The brand-spanking new Mediascapes book

The Challenge for Change book, all 700+ pages of it, has gone to the publishers for a copy edit. That means that beast has been laid to rest for now, until we get it back from MQUP at which point we’ll have to go through the copy edit comments, incorporate them (or justify not incorporating them), come up with an index, and wax and polish. The book will likely come out in February 2010, although I’m still hoping for a Xmas release. That will be my first major academic publishing credit and I can hardly wait…

In the mean time, however, I have reason to celebrate: the new third edition of “Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communication,” (pictured above, held by a sun burnt me) edited by Leslie Shade, has been released by Nelson. This dandy undergraduate textbook for media and communication students is awesome. Leslie has done a bang-up job polishing this new edition into a gem of a pedagogical tool. With many new contributions and a shuffling of the structure of the book, the new version beats the old by leaps and bounds. Add to that a cover designed by my friend and colleague Mél Hogan, and I’m stoked to have a chapter in there! I co-authored a chapter on Canadian cultural policy with Ira Wagman, and I owe him (and Leslie) mucho thanks for this amazing opportunity. To contribute to a textbook while still a student is a great honour, one I won’t forget any time soon.

In other news, we just finished with our Five Year Cinema Politica Anniversary party – an amazing event that the super-human Svetla organized while coordinating the network, working part time, going to student tribunals and senate meetings, running in and winning the GSA election, and writing a paper for Leslie. Man, we need a vacation! Now, it’s time to get this Canada Council grant application finished, plus my two papers for the upcoming congress conference at the end of May…oh and that pesky Framing Harper Art Threat contest…

Oh, and if you’d like to help sales, you can read about the book here and even buy it!

• leslie shade
• mediascapes