Menahem Blondheim – författare

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.

This book presents a communications approach to the biblical story of Esther and the ritual that it anchors, the Jewish carnival of Purim. Esther, the second-most written about book of the Bible, is thought to be based on a tale that circulated around 400 BC, and was later transcribed and brought before the Jewish Sages with the request that it be canonized. It was, though God is not mentioned in it, with its focus instead on glamour, drinking, sex, violence, and genocidal plots. Despite the reservations of many at its inclusion in the canon, Esther formed the basis for an extremely popular Jewish ritual: the holiday of Purim.This book discusses how story and holiday combine all of the elements of a communication process – production of content, choice of medium, seal of approval, diffusion over time and space, and promotion of various forms of reception and reaction. It is a case study of "how culture works" and how the text itself is about communicating. It will appeal to all researchers of communication and religion, communication and the Bible, and communication and Judaism, and more generally to readers who are interested in communication or fascinated by culture.