Left/Right Polarity in Gestures and Politics

• Main Author: Nicolae Sorin Drăgan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA), College of Communication and Public Relations, Bucharest 2018-12-01
• Series: Romanian Journal of Communications and Public Relations
• Online Access: https://journalofcommunication.ro/index.php/journalofcommunication/article/view/265

In this article we investigate how political actors involved in TV debates during the 2009 and 2014 presidential elections in Romania manage the relationship between handedness (left/right polarity in hand gestures) and political orientation (left/right polarity in politics),. For this purpose we developed a multimodal analysis for some relevant sequences during these debates. The practice of integrating the meanings of different semiotic resources allows a better understanding of the meaning of verbal discourse, actions and behavior of political actors involved in a particular communication situation. In addition, the Multimodal Professional Analysis Tool, ELAN, allows the annotation and dynamic analysis of the semiotic behavior of the political actors involved in the analyzed sequences.