Non-verbal communication
speed; and aspects of the personal voice quality
and accent.
Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter and Edwin
R. McDaniel in Intercultural Communication:
A Reader (Th omson Wadsworth, 2006) note a
range of cultural diff erences in the use of non-
verbal vocalizations; for example, ‘Members of
cultures with strong oral traditions, such as
African Americans and Jews, tend to speak with
more passion; Italians and Greeks talk much
more and more loudly than Asians, who appreci-
ate silence as a way of showing politeness.’
Normative theories of mass media In Mass
Communication Th eory: An Introduction (Sage,
1983), Denis McQuail posits six normative theo-
ries of the mass media: (1) Authoritarian Th eory;
(2) Free Press Th eory; (3) Social Responsibility
Th eory; (4) Soviet Media Th eory; (5) Develop-
ment Media Theory; and (6) Democratic-
Participant Th eory.
By normative, we mean how the media should
be, what is to be expected of them rather than
what necessarily happens in practice; and it
is out of the political, cultural and economic
context that the normative principles arise.
Central to the normative theory is the way the
media ‘behave’ in relation to the state, and the
dominant expectations that the state has of the
role of the media.
Th e Authoritarian Th eory thus appertains in a
state in which press or broadcasting freedoms
not only do not exist, but are not considered by
those in power, or those who support them in
power, desirable even as ideals. What Siebert
et al call ‘Libertarian theory’ McQuail terms
the Free Press Th eory, which is considered the
chief legitimating principle for the print media
in liberal democracies. Free and public expres-
sion is, implies this theory, the best way to arrive
at the truth and expose error. It is a principle
enshrined in the First Amendment of the Ameri-
can Constitution. This states that ‘Congress
shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of
speech of the press’. McQuail’s analysis of this
principle in practice is well worth noting, for he
asks searching questions about whose freedom;
about monopolistic tendencies; about the close
identifi cation of notions of freedom with profi t
and private ownership.
Th e Social Responsibility Th eory believes in
freedom provided that it is harnessed to respon-
sibility: independence is desirable only so long as
it is reconcilable with an obligation to society. In
this sense, the media are perceived as fulfi lling a
role of public stewardship. Th ey are the watch-
dogs of the common good against governmenting something in the air with fi nger or hand, to
give a point emphasis or clarity. Illustrators tend
to be less culture-specifi c than emblems. Aff ect
displays are movements of the face and body that
hold emotional meaning: disappointment, rage,
happiness, hopefulness, shock, etc.; indeed our
whole body language constitutes aff ect displays.
For Ekman and Friesen, regulators are non-
verbal actions that monitor and control the
communication of another individual. These
can take the form of encouragement of the other
person to go on speaking, to explain more fully,
to quicken up, slow down, or get to the point.
Here we use nods, smiles, grunts, ah-ha’s; we
shake our heads, we glance away, blink, pucker
lips. Equally we can employ regulators in a nega-
tive sense by using non-verbal behaviours to
discourage the other person from talking.
Adaptors are generally habitual behaviours
used to make a person feel more at ease in
communication interactions: twisting a lock of
hair, scratching, stroking (the hair, the chin, etc.),
wringing hands, turning a ring round the fi nger,
fi ddling with jewellery, playing with matches –
actions which are more private than public and
are likely to undergo some modifi cation when
the private actions extend into a public domain.
See communication, non-verbal; gesture;
proxemics. See also topic guide under inter-
personal communication.
Non-verbal communication See communi-
cation, non-verbal.
Non-verbal vocalizations In communica-
tion a number of sounds are used that are not
speech but which convey important information
contributing to the overall meaning of the
message being conveyed. At times these sounds
communicate a message without the need for
accompanying speech.
Michael Argyle in Bodily Communication
(Methuen, 1988) identifies some of the main
non-verbal vocalizations. Th ere are those that
aid the understanding and regulating of speech.
Th ese include prosodic signals, like the raising of
pitch to indicate that what is being said is a ques-
tion; synchronizing signals, such as the lowering
of pitch to indicate that one has fi nished speak-
ing for the time being; and speech disturbances
such as stutters and repetitions.
Some are more independent of speech but
communicate emotions, attitudes or other
social information that may aff ect the encoding
and decoding of the message. These include
emotional noises such as cries and laughter;
paralinguistic noises that convey emotional
information by such means as pitch, volume and