English 680V: Visual Rhetoric in a Technological Age (Purdue)

Ever since we started reading Convergence Culture, Henry Jenkins has been popping up everywhere. He's quite the popular writer in the media sources that I frequent. The most recent sighting was in my new issue of GOOD magazine, which also happens to be a fairly new publication. They've just published their third issue and as a quick aside, I was a little suspicious of the quality prior to this issue but I've found this one useful. It's called "The Media Issue" and contains some interesting discussions that I recommend checking out. In fact, the print edition of the magazine is an enjoyable visual and tactile experience that the website cannot replicate, so I'd recommend picking up a copy. (Barnes and Noble carries it.)

This image was posted to CNN on October 11, 2001. I remember saving it back then because it was funny (duh) but also because it was revealing that you had these two disparate cultures at war, and here was this slippage of the one into the other. What does the dialectic of Bert and Bin Laden suggest as an image? It makes Bin Laden look like an idiot (as friendly and nice as Bert is). What's funny i