Death by PowerPoint? A Media Ecology Examination of the Debates Over Slideware

Through a media ecology perspective, this article examines the debates over slideware. Opponents indict slideware for promoting sophistry and deadening speakers and audiences, yet they implicate public speaking in general rather than inherent attributes of slideware. Proponents, however, draw on the same topoi, validating slideware as a neutral tool for transmission of the speaker's content. Slideware, instead, should be understood as responding to the remediation of public speaking and the cultural influences of electronic media (transmediation). This media environment alters audience expectations and perceptions, providing new possibilities for slideware and expanding the domain of rhetorical study.