Week 10: On Incessant Blinking

This week, after discussing the article regarding the 1996 debate with my advisor, I reasoned that the article was not as pertinent as I had initially thought since it went into extensive detail regarding the specific body language gestures (for my project, I am analyzing body language in a more broad context). After some research, I decided it was best to continue my analysis of the other headlines and eventually return to the 1996 debate once the others were completed.

For the 2008 town hall debate, I had concluded that the main headline was regarding John McCain’s constant wandering pacing. After struggling to find some individual clips depicting such movements, my advisor and I sat down to watch the 2008 debate. He pointed out McCain’s awkward positions and explained that such were a result of his injuries from his participation in the Vietnam War. My advisor also noted McCain’s incessant blinking and elaborated that this is definitely significant in relation to body language. After doing some research of my own, I found that the reactions to McCain’s blinking were largely negative and convey him as a nervous and “twitchy” candidate. In addition, experts cite that rapid blinking is an indicator of negative emotions including fear, pain, or stress. In the coming days, I will look for a single clip depicting this blinking as a visual on my slide.

Also this week, I worked on completing my presentation as I have compiled a video clips from the significant moments and their analysis on the slides. I have also included the poll and election results, and plan on finishing the powerpoint in the upcoming days.