Based on the original 1951 edition by Canadian professor and author of seminal works on media, communication theory, and Canadian economic history, Harold A. Innis (d. 1952). Innis explores the role of media in shaping the culture and development of civilizations. He argued that a balance between oral and written forms of communication contributed to the flourishing of Greek civilization in the 5th century BC. But in this ever-relevant work he predicted much of what is going on today and warned that Western civilization is now imperiled by powerful, advertising-driven media obsessed by "present-mindedness" and the "continuous, systematic, ruthless destruction of elements of permanence essential to cultural activity."

While communication theory has not recognized the implications of the social intuitionist model, psychologists have gathered an impressive body of evidence to support the theory. In social cognition research, there was the idea that human inferential processes are conscious, rational, logical, and accurate, and this belief continues somewhat in the behavioral sciences although there is evidence that it is incorrect. A fresh examination is needed on just how these inferences by the receiver and the implications by the sender, carried out at high speed, impact our understanding of the communication process. Simply put, until now the default case in communication theory is the belief that we consciously reason and then we act. However, that may not be entirely true. Rationalist Bias in Communication Theory applies social intuition theory to human communication. This book explores how research has missed accounting for a critical fact about human communication in the theories of communication, namely that we as humans can respond to one another and to all kinds of stimuli faster than we can deliberate. By applying intuitive cognition to communication, a new light can be shed on the communication process, which is what the chapters prove and discuss. This book is valuable for social scientists, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in new theories in communication theory.

One of the most influential books ever published in Canada, Harold A. Innis's The Bias of Communication has played a major part in reshaping our understanding of history, communication, and media theory. First published in 1951, this masterful collection of essays explores the relationship between a society's communication media and that community's ability to maintain control over its development. Innis considers political and economic forces in the context of social change and the role of communication in the creation of both ancient and modern empires. In an essay for this new edition, Innis biographer Alexander John Watson examines the reasons why Innis, at the height of his success as an economic historian, embarked on new research areas of communications and empire, as well as the ways in which Marshall McLuhan's interpretations of Innis changed and de-politicized Innis's work. As important today as it was when first published, The Bias of Communication is essential reading for historians and scholars of communication and media studies.

Explores theories on the evolution of technology, the effects that human choice has on this revolution, and what's in store in the future.

Television is a central dimension in our everyday lives and yet its meaning and its potency varies according to our individual circumstances, mediated by the social and cultural worlds which we inhabit. In this fascinating book, Roger Silverstone explores the enigma of television and how it has found its way so profoundly and intimately into the fabric of our everyday lives. His investigation, of great significance to those with a personal or professional interest in media, film and television studies, unravels its emotional and cognitive, spatial, temporal and political significance. Drawing on a wide range of literature, from psychoanalysis to sociology and from geography to cultural studies, Silverstone constructs a theory of the medium which locates it centrally within the multiple realities and discourses of everyday life. Television emerges from these arguments as the fascinating, complex and contradictory medium that it is, but in the process many of the myths that surround it are exploded. This outstanding book presents a radical new approach to the medium of television, one that both challenges received wisdoms and offers a compellingly original view of the place of television in everyday life.

This book offers a major reconceptualization of the term audience, one which involves a landscape, including the landscape of a given audiencesituated and territorializing features of any way of seeing and defining the world. It acknowledges, in the face of conventional discourse analysis, the contextual features of discourse, to produce complex and textured understanding of the concept of audience. The book will speak to students of rhetoric, mass communication, cultural studies, anthropology, and sociology alike. This book offers a major reconceptualization of the term audience, including the landscape of a given audiencethe situated and territorializing features of any way of seeing and defining the world. Given de Certeaus hypothesis that listening, watching, and reading all occur in places and result in produce transformed paths or spaces, the contributors to this landmark volume have provided innovative essays analyzing the transformations that take place in the geography between sender and receiver. The book acknowledges, in the face of conventional discourse analysis, the contextual features of discourse, to produce a complex and textured understanding of the concept of audience. The Audience and Its Landscape, presents the work of a vital cross-section of international scholars including Swedens Karl Erik Rosengren, the UKs Jay G. Blumler and Roger Silverstone, Australias Tony Bennett, Israels Elihu Katz, Canadas Martin Allor, and the United Statess Janice Radway, Byron Reeves, and John Fisk, to name a few. This book is truly groundbreaking in its depth and scope, and will speak to students of rhetoric, mass communication, cultural studies, anthropology, and sociology alike.

Brings together all of the writings of Northrop Frye, both published and unpublished, on the subject of Canadian literature and culture, from his early book reviews of the 1930s and 1940s through his cultural commentaries of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

"This book is designed to be a platform for the most significant educational achievements by teachers, school administrators, and local associations that have worked together in public institutions that range from primary school to the university level"--Provided by publisher.

On September 11, 2001, AT&T's traffic was 40 percent greater than its previous busiest day. Wireless calls were made from the besieged airplanes and buildings, with the human voice having a calming influence. E-mail was used to overcome distance and time zones. And storytelling played an important role both in conveying information and in coping with the disaster. Building on such events and lessons, Crisis Communications features an international cast of top contributors exploring emergency communications during crisis. Together, they evaluate the use, performance, and effects of traditional mass media (radio, TV, print), newer media (Internet, email), conventional telecommunications (telephones, cell phones), and interpersonal communication in emergency situations. Applying what has been learned from the behavior of the mass media in past crises, the authors clearly show the central role of communications on September 11. They establish how people learned of the tragedy and how they responded; examine the effects of media globalization on terrorism; and, in many cases, give specific advice for the future.

The chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Cinema present a rich, diverse overview of Canadian cinema. Responding to the latest developments in Canadian film studies, this volume takes into account the variety of artistic voices, media technologies, and places which have marked cinema in Canada throughout its history. Drawing on a range of established and emerging scholars from a range of disciplines, this volume will be useful to teachers, scholars, and to a general readership interested in cinema in Canada. Moving beyond the director-focused approach of much previous scholarship, this book is concerned with communities, institutions, and audiences for Canadian cinema at both national and international levels. The choice of subjects covered ranges from popular, genre cinema to the most experimental of artistic interventions. Canadian cinema is seen in its interaction with other forms of art-making and media production in Canada and at the international level. Particular attention has been paid to the work of Indigenous filmmakers, members of diasporic communities and feminist and LGBTQ artists. The result is a book attentive to the complex social and institutional contexts in which Canadian cinema is made and consumed.