Foundations of Canadian Communication Thought

Abstract

Reviewing the communication writings of five English-language theorists, namely, H. A. Innis, George Grant, Northrop Frye, C. B. Macpherson, and Marshall McLuhan, the article proposes that, foundationally, Canadian communication thought is dialectical, critical, holistic, ontological, oriented to political economy, and concerns mediation and dynamic change. Running through the thought of these five theorists is some variation of the basic time-space dialectic first formulated by Harold Adams Innis. Canadian communication thought is distinct from the American discourse and raises issues that ought to be of continuing concern for the new millennium.