Reviewing photoshop

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of the application software Photoshop with a specific focus on how reviews serve as sites for mediating its cultural subjectivities. The first sections develop a conceptual framework for the research based on mediation theory followed by a more detailed discussion of how tracing Photoshop’s cultural biography can be used to analyze its mediation in a way that recognizes its status as part of technological processes and social contexts. The later sections apply this framework with a specific focus on Photoshop upgrades and how they are reviewed in magazine articles and newsgroups over the course of nearly 20 years.