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Nonverbal Gestures Essay

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Nonverbal Gestures in United States Presidential Inaugural Addresses Nonverbal behavior has become one of the newest and most popular concentrations of study within the field of communication. Nonverbal gestures are one of the most important aspects of public speaking, and can emphasize many different arguments of a speech. They can be used to not only emphasize messages, but also to relay implications of characteristics such as power and dominance. This essay will discuss the role of nonverbal gestures in public speaking, and more specifically, in the case of presidential inaugural addresses. This research will be separated into three sections and will focus on the inaugural addresses of Bill Clinton (1993), George W. Bush (2001), and Barack Obama (2009). Each section will provide the following: first, each section will provide a background of the state of the nation when the presidents came into their presidencies. Second, it will discuss the use of nonverbal gestures found in the inaugural speeches of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. Next, this essay will examine and analyze how these inaugural addresses were affected by nonverbal gestures. Finally, each section will address what these nonverbal cues may have foretold about their presidencies.
1. President Bill Clinton’s 1993 Inaugural Address …show more content…

Burgoon, Thomas Birk, and Michael Pfau, “that sets of nonverbal, vocal, kinesic, and proxemic behaviors have substantial impact on source credibility and speaker persuasiveness” (161). More specifically, Burgoon, Birk and Pfau, report that in their research, “nonverbal behaviors posited to create percepts fitting an evaluative dimension (i.e., pleasantness and immediacy behaviors) contributed significantly to credibility judgments of competence, composure, sociability, and character” (162). The research presented by Burgoon, Birk, and Pfau has an obvious correlation to the nonverbal behaviors exhibited by Bill Clinton in his 1993

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