A MULTIMODAL APPROACH TO GESTURES IN DIGITAL COMMUNICATION: COMPARISON IN GESTUAL MEDIATION BETWEEN ONLINE SPEECHES AND PRESENTIAL SPEECHES

Abstract

This research analyzes, on a multimodal approach, the differences in gestures in two media used by
the speaker when performing an oral discourse. Two types of discourses are compared. In first place,
face-to-face discourse, where the speaker presents his discourse in front of a physical audience; on
second place, synchronous digital discourses, where the speaker transmits his discourse to a live
audience connected through the computer. Twelve expository discourses, which belong to the same
subject, are analyzed. The speeches are made in the oratory association Toastmasters International.
The sample has been chosen to obtain an analyzable discursive series, where the variables of text,
context and discursive subject remain uniform in the entire analyzed sample. The ELAN tool is used
for data processing and it has been specifically designed for multimodal discourse analysis. The
gestural classification obeys the taxonomy of non-verbal units of Forgas-Berdet and HerreraRodrigo. In an exploratory way, it is concluded that a great similarity is found in the gestural typology
used in both types of discourses. However, there are significant differences in the total number of
gestures used, according to the speech type and in each gesture’s average time.