Presentation Zen, McCain, and Visuals in General
PZ has a post about McCain’s background visuals that goes a little deeper than the general pile-on. The best bit is this:
MSNBC reported that when asked about the middle school image, McCain’s campaign replied that “it’s simply a generic photo, like others used and it had no specific meaning.” But here’s the rub: images always have meaning, though it may be different from what you intended. The term “generic photo” is just one step away from “clip art,” both of which should be avoided by serious presenters.
Images always have meaning. It’s amazing to me how often the same “picture is worth a thousand words” people just drop in pictures whose meaning or value they can’t explain.