communications

Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office

laurie.bulchak — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 18:36:48 +0000

Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office laurie.bulchak Sat, 07/27/2024 - 14:36

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https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/copyright/scholarly-communications-and-copyright-office

Communications, Central Libraries

laurie.bulchak — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 17:49:59 +0000

Communications, Central Libraries laurie.bulchak Sat, 07/27/2024 - 13:49

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https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/library-info/communications

Field Day brings together U of T’s communicators for a day of inspiration and learning

Romi Levine — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 15:18:37 +0000

Field Day brings together U of T’s communicators for a day of inspiration and learning Romi Levine Wed, 02/22/2017 - 10:18

Cutline

Rotman School of Management's John Oesch speaks to Field Day attendees about the power of persuasion (photo by Linda Quattrin)

Topic

University of Toronto Scarborough

University of Toronto Mississauga

University of Toronto’s creative thinkers, writers and storytellers came together on Valentine’s Day for a day of learning and networking at this year’s Field Day conference.

Communications staff from across the university’s campuses, faculties and departments packed into Desautels Hall at Rotman School of Management to gain inspiration from keynote speakers and to celebrate the accomplishments of their colleagues during case-study presentations.

“One of the challenges at a university as large and decentralized as U of T is finding effective ways to learn from each other. We were thrilled with how engaged the audience was in learning not only from keynote speakers but also through a sampling of the strong communications work going on across three campuses. There is great professional talent here at U of T,” say conference co-chairs Linda Quattrin, executive director of communications at the Faculty of Medicine, and Lucianna Ciccocioppo, director of external relations at the Faculty of Law.

A colourful welcome for Field Day attendees (photo by Linda Quattrin)

Keynote speaker Mitch Sinclair, design director at design firm IDEO, taught attendees to think like a designer from different perspectives – an artist, an anthropologist and a psychologist.

John Oesch, associate professor, teaching stream at Rotman shared his tips on how to be more persuasive. Shree Paradkar, columnist and digital editor at the Toronto Star unpacked the relationship between inclusion and ethics, and Mary Lynn Young, an associate professor at UBC Graduate School of Journalism, spoke about the launch of the academic journalism platform The Conversation’s Canadian site.

“I thought all of the presentations were illuminating, but I especially appreciated those made by communicators across the university,” says Don Campbell, media relations officer at University of Toronto Scarborough. “It was helpful to see how these talented individuals met specific challenges with creative ideas. Many of the lessons learned will come in handy for our own future projects.”

Campbell presented a case study on how multimedia content helped a research story about stingrays chewing like goats go viral.

Participants at the Field Day conference (photo by Erin Lemon)

The engineering communications team told attendees about how their out-of-the-box thinking when creating an offer of admission package led to higher acceptance rates, especially among women and lower project costs.

Shilpa Gantotti, communications strategist at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering says sharing these experiences with colleagues across the university is a valuable tool.

“We all face similar challenges in our positions as communicators, whether it’s doing more with less or finding smarter ways to work. Field Day was a fantastic way to leverage the learnings of others while reconnecting with colleagues,” she says.

Communicators also took the stage to talk about U of T’s story hub “U of T World,” the Faculty of Medicine’s beautifully designed alumni magazine, U of T Mississauga’s creative holiday video and the Faculty of Arts & Science’s quirky illustrated student welcome guide. Erin Lemon, executive director, News & Media also introduced the U of T central communications team over a lunchtime chat.

“Field Day really demonstrated the strength of the communications community at U of T,” says Lemon. “I think everyone came away with new ideas and new relationships – there was a real buzz in the room, a sense of common purpose."

While the action was taking place on campus, staff shared their insights and ideas on social media. Here’s how they joined the conversation:

U of T breathes new life into Marshall McLuhan’s Toronto School

Romi Levine — Thu, 13 Oct 2016 13:50:47 +0000

U of T breathes new life into Marshall McLuhan’s Toronto School

Romi Levine Thu, 10/13/2016 - 09:50

Cutline

Paolo Granata, McLuhan Centenary Fellow and Toronto School conference chair (photo by Romi Levine)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

Marshall McLuhan

Faculty of Information

President Meric Gertler

city-building

communications

Digital Media

Subheadline

Conference brings influential media thinkers back into the spotlight

Toronto has its fair share of cultural icons. Today, it’s Drake – our chart-topping, Raptors-loving rap superstar whose nickname for Toronto, “the 6ix,” has become a part of our daily lexicon.

In the 1960s, it was a group of forward-thinking intellectuals led by Marshall McLuhan, one of University of Toronto's most famous professors. He became a celebrity as his ideas on mass media, culture and technology attracted fans like John Lennon, Woody Allen and Pierre Trudeau.

A heritage plaque dedicated to McLuhan was unveiled Wednesday at the coach house where he taught and hosted discussions for much of his career. The building is now called the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology.

Starting today, the McLuhan Centre, which is part of the Faculty of Information, will be launching a series of events that explore the value and importance of McLuhan and the famed group of intellectuals who were called the Toronto School of Communication. The McLuhan Centre hopes to spark a conversation that will inspire a new generation of thinkers with a three-day conference called Toronto School: Then, Now, Next.

"McLuhan famously broke and transcended boundaries – between disciplines, between academia and popular culture, between the local and the global," said U of T President Meric Gertler at the unveiling event.

"But he was rooted here, among colleagues from a range of disciplines, in what would become known as the Toronto School of Communication – a brilliant talent-cluster that helped accentuate U of T’s position as a world-leading centre for creativity and leadership in the humanities," he said.

Also in attendance was McLuhan’s son, Michael, who said that what keeps his father “relevant and marvellous today” are the people who continue to debate and discuss McLuhan’s ideas.

“[The conference] just speaks to the far reach that he has all over the world, not just here in the city of Toronto,” he said.

McLuhan along with Harold Innis, Eric Havelock, Northrop Frye and musician Glenn Gould formed the Toronto School of Communication, which forever changed how we view our relationship with media and technology.

The three-day conference, which starts today, features guests and speakers from 21 different countries.

"We are really building a community around the label of the Toronto School,” says Paolo Granata, McLuhan Centenary fellow and conference chair.

McLuhan’s insights have never been more relevant than they are today, says U of T alumna and editor of The Toronto School of Communication Theory, Rita Watson.

His ideas eerily foreshadow our Internet-obsessed culture and the rise of social networks.

“He predicted a crisis in the modern era as literate ‘mentalities’ that had evolved in literate cultures tried to integrate the effects of electronic media,” says Watson, who will be speaking at the conference.

McLuhan knew electronic media would change our lives, says Granata.

“This kind of network is where the ideas come from. It’s where innovation comes from,” he says.

(Marshall McLuhan at U of T in 1973, U of T archives)

The Toronto School conference is also an opportunity to give a voice to a more diverse group of media theorists.

“A lot of young women are involved in this conference as student volunteers or as panellists,” says Emma Findlay-White, a fourth-year student at Victoria College in book and media studies and the conference’s volunteer coordinator. “There’s a lot of different ways women are getting their perspective and views out there. It’s important that we’re changing the role women play in media.”

And change is good for the Toronto School.

“We are at the McLuhan Centre not to say what McLuhan said," Granata says. "We are here to do what McLuhan did: foster conversation, participation, foster the awareness about how we can look at the contemporary world.”

Vice-President, University of Toronto Communications, Office of the

smithna5 — Wed, 04 May 2016 16:24:54 +0000

Vice-President, University of Toronto Communications, Office of the smithna5 Wed, 05/04/2016 - 12:24

URL

https://communications.utoronto.ca

communications

Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office

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Communications, Central Libraries

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Field Day brings together U of T’s communicators for a day of inspiration and learning

U of T breathes new life into Marshall McLuhan’s Toronto School

Read more about the McLuhan Centre

Vice-President, University of Toronto Communications, Office of the

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