The evolution of modern media has heightened interest in the construction of meaning through both verbal content and paralinguistic elements, including intonation, voice quality, pauses, facial expressions, and gestures. This article analyzes the influence of paralinguistic cues on communicative efficacy in media communication, defined as a multidimensional construct encompassing clarity, credibility, emotional engagement, and memorability of messages. We used a mixed-methods design. First, we looked at the content of some TV news shows, podcasts, and online video blogs to see how often and how useful paralinguistic means were used. Second, an experimental study involving 240 participants examined the impact of systematically varied paralinguistic patterns on recipients' assessments of media messages. The results show that moderate expressiveness in prosody and facial behavior makes information seem clearer and more credible, while extremely monotonous or overly dramatic patterns make people less likely to trust it and make them feel overwhelmed. The findings indicate that the synchrony between verbal and paralinguistic elements is more crucial for communicative efficacy than the intensity of nonverbal expression alone. The article contends that structured instruction in paralinguistic competence ought to be incorporated into media education and professional advancement for journalists, presenters, and digital content creators. The research's constraints and the potential for subsequent investigations into multimodal media communication are delineated.

Paralinguistic means, media communication, communicative effectiveness, intonation

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