The superpowers of the non-verbal communication expert

There is a rather comical inertia in journalism: when you need to inflate the dog on any topic you've already gone over a thousand times, bring in a non-verbal communication expert to finish the job. It's very useful. It gives an appearance of depth, of analytical insight loaded with superpowers, to explain what context and logic have already made obvious.The Antena 3 noticias team, in their voracious compulsion to destroy Pedro Sánchez, invited a professional expert on this matter to interpret his emotional and psychological state during the control session in Congress. Initially, he compared his image to that of a year ago in the same situation and highlighted that he was not wearing a tie, seeking a more informal and approachable appearance. Impressive. It is of admirable sagacity. Next, he pointed out that the Spanish president had started “quite nervously” because he was touching the papers with his notes on the speaker's podium. The newscast then created a magnifying effect on Sánchez's hand, so that those fingers automatically became suspects of any evil, even though barely any relevant movement was appreciated. To summarize, the specialist diagnosed that Sánchez was in a situation that reflected stress. It does not escape any minimally informed citizen that in recent months he must have been quite stressed.They also chose a fleeting moment when Yolanda Díaz was seen sitting on the bench consulting some papers. They decontextualized the image and enlarged it so much that it lost its sharpness. The specialist concluded that she “was focused on something else” and this meant that she was thinking: “I expect what is happening here”. Two seconds extracted from a long control session serve to demonstrate that Díaz, after more than five years as vice-president, it is quite logical that she knows the ropes in these sessions. The great analysis came at the time of deciphering Feijóo's attitude. From Antena 3, we would have been surprised by another conclusion. They extracted an image of an instant in which the PP leader moved his forearms up and down, to reinforce a statement. Just for that, for this well-chosen second, he sentenced that this way of addressing his target demonstrated "conviction and security". Of course, quite the opposite of Pedro Sánchez's nerves and stress. The hero of Congress, Feijóo. When Gabriel Rufián asked the Spanish president to look him in the eyes and Sánchez raised his gaze to look at him, the expert concluded: "Pedro Sánchez's reaction is one of freezing." It is difficult to imagine what else he could have done besides looking at him. And this, the expert used to reiterate the idea of touching papers to reduce stress.The funniest thing about it all is that the same communication expert seemed to have rehearsed his own gestures to convey security and authority in the matter. The elementary catalog on how to move your head, point your finger, and move your arms to have credibility on television. And he did it in such a staged way that the result was quite the opposite.