Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Click to enlarge

Request Exam Copy

Print Price: $137.99

Format:
Paperback
336 pp.
Photos (colour or B&W; figures, tables), 9" x 7"

ISBN-13:
9780195430189

Copyright Year:
2009

Imprint: OUP Canada

Communication History in Canada

Second Edition

Edited by Daniel J. Robinson

Communication History in Canada is an edited collection of primary sources - many written by Canadian academics teaching at Canadian institutions. Offering a distinctive blend of history, geography, government, economics, and biculturalism, the readings reflect the fact that communication systems and the mass media evolved differently in Canada than in either the United States or Europe. This new edition contains two new sections: one covering the European origins of communication history in Canada and one covering the Internet and 'new' media. Providing the historical foundation for a thorough contextual analysis of modern-day media and communication in Canada, Communication History in Canada is essential reading for any student in the field.

Readership : This reader is designed for one- and two-semester, undergraduate communication history courses, found in second- and third-year in Media Studies, Communication, and History programs in universities across Canada. Communication/Media Studies is an expanding area of undergraduate study.

Preface
Section I: European Origins: Orality, Literacy, and Print
Walter J. Ong: Some Psychodynamics of Orality (NEW!)
Eric A. Havelock: From The Literate Revolution in Greece and its Cultural Consequences
Elizabeth L. Eisenstein: The Rise of the Reading Public (NEW!)
Gerald Friesen: Interpreting Aboriginal Cultures
Section II: Time, Space, Culture, Nation
Harold Innis: From Empire and Communications
George Grant: Thinking about Technology
Marshall McLuhan: Radio: The Tribal Drum
Maurice Charland: Technological Nationalism
James W. Carey: A Cultural Approach to Communication (NEW!)
Section III: Postal Systems, Telecommunications, and the Internet
Brian Osborne and Robert Pike: Lowering 'the Walls of Oblivion': The Revolution in Postal Communications in Central Canada, 1851-1911
Dwayne Winseck: Back to the Future: Telecommunications, Online Information Services, and Convergence from 1840-1910
Michèle Martin: Communication and Social Forms: The Development of the Telephone, 1876-1920
Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray: From the World Brain to the World Wide Web (NEW!)
Heather Menzies: Behind the Silicon Curtain: Perception Management and the Adjustment Agenda (NEW!)
Section IV: Print Mass Media
Jeffrey L. McNairn: The Most Powerful Engine of the Human Mind: The Press and its Reader
Minko Sotiron: Public Myth and Private Real
Russell Johnston: Newspapers, Advertising, and the Rise of the Agency, 1850-1900
Daniel J. Robinson: Marketing Gum, Making Meanings: Wrigley in North America, 1910-1930 (NEW!)
Peter Desbarats: The Special Role of Magazines in the History of Canadian Mass Media and National Development
Valerie J. Korinek: 'Mrs Chatelaine' vs 'Mrs Slob': Contestants, Correspondents and the Chatelaine Community in Action, 1961-1969
Section V: Broadcast Media
Mary Vipond: 'Who is to Pay for Broadcasting?'
Robert McChesney: Graham Spry and the Future of Public Broadcasting
Jeff A. Webb: Constructing Community and Consumers: Joseph R. Smallwood's Barrelman Radio Program
David Hogarth: Public-Service Broadcasting as a Modern Project: A Case Study of Early Public-Affairs Television in Canada
Paul Rutherford: 'And Now a Word from Our Sponsor'
Ira Wagman: Rock the Nation: MuchMusic, Cultural Policy and the Development of English Canadian Music Video Programming, 1979-1984
Section VI: Cultural Industries: Film and Sound Recording
Zoë Druick: The National Film Board and Government (NEW!)
Kay Armatage: From The Girl from God's Country: Neil Shipman and the Silent Cinema (NEW!)
Ted Magder: A 'Featureless' Film Policy: Culture and the Canadian State
Will Straw: The English-Canadian Recording Industry since 1970
David J. Jackson: Peace, Order, and Good Songs: Popular Music and English-Canadian Culture
Appendix: Government Documents
Report of the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting
From Report of the Royal Commission on National Development in Arts, Letters, and Science

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Daniel J. Robinson is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. His main teaching areas include advertising, broadcasting policy, opinion polling, and political communication. Robinson has written a book with University of Toronto Press called The Measure of Democracy: Polling, Market Research, and Public Life, 1930-1945 (1999) and is currently working on an edited collection with colleague Gene Allen called Communicating in Canada's Past: Approaches to the History of Print and Broadcast Media (UTP, forthcoming 2009).

Mass Communication in Canada - Rowland Lorimer, Mike Gasher and David Skinner

Special Features

Canadian. The only book available that emphasizes the Canadian experience within the history of communication with familiar cultural references that engage students.
Concise. Through its Canadian focus, Communication History in Canada provides students with a manageable range of material.
Interdisciplinary. Material drawn from a variety of disciplines, including history, communication studies, sociology, journalism, political science, and film studies provides students with a well-rounded, balanced treatment of Canadian communication history.
New content. This edition provides students with a brand new chapter on the European roots of communication in Canada as well as new material non the Internet and 'new media' incorporated throughout, ensuring students are aware of the past, present, and future of communication in this country.