This diary introduces what is (AFAIK) a modest innovation in the use of word clouds to represent dialogue by combining multiple clouds to illustrate rhetorical or communicative negotiation between multiple parties.
This thumbnail example illustrates the joint press conference held by US President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Harper, in Ottawa, Canada, on February 9 2009. The image vividly demonstrates the very different answers both men had when asked the asked very the same questions, and may well offer insights into how the leaders of the two countries view Canada-US relations.
Some background information, a full size image of this thumbnail, and all sources are published below the fold.
Background
The growth of the user-generated internet (especially the blogsphere) has combined with consumer-grade digital graphic production to revive an interest in infographic representation of the unprecedented abundance of texts. Among the most celebrated infographic project of 2008 is Jonathan Feinberg's Wordle, an web-app which translates texts into weighted word cloud which show variation in frequency with variation in font size. It is widely assumed (to the annoyance of linguists) that we can infer meaning and discover inherent qualities of texts in the resulting images.
References
Transcript Source: Transcript: Obama-Harper press conference by the Toronto Star (TheStar.com).
Photo Credit: David Boily AFPGetty Images c/o Barack Obama in Ottawa by the CBC.
Word Cloud: Wordle.net by Jonathan Feinberg. See Pres. Obama in Ottawa, Feb 2009 and PM Harper in Ottawa, Feb 2009.
Other stories & diaries about Obama's visit to Ottawa in Feb 2009
How's It Going, Eh? -- Canada Meets Obama by seenaymah
Obama is coming to my Hometown today by Mikecan1978
Ottawans Warm it Up for the President by 174winchell
Sticky Icky Tar ... Canadian Tar Sands and US-Canadian Relations by A Siegel
Obama Visits Canada by BarbinMD
O Canada by BarbinMD