Return to search

A socio-cultural case study of the Canadian Government's telegraph service in western Canada, 1870-1904 /

In this thesis, the development of a Dominion government telegraph on a portion of the Canadian frontier is analyzed as a formative moment of socialization and cultural expression. It utilizes a socio-cultural framework for understanding the 'experience of space'; notably how changes in presence or access to one another--facilitated by this new mode of communication--are central to this experience. / The thesis argues that the telegraph is crucially related to issues of public confidence. Its approach draws upon recent social and cultural treatments of communication technologies which stress the ways that the material reality of such technologies become part of a larger social and symbolic order. The thesis refers to indicators such as reliability, public works, public interest, competence, and trust to investigate a social apprehension of confidence. 'Confidence', in this case, is not treated as fixed and equally understood, but as something that is invested, shared, built-up and worn down. Thus concerns for and with 'public confidence' help to reveal changes in socio-cultural development.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.60683
Date January 1991
CreatorsRowlandson, John
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Arts (Graduate Communications Program.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001275709, proquestno: AAIMM74524, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

Page generated in 0.002 seconds