Broadcasting the Nation: Communication and the Making of Canada

The existence of a national community unavoidably hinges on a social process of communication. Through this process ideas about the nature of the nation are produced and exchanged, the norms of living together are inculcated, and national symbols and cultural markers are shaped, modified and transmitted.

For its next annual conference on June 10-12, 2002 in Ottawa, the Association for Canadian Studies invites submissions that will contribute to shed light on the role of communication in defining and constructing the Canadian nation over time. We also welcome proposals that would address the role of communication in the emergence of other Canadian "nations" (in the plural) that do not necessarily correspond to the conventional understanding of the Canadian nation, are critical of it, and may be overlapping, mutually exclusive, competing, and/or mutually reinforcing. The following is a list of possible topics and issues that can be addressed:

• The social effects of radio, television, newsprint, advertising on the shaping of national, regional or cultural communities
• Political communication in contemporary and historical perspective
• Media and Democracy
• The definition of nationhood and the mobility of culture
• The emergence of new media and new form of community
• Communication in the North and remote areas
• On-line communities and alternative publics
• Communication and identity formation
• The evolution of national cultural policy
• The political economy of the digitization of human activity
• The political economy of communication in a global environment
• The relationship between communication technology and community
• Canadian theorists of communication and technology
• Communication policy and the regulation of communication
• Literature, art, theatre, cinema as vehicles or critics of nationhood
• Communicating multiculturalism and Canadian citizenship
• E-learning and the shaping of the Canadian mind
• The influence of e-commerce on national economic policy
• The social and political impact of new and alternative information technologies
• Political propaganda in historical perspective
• The politics of language and the formation of the national and regional identities
• The freedom of speech and related rights

Please send your abstract (200 words) before January 31, 2002 including a title, your name, address, email, and institutional affiliation to the address below. Email submissions are accepted.