Toronto School of Communication Theory: Interpretations, Extensions, Applications »

Rita Watson holds the Abraham Schiffman Chair in the School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Menahem Blondheim is a professor in the Department of American Studies and the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

While never formally recognized as a school of thought in its time, the work of a number of University of Toronto scholars over several decades—most notably Harold Adams Innis and Marshall McLuhan—formulated a number of original attempts to conceptualize communication as a phenomenon, and launched radical and innovative conjectures about its consequences. This landmark collection of essays re-assesses the existence, and re-evaluates the contribution, of the so-called Toronto School of Communication.

While the theories of Innis and McLuhan are notoriously resistant to neat encapsulation, some general themes have emerged in scholarly attempts to situate them within the discipline of communications studies that they helped to define. Three such themes—focus on the effects and consequences of communications, emphasis on communications as a process rather than as structure, and a sharp focus on the technology of communication, or the 'medium'—are the most fundamental in characterizing the unique perspective of the Toronto School. This collection not only represents a crucial step in defining the 'Toronto School,' it also provides close analysis of the ideas of its individual members.

Acknowledgements     vii
Foreword: The Toronto School and Communication Research   Elihu Katz     1
Introduction: Innis, McLuhan and the Toronto School   Menahem Blondheim   Rita Watson     7
Interpretations
Between Essentialism and Constructivism: Harold Innis and World Order Transformations   Ronald J. Diebert     29
"The Significance of Communication" According to Harold Adams Innis   Menahem Blondheim     53
Marshall McLuhan: Genealogy and Legacy   James W. Carey     82
McLuhan: Where Did He Come From, Where Did He Disappear?   Ruth Katz   Elihu Katz     98
Northrop Frye and the Toronto School of Communication Theory   Arthur Siegel     114
Extensions
The Bias of Bias: Innis, Lessing and the Problem of Space   Paul Frosh     147
Monopolies of News: Harold Innis, the Telegraph and Wire Services   Gene Allen     170
Revitalizing Time: An Innisian Perspective on the Internet   Xiaoquan Zhao     199
Articulating Mcluhan: A Cognitive-Pragmatic Perspective on the Consequences of Communication Media   Rita Watson     215
Applications
The Global Village, the Nation State and Ethnic Community: Audiences of Communication and the Boundaries of Identity   Hillel Nosseck   Hanna Adoni     237
Rare to Medium: A Full Taxonomy of Elements for Assessing How Well (Done) the Internet's Unique Capabilities are Currently Exploited by e-Magazines   Nava Cohen-Avigdor   Sam Lehman-Wilzig     272
Conceptualizing the Right to Privacy: Ethical and Legal Considerations   Raphael Cohen-Almagor     305
From the Spider to the Web: Innis' Ecological Approach to the Evolution of Communication Technologies   Limor Shifman   Menahem Blondheim     337
Afterword: Whatever Happened to the Toronto School?   David R. Olson     354
List of Contributors     361