In an interview with the New York Times (11 October 2009), the CEO of Duke Energy, James Rogers, offered a critique of Powerpoint that goes beyond bashing the Microsoft product. In the NYT "Corner Office" column, he explained:
I believe there is such a thing as death by PowerPoint. Because I believe, and this is the storyteller in me and maybe the former newspaper reporter, that I’d much rather have someone write a two-page summary of what they’re thinking. When you’re forced to sit and write it, not only are you getting the subject, verb, predicates right, but you’re tying the sentences together and ideas together. PowerPoints are just bullets, bullets, bullets, and when you actually have to write something, you start to develop a more cohesive logic.
Interpretations will vary, but the central point of this analysis is the view that a picture is not always worth a thousand words. A well-constructed narrative has cognitive power that slideware can't replace. That cognitive power doesn't require a single slide; a podcast or voice mail can achieve a more memorable result.
A much-cited 1994 Graesser, Singer & Trabasso Psych Review paper, "Constructing Inferences During Narrative Text Comprehension" will stimulate further thinking on the subject. Oh, and no single picture will explain.
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