Non-verbal communication through colours in public appearances

Abstract

Journalists and their sources, this way or another, are indeed public speakers. We all take that role sometimes in our lives, whether we are aware of it or not and not only through the media. We speak publicly - without media or through media channels. The audience is reacting on words said, but even more on non-verbal communication: gestures, mimics, physical appearance of the speaker, environment, colours (of the clothes, walls or the package if it's a product). In everyday life, we dress according to our mood, but when we are engaged in a public job, we can not afford ourselves that kind of luxury. Not only that the colors we choose affect the perception of others about our abilities to keep track with the latest fashion, but also there is a subconcious interpretation of the meaning for each color in every human's mind. When we see someone wearing pink, we consider he/she as friendlier than people wearing other colors. The person in red will be said to be tempered and active, but someone wearing grey will be considered to be passive and indetermined. The most important thing for a speaker (journalists, PRs, politicians and so on) is to be accepted by his/her audience. They shouldn't forget to surround themselves with the colors that make the same or similar symbolic message which they express verbally in front of the audience. Well, at least it shouldn't be the opposite. Several different perspectives on colors have emerged in science, but so far there were no researches about colors in public speaking. Chromatics exists as a part of psychology, anthropology, the history of arts, theories of marketing and PR, but communication studies have just recently incorporated visual studies in European universities and from there spread on. Serbian authors also haven't been trying to consolidate visual studies of chromatics into communication theories. They rather go with the flow of the traditional science which explores the subject. Hoping that one day visual studies and chromatics will become a part of Serbian academic community, this paper is about communication with colors during public appearances.

Novinari i njihovi sagovornici, bili svesni toga ili ne, jesu govornici. Svi smo u ulozi govornika nekada u životu, ne samo kao medijski poslenici. Obraćamo se javno - posredstvom medija ili bez njih. Kao publika smo osetljivi na reči koje su nam upućene, ali znatno više na neverbalnu komunikaciju - gestove, mimiku, fizički izgled govornika, ambijent, boje: odeće, zidova u prostoriji ili pakovanja proizvoda. U svakodnevnom životu se oblačimo u skladu sa raspoloženjem, ali kada se bavimo javnim zanimanjima ne možemo sebi dozvoliti takav luksuz jer boje koje nosimo ne samo da utiču na percepciju drugih o našoj sposobnosti da pratimo modu, nego u svakom od nas postoji podsvesna antropološka konstanta tumačenja osnovnih boja. Kada vidimo nekoga u ružičastoj odeći ili okruženju, smatramo ga više prijateljski nastrojenim nego da je reč o nekoj drugoj boji. Osobu u crvenom smatramo eksplozivnom i aktivnom, a nekoga u sivom pasivnim i neodređenog stava. Da bi govornike (novinare, portparole, političare i slične) publika prihvatila, oni treba da se okruže bojama koje nose istu ili bar sličnu simboličku poruku koju oni verbalno iskazuju pred publikom. Istražujući postojeću literaturu o bojama, nije teško zaključiti da se istraživanje boja rastočilo u nekoliko različitih nauka, ali se do sada nije govorilo o bojama u javnom nastupu. Hromatika kao nauka o bojama postoji u psihologiji, antropologiji, istoriji umetnosti, teorijama marketinga i PR-a, ali komunikološko izučavanje boja je počelo tek relativno skoro u vidu vizuelnih studija na evropskim univerzitetima na kojima se izučava komunikologija i odatle se širi dalje. Ni domaći autori nisu pokušavali da objedine vizuelne studije hromatike u komunikološki diskurs, nego su se mahom priklanjali tradicionalnim naukama koje se bave ovom temom. U nadi da će jednog dana vizuelne studije i hromatika postati deo univerziteta u Srbiji, ovaj rad se bavi komunikacijom bojama u kontekstu javnog nastupa.