This article has two objectives: to explore the changing power relationships within the quality management practices of United Kingdom higher education with specific reference to online learning and the role of learning technologists; and to explore some of the issues surrounding the potential to represent academic discourse through media other than conventional printed articles and, by so doing, open for discussion the potential conflict between the hierarchical power structure of academic publishing and the carnival of the academic internet. These objectives will be achieved through a "mini case study" that reflects on the implication of representing some of the issues surrounding the emerging quality agenda through a video-mediated dialogue that can not, by definition, be included in the medium of academic print. (Contains 6 notes.)