FALL-WINTER 2013 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

GENERAL INTERESTMaking National NewsA History of Canadian PressGene AllenApprox. 416 pp / 6 x 9 / September 201322 illustrations, 11 figures, 1 mapCloth 978-1-4426-4716-9$75.00 (£52.99) EPaper 978-1-4426-1532-8$34.95 (£24.99) CeBook 978-1-4426-6744-0 $34.95History / Media Studies / Canadian StudiesFor almost a century, Canadian newspapers, radio and television stations, and nowinternet news sites have depended on the Canadian Press news agency for mostof their Canadian (and, through its international alliances) foreign news. This bookprovides the first-ever scholarly history of CP, as well as the most wide-ranginghistorical treatment of twentieth-century Canadian journalism published to date.Using extensive archival research, including complete and unfettered accessto CP’s archives, Gene Allen traces how CP was established and evolved in theface of frequent conflicts among the powerful newspaper publishers – John RossRobertson, Joseph Atkinson, and Roy Thomson, among others – who collectivelyowned it, and how the journalists who ran it understood and carried out theirwork. Other major themes include CP’s shifting relationships with the AssociatedPress and Reuters; its responses to new media; its aggressive shaping of its ownnational role during the Second World War; and its efforts to meet the demands ofFrench-language publishers.Making National News makes a substantial and original contribution to ourunderstanding of journalism as a phenomenon that shaped Canada both culturallyand politically in the twentieth century.Gene Allen is a professor in the School of Journalism and the Joint GraduateProgram in Communication and Culture at Ryerson University. A professionaljournalist for 20 years at the Globe and Mail and the CBC, he was director ofresearch and a senior producer for the award-winning documentary series Canada:A People’s History and editor of its companion book.“This is among the very best works of any that have been written about newsagencies in general or national news agencies in particular. With clarity of visionand fine judgment, Gene Allen develops the narrative and its many complex threadsin ways that suit general, professional, and scholarly audiences. The book is also animportant contribution to Canadian history and to a lively and ongoing theoreticaldebate of great significance – namely, the relationship between news media andprocesses of national formation and globalization.”Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Department of Journalism and Public Relations,Bowling Green State University10Co-edited by Gene Allenand Daniel J. Robinson:Communicating in Canada’s PastEssays in Media History978-0-8020-9498-8$32.95 / 2009UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS