame in which the behavior is discussed as an “authentic” reflection of the candidate. A performative frame was seen in the discourse surrounding the tears. Both of these frames speak to the challenges of emotional expression in U.S. politics, particularly for women. For the bump, an additional frame not discussed in previous literature was labeled interpretive, in which the discussion focused primarily on accessing or debating the arbitrarily derived meaning of the behavior, a relatively “safe” way of handling a potentially race-based cue.

Keywords:

• Crying
• Emblems
• Media Framing
• Nonverbal
• Political

Acknowledgments

A version of this paper was presented on the top paper panel of the Media Studies Interest Group at the Western States Communication Association annual convention in Mesa, Arizona, February 2009. This paper was funded in part by Test Trust funds provided by the authors’ Department. We thank Brian Ott and an anonymous reviewer for help in strengthening this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Valerie Manusov

Valerie Manusov is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington.

Jessica Harvey

Jessica Harvey is a Lecturer in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington