Non-Verbal Communication and Channel Discrepancy

This post is about how I identified channel discrepancy while viewing a video I have never viewed before.  The first 45-minutes of watching the "Christmas Child" I watched without any sound.  I documented my interpretation of the issues and experiences the actors were representing based on non-verbal communication.  After watching the same section of the video again but this time with sound I was provided additional insight on the power of non-verbal language and how it can be more believable than verbal language which is the definition of O’Haire & Wiemann’s term of “Channel Discrepancy” (2009, p. 104). 

My two sets of notes matched from a few scenes, like when the female actress was eating saltines while looking for a formal party gown I guessed she was pregnant, which she was.  Watching her facial expressions, sadness and fear, and the facial expressions of her sister, surprised, without the sound I was positive she was not married and did not want to have the baby alone; this was not the case, she was married but it was not a happy marriage.  In another scene I observed the main male actor in his office when a female colleague walks over to his desk to talk.  My observation was that she was his boss because of the way his face became serious as he was showing her some papers and she returned the papers to his desk with authority.  After watching the video with voice I learned she was a fellow colleague and their boss was waiting for them at the company Christmas party. 

The channel discrepancy type of non-verbal communication happens when the husband is a workaholic because he really wants to know why his biological parents gave him up for adoption and turning 40-years-old he feels pressured to find “his story”.  His newly pregnant wife thinks it is because he does not want to be with her and she is afraid to tell him she is pregnant because of how she is interpreting his non-verbal language.   Even though non-verbal language may speak louder than words, we must be very careful when determining the non-verbal language is contradicting the verbal language; it will be important to open up the channels of verbal communication before you jump to conclusions.

References:
O’Hair, D. & Wiemann, M. (2009).  Real communication:  An introduction. New York:  Bedford/St. Martin’s.