My research focuses on the political economy of communication and culture, comparative historical analyses, and the writings of Harold Innis. My PhD is in Political Science (York University 1995) and previously I taught at American University's School of International Service (Washington, DC) and the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University (UK). Here at the University of Western Ontario, I am a past Faculty Scholar and Rogers Chair in Journalism and New Information Technology. In my teaching career, I have supervised more than fifty major research projects and dissertations and on six occasions attained the Students Council Teaching Award. Outside the university, I was a short-listed finalist for TV Ontario’s Big Ideas Best Lecturer Contest.
Among other professional contributions, I was the Co-Founder and Inaugural Chair of the International Communication Section of the International Studies Association; I have served as a review official for the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; I was on the Board of Directors for the UNESCO-affiliated Workers’ Educational Association of Canada; I co-conducted a national survey on the implications of digital technologies on journalism; and I prepared a report on how free trade agreements impact culture for the Senate of Canada.
Internationally, I have given invited lectures to several universities (including the University of Amsterdam, the University of Leicester, and Murdoch University); was the Program Chair for the International Communication Section of the International Studies Association; co-organized the British International Studies Association Communications Research Group; served as a Referee for The Institute of European Studies; was an International Research Assessor for the Australian National Quality Exercise; organized and chaired special academic panels in the United States and the United Kingdom (including one honouring Todd Gitlin and a memorial roundtable for Herbert Schiller); coordinated the 16th General International Federation of Workers’ Educational Associations Convention; acted as a referee for many academic publishers, including Oxford University Press, Cornell University Press, State University of New York Press; and have had my work featured in non-academic venues, including an exhibition at the Estonian Museum of Contemporary Art. Among my news media activities, I have been interviewed by CBC Radio, NBC Television, and The New York Times.
I have authored or edited five books as well as dozens of peer reviewed articles and book chapters (see Publications section). Currently, I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on political economy, global communications, and another on the environment, animals and media.
Interdisciplinary Foundations of Media Theory (MA and PhD)
Political Economy of Global Communication (MA and PhD)
Foundations of Global Communication
Political Economy of Communication
Global Political Economy of Communication
The Culture of Consumption
Innis, McLuhan, and Medium Theory
Environment, Animals, and Communication
Courses at Loughborough University:
Key Debates in Communication and Cultural Theory
Practical Communication and Media Analysis
Introduction to Communication and Media Studies
The Global Information Economy
Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Theory
Courses at American University:
Colloquium in International Communication (PhD)
Political Economy of International Communication (MA)
Research Seminar in International Communication (MA)
Communication and Economic and Social Development (MA)
International Communication (MA)
Senior Seminar in International Communication
International Communication and the Global Marketplace
Foundations of International Communication
Peer reviewed books:
Editor (with Robert E. Babe), Harold A. Innis, Political Economy in the Modern State. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018. 427pp. <https://utorontopress.com/9781487522926/political-economy-in-the-modern-state/>
Editor, Media, Structures, and Power: The Robert E. Babe Collection. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011. 436pp.
<https://utorontopress.com/9780802095763/media-structures-and-power/>
Author, Consumption and the Globalization Project: International Hegemony and the Annihilation of Time. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2008. 211pp. <https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9780230582996>
Author, Communication, Commerce and Power: The Political Economy of America and the Direct Broadcast Satellite, 1960-2000. Basingstoke and New York: Macmillan and St. Martin's Press, 1998. 253pp. <https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-349-26235-9>
Editor, The Global Political Economy of Communication: Hegemony, Telecommunication and the Information Economy. Basingstoke and New York: Macmillan and St. Martin's Press, 1994 (re-published in pb 1996). 193pp. <https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-349-24926-8>
Recent articles in peer reviewed Journals:
‘Law as a Mediating Institution of History: the approach and strategy of Harold Innis' in University of Toronto Quarterly. Vol. 91 Issue 2 (May 2022), pp. 1-32.
'Harold Innis and the Greek Tradition: an Essay Concerning his Ontological Transformation’ in University of Toronto Quarterly. Vol. 89 Issue 2 (Spring 2020), pp. 239-264.
‘Technological Fetishism and US Foreign Policy: a speculative paper on the mediating role of digital ICTs’ in The Political Economy of Communication. Vol. 5 No. 2 (December 2017), pp. 3-21.
‘Data-Driven Public Diplomacy: A Critical and Reflexive Assessment’ (co-authored with Hamilton Bean) in All Azimuth: Journal of Foreign Policy and Peace. Vol. 7 No. 1 (December 2017), pp. 5-20.
‘Journalistic Labour and Technological Fetishism’(co-authored with James R. Compton) in The Political Economy of Communication Vol.3 No.2 (2015), pp. 74-87.
‘Marx’s Value Theory: a Critical Response to Analyses of Digital Prosumption’ in The Information Society Vol.31 No.1 (January 2015), pp. 13-19.
Other (selected) peer reviewed publications:
'Harold Innis's Concept of Bias: Its Intellectual Origins and Misused Legacy' in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford University Press (2021). 23 pp.
'Introduction to Political Economy in the Modern State' and 'Chapter Introductions' (co-authored with Robert E. Babe) in Harold A. Innis, Political Economy in the Modern State. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (2018), pp. IX-XCV.
‘Ubiquitous media and monopolies of knowledge: the approach of Harold Innis’ in Michael Daubs and Vincent Manzerolle (eds.), From Here to Ubiquity: Critical and International Perspectives on Mobile and Ubiquitous Media. (New York: Peter Lang, 2018), pp. 183-200.
‘Hegemony’ for International Encyclopedia of Political Communication (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015), pp. 463-470.
‘Value, the Audience Commodity and Digital Prosumption: A Plea for Precision’ in Lee McGuigan and Vincent Manzerolle (eds.), The Audience Commodity in a Digital Age (New York: Peter Lang 2014), pp. 245-65.
‘America’s “Engagement” Delusion: Critiquing a Public Diplomacy Consensus’ (co-authored with Hamilton Bean) in International Communication Gazette Vol.74 No.3 (April 2012), pp. 203-220.
‘Contextualizing and Critiquing the Fantastic Prosumer: Power, Alienation and Hegemony’ in Critical Sociology Vol.37 Iss.3 (May 2011), pp. 309-327.
‘New Technologies and Consumption: Contradictions in the Emerging World Order’ in James Rosenau and J.P. Singh (eds.), Information Technologies and Global Politics: The Changing Scope of Power and Governance (Albany: State of New York University Press, 2002), pp. 169-85.
‘The Role of Communication in Global Civil Society: Forces, Processes, Prospects’ in International Studies Quarterly Vol.45 Iss.3 (September 2001), pp. 389-408.
‘Media Corporations in the Age of Globalization’ in William Gudykunst and Bella Mody (eds.), Handbook of International and Intercultural Communication, Second Edition (London: Sage, 2001), pp. 309-23.
‘Governance and the Nation-State in a Knowledge-Based Political Economy’ in Timothy J. Sinclair and Martin Hewson (eds.), Approaches to Global Governance Theory (Albany: State of New York University Press, 1999), pp. 117-34.
Additional academic work published in:
- American Political Science Review
- Canadian Journal of Communication
- European Journal of Communication
- Global Media and Communication
- Information, Communication & Society
- Global Governance
- Journal of Canadian Studies
- Journal of Economic Issues
- Journal of Visual Studies
- Journalism Studies
- Media, Culture & Society
- Millennium, Journal of International Studies
- New Political Science
- Prometheus, Critical Studies in Innovation
- Review of Policy Research
- Topia, Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies