Depiction is a canon of visual rhetoric that is widely manipulated by the media. In the Giles excerpt of Mediating Hillary Rodham Clinton, Giles explains how the media uses images and clips to persuade the audience to perceive HRC in a certain way depending on what they are trying to achieve and the argument they are trying to make. In the article, Giles gives examples of HRC being depicted in a negative light by news organizations such as MSNBC and CNN. Examples include the CNN image of HRC at the Whitewater investigation and shows HRC laughing as if she isn’t taking the investigation seriously, even though the Whitewater investigation hearing was closed to the public. Visual recontextualization of images and clips are commonly used in political ad campaigns to inaccurately depict an opposing candidate. Another example would be the use of sequencing to show angry protesters picketing against Hillary, yet those protesters could have been filmed anywhere and at another time. HRC is one among almost all of the highly covered politicians and celebrity figures being manipulated by the media. It can even be inferred that this commonality is more of an issue among women. The media uses stereotypes and micro aggression to hone in on female popular figures waiting for them to make a “wrong move” and hype an event that wouldn’t be as popular if a man was the subject involved.

This leads to the problems with modern journalism where Giles covers contextualization and agenda setting in the media. When objective journalism is bypassed by a more favorable narrowcasting type of journalism that is one sided and looking to persuade a set audience ethical problems may arise. When journalists are agenda setting and they lose transparency and therefore credibility. To fulfill a one angled story, using images that may not be in the right context to depict a subject in a certain manner whether that be positive or negative can be considered unethical due the removal of objectivity and an unbiased viewpoint. Visual rhetoric plays a large role to support the media’s predetermined outlook and agenda when an organisation is covering an event or figure. To clarify, examples of narrowcasting or one sided journalism would be shows like the O’Reilly factor or the Rachel Maddow show that caters to a specific political audience. These shows use an arrange of visual manipulations to satisfy their consumers. Manipulations include image sequencing, camera angels, misinterpretation, and taking images, films, and audio snippets out of context.

The main problem with visual manipulation is the chance at a false public representation of a figure like HRC. In reality, politicians don’t have as much control over their public identity as we credit them to. They are mostly in the hands of the major news organizations with the largest amount of viewers. It’s important to realize this and give more attention to news organizations that are being the most objective as possible by staying within an ethical bounds. Knowing the association between the canons of visual rhetoric and how the media manipulates them is key to recognizing the bias in today’s media outlets.