Toward an Ethical Rhetoric of the Digital Scientific Image: Learning From the Era When Science Met Photoshop

Abstract

Over the past two decades, scientific editors have attempted to correct “mistaken” assumptions about scientific images and to curb unethical image-manipulation practices. Reactions to the advent and abuse of image-adjustment software (such as Adobe Photoshop) reveal the complex relations among visual representations, scientific credibility, and epistemic rhetoric. Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca's model of argumentation provides a flexible system for understanding these relations and for teaching students to use scientific images ethically and effectively.

Keywords:

• digital image manipulation
• ethics
• rhetoric of science
• visual rhetoric

Notes

Note. Discussions of imaging ethics in science journals increase dramatically in the first decade of the 21st century. Although commentaries have addressed the ethics of adjusting digital images since the 1990s, the issue of digital manipulation became more salient after 2001 and especially after the 2006 Hwang stem cell scandal. Many of the documents in this list could be productive additions to discussions of communication ethics in scientific or medical writing classes.

Note. Young researchers are often blamed for the proliferation of image-based misconduct. Technical writing instructors can help their students avoid living up to these presumptions by discussing rhetorical strategies for understanding the explicit and implicit expectations of their fields.

Although scientific images serve as this article's primary examples, the current study also extends the general conversation on ethics and visuals in technical communication—a conversation that has focused largely on data graphics (e.g., Allen, 1996; Dragga & Voss, 2001; Tufte, 1983), document design (e.g., Dragga, 1996; Herrington, 1995), the ethics of abstraction in visual representation (Dragga & Voss, 2003), and selecting appropriate technical visuals to meet rhetorical goals (Manning & Amare, 2006).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jonathan Buehl

Jonathan Buehl is an assistant professor and the Director of Business and Technical Writing in the Department of English at The Ohio State University. His research interests include the rhetoric of science, visual rhetoric, research methodology, and digital media studies.