Mediation and Hierarchy of Knowledge on Communication

Aude Seurrat is a university professor in Information and Communication Sciences at UPEC and teaches at the Créteil Inspé, Paris, France. As co-director of the Céditec laboratory, her research focuses on knowledge mediation and media and digital literacy.

• Foreword viiPierre MOEGLINAcknowledgements xiiiIntroduction xvChapter 1. The Promises of Communication Training Programs 11.1. Diversity of structures, diversity of authoritative discourses 11.2. Segmentation of communication fields 181.3. Mediation and the performative ideal: the promises of guaranteed learning 261.4. Instrumented mediation: the digital seen as an educational panacea 371.5. The explicit request for communication "tools" and "techniques" 49Chapter 2. Mastery Over Communication: Professionalization and the Injunction to Efficacy 572.1. The figures of facilitators and the legitimization of communication expertise 572.2. "Mastering" communication to gain professional efficacy 692.3. Reinforcing the professionalism of communicators 792.4. The argument of the paradigm shift and communication conceptions 89Chapter 3. Procedures and Standards for "Communicating Properly" 993.1. Toolboxes and communicational claims 993.2. Prescription and planning to "master" communication 1073.3. "Best practices" and the circulation of standards 1153.4. Prescribing and standardizing "creativity"? 1203.5. Debates on standards and the reflexivity of social actors 128Chapter 4. Exemplification, Modeling and Memorization of Instrumented Bodies of Knowledge in Communication 1374.1. Casuist mediation: the presumed efficacy of practical wisdom 1374.2. The order of "scholarly" discourses in professional training 1464.3. The quest for certainty and the scientistic relationship with knowledge 1524.4. The neuroscience, experimental psychology and management science triptych 1564.5. Theory and memorization: understanding versus mastering? 165Chapter 5. Communication in the Face of Evaluation: Efficacy and Extension of the Managerial Model 1775.1. Evaluation and institutionalization of values 1775.2. Evaluation and (willing) (temporary) suspension of reflexivity 1855.3. Metrics and quantitativist reduction 1935.4. Knowledge about communication and managerial regime 198Conclusion 203References 211Index 229