Television Nonverbal Communication

            Nonverbal communication encompasses the conveying of a message without using words through behaviors (O’Hair & Weimann, 2012). Understanding the importance of how nonverbal communication aids in sending messages is important for educators so we can ensure we understand the ‘whole message’ being sent to us through communication.

            The show I chose watch this week, specifically for nonverbal behaviors was the show “Bones.” The show opened up with a group of characters, both male and female digging up some human remains, yet it focused on one male and one female. The female wore a blue jacket which made her appear as a researcher and the male had a badge which I assumed meant he was a police officer. Throughout the show the male and female were what appeared to be solving a mystery and were working partners. It seemed as if they were good friends as well as partners as they smiled often with one another and stood in close proximity when speaking. They had a calm nature when talking with each other, yet a commodore was at play when they often would touch one another on the arm in their conversations, causing the other person to raise their eyebrows and wrinkle their forehead as if they were joking with one another. When in the working environments (their office and a lab), both characters portrayed a sense of seriousness as they maintained tall posture and serious facial expressions with narrowed eyes. At the end of the show, I was confused as the two characters were shown in a short clip in a home with a baby and an older man came to the door and they handed the baby to the older gentleman. This caused me to wonder if they were in a relationship together or how they ended up in the same home and who the older gentleman was.

            Upon rewatching the show, I found out my assumption of the two main characters “Bones” or Dr. Brennan and “Booth” were indeed working partners, with one being a researcher for the Jeffersonian Institute and the other one a federal agent. Throughout the show I found out they were indeed a couple, and were actually married with a child. At the end of the show, it was actually Dr. Brennan’s father who came to visit his granddaughter, which explained who the strange man was. I was unaware of the relationship between the couple as they did not appear to be flirtatious, blush or have very close contact with one another throughout the show and the plot of the story was around solving a murder mystery, not their love story. Perhaps if I paid more attention to the amount of smiling and joking behaviors between the two individuals, I would have come to the conclusion they were a couple, however I often find it hard to judge whether people are in a relationship or not simply based on their nonverbal communication as they could just be close friends, or in this case, I assumed partners.

            I believe my assumptions would have been more accurate if I had been watching a show I knew well as I would have had some background information about the personalities of the characters prior to making assumptions about their behaviors. As O’Hair & Weimann (2012) explain, some individuals portray channel discrepancy, “a situation in which one set of behaviors says one thing and another set say something different” (p.130). I believe the actions of the characters portrayed one thing (serious work environment, yet with a closeness amongst staff) while in reality both the work environment and relationship of the main characters were serious, and were a main aspect into how the show’s events happened. Having more knowledge about the show and the plot would have helped greatly in my understanding of the show through solely nonverbal communication. An insight  I had as a result of this experience is you truly cannot 'judge a book by its cover,' even with the added bonus of nonverbal communication, it is difficult to make assumptions about who a person is, their relationship and their personality.

Reference

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York:

Bedford/St. Martin's.