Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society PowerPoint has become an integral part of academic and professional life across the globe. In this book, Hubert Knoblauch offers the first complete analysis of the PowerPoint presentation as a form of commu- nication. Knoblauch charts the diffusion of PowerPoint and explores its significance as a ubiquitous and influential element of contemporary communication culture. His analysis considers the social and intellec- tual implications of the genre, focusing on the dynamic relationships among the aural, visual, and physical dimensions of PowerPoint pre- sentations, as well as the diverse institutional contexts in which these presentations take place. Ultimately, Knoblauch argues that the param- eters of the Powerpoint genre frame the ways in which information is presented, validated, and absorbed, with ambiguous consequences for the acquisition and transmission of knowledge. This original and timely book is relevant to scholars of communications, sociology, and education. Hubert Knoblauch is a professor of sociology at the Technical University of Berlin. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives Series Editor Emeritus John Seely Brown, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center General Editors Christian Heath, Work, Interaction and Technology, The Department of Management, King’s College London Roy Pea, Professor of Education and the Learning Sciences and Director, Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, Stanford University Lucy A. Suchman, Centre for Science Studies and Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK Books in the Series The Construction Zone: Working for Cognitive Change in School Denis Newman, Peg Griffin, and Michael Cole Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger Street Mathematics and School Mathematics Terezinha Nunes, David William Carraher, and Analucia Dias Schliemann Understanding Practice: Perspectives on Activity and Context Seth Chaiklin and Jean Lave, Editors Distributed Cognitions: Psychological and Educational Considerations Gavriel Salomon, Editor The Computer as Medium Peter Bøgh Anderson, Berit Holmqvist, and Jens F. Jensen, Editors Sociocultural Studies of Mind James V. Wertsch, Pablo del Rio, and Amelia Alvarez, Editors Sociocultural Psychology: Theory and Practice of Doing and Knowing Laura Martin, Katherine Nelson, and Ethel Tobach, Editors (Continued after Index) © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert KNOblauch Technische Universität Berlin © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521197328 © Hubert Knoblauch 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data Knoblauch, Hubert. PowerPoint, communication, and the knowledge society / Hubert Knoblauch. p. cm. – (Learning in doing) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-521-19732-8 (hardback) 1. Microsoft PowerPoint (Computer file) 2. Presentation graphics software. 3. Communication. 4. Information society. I. Title. P93.53.M534K66 2012 302.23′1–dc23 2012017766 ISBN 978-0-521-19732-8 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information If society is conceived of interactions among individuals, the description of the forms of this interaction is the task of the sci- ence of society in the strictest and most essential sense. Georg Simmel (1896) Lectures are silvern, but slides are golden. William Henry Young (1896) © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information Contents Series Foreword page xiii Acknowledgments xv 1. Introduction 1 1. “PowerPoint” and Powerpoint 1 2. Communication Culture 4 3. Information and Knowledge Society 9 4. Structure of the Book 22 2. On the History of PowerPoint 26 1. The Archaeology of PowerPoint 27 2. The Double Invention of PowerPoint 29 3. Presentation as Digital Document and Presentation as Event 34 4. PowerPoint Is Evil – Discourse and Studies on Powerpoint 37 5. Tufte and the Public Discourse on Powerpoint 39 6. The Inconclusiveness of Studies on Powerpoint 44 7. Presentation as Event and Genre 46 3. Communicative Action, Culture, and the Analysis of Communicative Genres 50 1. Communicative Actions and Genres 51 2. The Three Levels of Genre Analysis and Communication Culture 58 4. The Internal Level: Slides, Speech, and Synchronization 67 1. Rhetoric of Visual Presentation 67 2. Slides, Text, and Speech 71 ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information x Contents 3. Multimodality and the Synchronization of Speech and Slides 77 4. Speech and Talk 79 5. Linguistic Deixis, Paralleling, and Communicative Things 81 6. Lists and Seriality 90 7. Macrostructures 94 5. The Intermediate Level: Pointing, the Body Formation, and the Triadic Structure of Powerpoint Presentations 102 1. Pointing, Gesture, and Speech 103 2. Pointing, Space, and the Objectivation of Meaning 107 3. Body Formation and the Triadic Structure of the Presentation 114 4. Audience Interaction 125 (a) Interaction at the Beginnings of Presentations 127 (b) Audience Interventions 128 (c) Presenters and Audiences 130 (d) Endings and Applause 131 5. Technology, Failures, and Footing 135 (a) Technical Problems and Technical Failures 136 (b) Projection Is What Technology Does 145 6. The External Level: Settings, Meetings, and the Ubiquity of Powerpoint 152 1. Objects, Settings, and Spaces 156 2. The Temporal Order of Presentations and the Meeting 166 3. The Multiplication and the Ubiquity of Powerpoint Presentation 172 (a) The Institutionalization of the Meeting 172 (b) Ubiquity and the Structural Diffusion of Technology 176 (c) From Presentations to Powerpoint Presentations 183 7. Conclusion: The Ubiquity of Powerpoint and the Communicative Culture of the Knowledge Society 189 1. The Invention and Ubiquity of Powerpoint Presentations 192 2. Contextualization and Mediatization 195 3. Communicative Things and the Subjectivation of Knowledge 200 4. Powerpoint Presentation in the Communicative Culture of the Knowledge Society 204 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information Contents xi Appendix I. Video and the Analysis of Communicative Action 209 Appendix II. Data 213 Appendix III. Transcription Conventions 215 List of Diagrams, Photographs, and Stills and Sources 215 (a) Diagrams 215 (b) Slides 216 (c) Stills 217 Notes 219 References 231 Index 245 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication, and the Knowledge Society Hubert Knoblauch Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19732-8 - PowerPoint, Communication,