ABSTRACT

Like many of the other authors in this volume, Deetz, Heath, and Mac-Donald (chap. 11) and Philipsen and Leighter (chap. 10) treat Corporation: After Mr. Sam (hereafter AMS) as unproblematic data for their analyses. It is true that Deetz, Heath, and MacDonald do list a series of problems with the initial collection of the film-data that might trouble their analysis, but they then go on as if these problems did not exist. Both sets of authors assume that what is seen on the screen unproblematically presents what went on in the meetings in just the fashion that an ideal data tape of interaction does. Although we recognize that one can make problematic the way that the ideal data tape represents the sphere of interaction and cannot be said to directly present it, for our purposes, it is the difference between a well-made documentary and an ideal data tape that is of interest. We show what that difference consists of, how it is produced, and what consequences it has for the argument of any analysis of interaction that does not take it into account. We also briefly discuss the appropriate use of documentary films by social scientists.