Dennis Dunleavy

Nuances of Digital Photography: Too new to trust?

Associated Press Internet writer Anick Jesdanun reports on how researchers are still developing ways to spot digital photo manipulation. Jesdanun points out how much of the media is concerned with an declining credibility in the veracity of photography since new technologies make it so easy to decieve viewers.

Comparing presidential candidates to technology

When the New York Times' Noam Cohen compared presidential candidates Barack Obama to a MacIntosh and Hillary Clinton to a PC, some sort of surrealistic line had been crossed. Comparing candidates to technology signifies a rhetorical control of images and language seeking to establish distinction and difference.

New York Times Illustration

The comparison also plays into the notion that candidates, like computers, are branded with distinct identities.  Branding either Obama as a Mac or Clinton as a PC trivializes the more substantive issues emerging from the campaigns. The writer could have just as well compared Obama to a convertible sportster and Clinton to mini van. Rhetorically, the comparisons become a shift in agency from issues to personalities.