Michael Shaw is a Clinical Psychologist, an analyst of visual journalism, and a frequent lecturer and writer on how politicians and the media frame political imagery. Michael's clinical training -- which is woven into his commentary -- involves the analysis of character and character styles. His research has dealt with the creative process, visual thinking, and how metaphors can create psychological insight.
BagNewsNotes is the only destination on the web dedicated 100% to visual politics and the analysis of news images. The site also features photojournalism from top names in the field. Launched in 2004, BAGnewsNotes is closely followed by the political blogosphere; the political and visual media; the photo community; and university visual studies, communications and photojournalism programs.
Shaw’s clinical training -- which is woven into his commentary -- involves the analysis of character and character styles. His research has dealt primarily with the creative process, visual thinking, and how the use of metaphors can lead to psychological insight.
In addition to his private practice, Shaw spent nine years as the consulting psychotherapist at The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), the architecture and design program and think-tank in Los Angeles. For five years before that, he served the same function at Otis College of Art and Design. Counting both experiences, he has spent thousands of hours collaborating with students and design professionals in their creative process, as well as participating in the formal and informal analysis and critique of visual images.
Shaw’s experience with cyberspace began in the early eighties. Working for a publishing technology firm in New York, he was involved in developing some of the first on-line, interactive graphic content designed specifically for the public. It was from these early services (know at the time as "videotex") that the html standard emerged, and new communication companies, such as AOL and Yahoo, first took shape.
The BAGnewsNotes site began in June 2003. Originally, it was the home for a civics tool/ visual experiment/political cartoon called BAGnews. Beginning in mid-2004, however, spurred by the photo coverage of the Bush-Kerry presidential campaign, Shaw turned his attention to this new "discipline" -- the visual analysis of political images.
Michael Shaw has been a regular front-page contributor to the Huffington Post since September '05, writing a blog feature called "Reading The Pictures."
To contact, please write to: mshaw AT bagnews (dot) com.
What takes me aback are how graphic the news photos are (#8 especially)Â as compared to the almost total visual censorship of American war casualties over the past twelve years.
Mr. Flake and Mr. McCain ... say they simply bowed to the facts on the ground: their constituents would never accept a full-scale immigration bill until they first believed the border was secure. Now, they explain,...
They emerged this week as the most vivid representatives of Obama's new liberal America, as emblematic of the times and what ails us as Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson were America's "terror era" canaries in the coal mine.
In the foreground of the photo, in a setting that is quintessentially New York, we witness a man in a hole so deep, he cannot climb out of it while just beyond him, diagonally to his left, he faces the immediate threat...
After greeting and thanking a handful of volunteers from St. Michael's Catholic Church in Canfield, Ohio -- who said they typically visit the St. Vincent DePaul Society every Saturday and serve food from 10 to 11:30 a.m. -- Ryan, his...
I posted this on the BagNews Facebook page last Thursday not knowing how much the discussion and disturbance surrounding it would grow. As not just an analyst of visual politics but having done my doctoral dissertation on the psychological properties...
I have to say, it takes some doing to actually turn the cover of a national news magazine, and a supposedly mainstream on at that, into its own, one-pass version of the Muhammed hate video.
On top of running a fundraising lottery for dinners with the President (I'm sure you've been getting Michelle and Barack's emails), the White House has been prominently using the ensuing sit downs for photo-ops. The latest event took place a few...
It didn't have the same drama as the '08 shot. That photo of Obama in a downpour wearing a black rain slicker invited comparison to Neo from "The Matrix." (It also won the NYT's Damon Winter first place...
This photo of Romney in Retail Land wouldn't be all that noteworthy except that Mitt has shown little interest in playing down his wealth.  Now, I'm not saying I'd know where the barcode is either. (This shot is from a food bank in...
I really appreciate Digby's post on what could have been a historic day Wednesday. Her point of focus was Lyndon Johnson and how he threw himself, body and soul, not just behind civil rights but behind the Civil...
When Mrs. Obama rocks the Gap dress or the J.Crew pants, she's obviously not just a.) wearing what she's comfortable in or b.) trying to show us she's on the same page as the average American woman. She's also completely tapped into our...
For pure spectacle, it's hard to top the imagery of the Space Shuttle gliding through the skies of San Francisco, Washington and New York, creating powerful juxtapositions with America's most cherished and symbolic landscapes, monuments and landmarks. I imagine...
Last September, Anna Brown, a 29-year-old homeless black woman, went to three hospital emergency rooms complaining of pain in her legs. At the last one, St. Mary's, she refused to leave without getting...
It's been widely noted that two men kissing is a lot more freighted than two women, which is why some people complained when I posted the dock-side photo of Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta kissing Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell...
The GOP race has become so weak, so interminable and so flush with cash in order to smear-and-repeat, whomever ends up dragging himself across that finish line will likely do so with an image encased in a sarcophagus of mud.
If we want to take visual politics and the integrity of imagery seriously, what Chrysler and its corporate Madison Avenue agency did in its Halftime in America ad can be best (and more easily) understood as anti-union rather than pro-Democratic party or pro-Obama.
(249) Comments | Posted April 17, 2013 | 8:09 AM