Harold Innis

Harold Adams Innis (1894 to 1952) was a Canadian professor of political economy at the University of Toronto and the author of seminal works on media, communication theory and Canadian economic history. He helped develop the staples thesis, which holds that Canada's culture, political history and economy were decisively influenced by the exploitation and export of a series of staples such as fur, fish, lumber, wheat, mined metals and coal. The thesis dominated Canadian economic history from the 1930s to the 1960s. He has been called the father of communications theory and the father of Canadian economic history. His writings on communication explore the role of media in shaping the culture and development of civilizations, and he warned that Western civilization is imperiled by advertising-driven media obsessed with present-mindedness.