The politician and the actor--learning to communicate on television/ Le politicien et l'acteur--apprendre a communiquer a la television.

• Author: Mullins, Kimberly D.
• Position: Report

Television has become a pervasive form of communication in our world and its encompassing nature ensures that any political leader unable or unwilling to use it as a means of communication will be at a distinct disadvantage in getting their message across. In Canada, most politicians will still experience the majority of their public speaking in parliament or other live venues. But, as more parliaments across Canada broadcast their proceedings, and television increasingly becomes the primary medium for receiving information, the ability to communicate on camera takes on added importance. When a politician is unsuccessful at communicating in the television medium, it is common to blame the media for shallow or biased representation, but the reality is far more complex.

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The television media cannot be dismissed as simply a means of communication. It is not a benign force transmitting information. It plays an active role in the political process on many levels. In order to best communicate with the audience the politician must have as much knowledge as possible about the practical and cultural aspects of television performance. Yet despite the participation of communications directors, press secretaries and media consultants, relatively little attention is paid to the specific requirements of a televised public performance. In this regard, politicians could learn from professional television actors--fellow performers who have studied the requirements of the television medium.

For a politician, understanding performance from the perspective of a professional television actor makes sense because that is also how the audience will understand television performance. Since television has been primarily a medium of entertainment, it has created a society familiar with and possibly expectant of a similar style of information delivery. The audience's ability to interpret or judge a politician's performance on television will come, in part, from their experiences in watching professional performers in that same medium. Members of the public, of all socio-economic classes, now have access to performance of all kinds on a scale that is historically unprecedented. This has had a tremendous effect on the very cognitive skills of our society. Exposure to regular mediated performance has given the audience a basis for understanding and interpreting what they see. It is rare, however, for the audience to consciously question how they came by this awareness, or what role it plays in their decisions regarding a performer.

The television audience learns to look for and assign meaning to the significance of camera movements, editing and other visual effects of television just as they interpret the actions and behaviours of those characters that fill television screens. The audience watching a political performance is interpreting it with those tools of analysis learned from television, but without any adaptation for the nature of the political performance. They are still drawing upon their knowledge of the format; a format largely comprised of entertainment-oriented performances.

There are, however, things to be learned from these performers. Actors and entertainment producers know that there are several distinct differences between communicating on television and communicating in a live performance. Actor's manuals for television performance often describe the difference between live oratory and televised communication as a difference in proximity. When speaking in parliament, a town hall or other live performance space, the audience is at some distance from the performer, and it is anticipated that the performer will accommodate those furthest from the stage. Therefore even those in the front row will anticipate a heightened level of performance. The voice will need to be louder, the gestures bigger, and diction clearer. The performer's primary emphasis is not on the subtleties of eye movement or small gestures as they would be imperceptible to all but the closest audience members.

On television the audience is only as distant as the camera, which in most instances is at a close proximity to the performer. In this case, the same subtleties used in one on one communication are highly visible and often magnified. A journalist or editor can focus the audience's attention on a specific gesture or expression, thereby giving it particular significance. A common mistake made by politicians uncomfortable with the television camera is to increase their...