Communication ideas on the presidential debate.

Communication Strategies used in the 2008 Presidential Debate

Upon watching the 2008 Presidential Debate I feel Barack Obama is a better public speaker and communicator so I will focus on his communication strategies and John Mccain’s signs of weakness. I will discuss non verbal communication along with communication strategies such as Audience Relation, having transitions, and being confident.

Now, Obama starts off very clear, and to the point. He has obviously prepared for this and has structure. Meaning, he is organized. He grabs the audience’s attention (attention getter) and relates to the audience (audience relation) by saying, “We have been hearing a lot about Wall Street, but what about you all on Main Street.” He uses statistics, “95% of you will not get a tax increase.” So, he has just established relation with 95% of the audience. Using numbers can be extremely beneficial when used correctly.

Now, Obama’s vocal behavior is strong as well, immediacy behaviors, he has good volume, pitch and expressiveness. His visual behaviors include smiling, strong posture, and eye contact. Whereas, Mccain seems tense, he leans forward showing signs of weakness. Obama was standing strong on all of the controversial topics, and clearly he has developed creditability by developing a plan. Mccain has the experience aspect, as well so has developed creditability. Nonverbally, Obama uses expansive, confident movements. Mccain was blinking constantly making me nervous. So, Mccain has situational anxiety.

He could have practiced more, but he did put his campaign on hold until the day of the debate, so I doubt that he practiced efficiently so he could avoid situational anxiety.

Now Obama used vivid mental pictures like the main street concept or the statistics and he developed confidence. This is essential to make the audience listen. He used feelings by discussing his want to help people to be able to feel up on this gas and sending your children to college, as well, all developing confidence. Obama went to Harvard, so I am sure that he knows a very diverse set of vocabulary. He uses smaller words so that the audience can understand. So, non-verbal communication consists of 69 percent of communication leaving a mere 31 percent for verbal communication. Therefore, paralanguage and visual uses of communication are more important than verbal communication, words. Therefore looking weak by leaning forward , stuttering, and stumbling over words makes one seem not creditable and Mccain did all of the above, making him a very weak communicator. I am not saying that he isn’t capable of being a good communicator, but during the debate he seemed very timid and nervous.

Impromptu speaking is the hardest, in my opinion. That is what these candidates were doing. They could prepare somewhat, but they did not know the questions they were going to be asked. I think Obama did a very good job developing an outline on ideas that he wanted to discuss therefore, maintaining the audience’s attention and seeming very confident. Mccain seemed weak through his non verbal behaviors because he did not have good posture and using fillers such as um and uh.