Anne F. MacLennan
Department of Communication & Media Studies
Associate Professor
On sabbatical 2024-25
Office: Victor Phillip Dahdaleh (DB) Building, 3025
Phone: (416)736-2100 Ext: 33857
Email: amaclenn@yorku.ca
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
In 2024-25 Anne F, MacLennan will be on sabbatical, which means I won't be teaching courses, but please reach out to me if you are a graduate student looking for a supervisor or committee member; if you are someone with research projects; if you are media; and with other projects, ideas, or interests amaclenn@yorku.ca
Anne F. MacLennan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at York University in Toronto Ontario. In 2023, Anne MacLennan received the Faculty of Graduate Studies Faculty Teaching Award. She was awarded the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (Tenure/Tenure-Track Stream) 2020-21 and previously the University-Wide Teaching Award winner, 2006.
In the Fall of 2023 Anne MacLennan taught a new course, CMDS 3744 National Identities: Canadian Media History; it's focus is connected to her new SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, Interrogating Canadian Identities - Les identities canadiennes une interrogation. In the winter semester 2024, she taught a redesigned designed course, CMDS 2150 Introduction to Research Methods in Communication and Media Studies as the course is transformed from a third-year optional course to a large lecture class required at the second year. She also taught CMCT Advanced Research Methodologies for PhD students in the Communication and Culture joint graduate program in winter 2024. She was teaching Introduction to Communication Research Methods (COMN 3150), which she loves and in the winter CMCT 7200 Advanced Research Methodologies, which she also loves in 2022-23, and a new course in the winter called Death, Destruction, an Disease in the Media this winter.
Her book manuscript in progress is a study of the program listings of seven cities across Canada during the 1930s to explain the distinct element of local non-network radio and the changes across the country as national network radio is put in place in stages. The work is based a on a large data sample of newspapers, archival research, and other documentation. Anne MacLennan and Michael Windover at Carleton University co-authored Seeing, Selling, and Situating Radio in Canada, 1922-1956 in 2017 as part of the work that emerged from their Social Science and Humanities Research Grant of the same name. This research has also resulted in curators talks and curated exhibits of Making Space for Radio at the Archives of Ontario and the Carleton University Art Gallery, Seeing, Selling and Situating Radio at the Sound and Moving Image Library, York University, Radio in Canada 1922-1956 at the MacOdrum Library, Carleton University and the forthcoming digital exhibition in collaboration with Dr. Anja Borck, Director of the Musée des ondes Emile Berliner, Montreal, Quebec with the support of a Digital Museums Canada grant from the Canadian Museum of History to create Radio chez nous/Radio at Home for exhibit in 2022-23. MacLennan has published in Media and Communication, Journal of Radio & Audio Media, Women’s Studies, The Radio Journal, Relations Industrielles, Urban History Review, largely on radio but also on podcasting, history, women, advertising, charity, poverty, television, and labour. She has published nine chapters in books with two more in progress, most recently “Forming Networks: National Radio Networks − Public, State, and Commercial,” Routledge Companion to Radio and Podcast Studies, edited by Mia Lindgren and Jason Loviglio, Routledge, 2022; MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic, “Advertising Food for Health and Happiness: Bovril to superfood,” in Food Studies: Matter, Meaning & Movement, edited by David Szanto, Amanda Di Battista, and Irena Knezevic, Food Studies Press, 2022; and “Canadian Community/Campus Radio: Struggling and Coping on the Cusp of Change,” in Radio’s Second Century: Perspectives on the Past, Present and Future edited by John Allen Hendricks, Rutgers University Press, 2020. She has also received major national grants from SSHRC for ongoing projects for: “Reclaiming the Early Canadian Radio Broadcasting Audience.” SSHRC Standard Research Grant as sole Principal Investigator; SSHRC Insight Grant, Principal Investigator “Programming, practices, production and policy: Canadian community radio” with collaborator Prof. Kate Moylan, University of Leicester; SSHRC Insight Grant, Principal Investigator with Co-PI Irena Knezevic, Carleton University, “The role of entertainment media in the persistence of Canadian and American poverty” and a variety of other research grants. Anne MacLennan was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Radio & Audio Media from 2017 to 2021 and currently serving as co-editor for 2022 as a transition year. She has given 125 presentations in the last twenty years at conferences that include The Radio Conference: A Transnational Forum Conferences; the International Association of Media and Communication Research Conferences; the Canadian Communications Association Conferences; the Broadcast Education Association Conferences, The international perspective on a radio centenary conference, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conferences; Radio Soundscapes in (Post)Colonial Settings; European Communication Research and Education Association – radio and history divisions Conferences; International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC), Social Science Historical Association; Society for the History of Children and Youth; Canadian Historical Association Conferences; Society for Cinema & Media Studies; Radio Preservation Task Force Conferences; Entangled Media Histories: Tracing entanglements in media history, a conference; Business History Conferences; Canadian Association of American Studies Conferences; What is Radio? Exploring the past, present & future of radio Conference, American Historical Association Conference; Two Days in Canada Conferences; Canadian Association of Cultural Studies Conference; International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Broadcasting in the 1930s: Radio, Television and the Depression –A Symposium; Association for Research on Mothering; Canadian Society for the History of Medicine; ,” L’Électricité: Déploiements d’un pardigme la nouvelle sphere intermédiatique 7ème colloque international du Centre de recherche sur l'intermédialité; .” Canadian Industrial Relations Association Annual Conference; Association for Canadian Studies Conferences; and other thematic conferences in her research areas. She has reviewed book manuscripts for Routledge, Columbia University Press, the University of Ottawa Press, and HarperCollins. She has reviewed journal submissions for numerous journals, reviewed for conference, grants and prizes. She more recently has started accepting interview for podcasts and has been interviewed or been a participant on radio and television shows. She is also an active participant on social media, especially Twitter where she tweets primarily about radio with more than 3500 followers. MacLennan will teach her 40th distinct course in 2023, has supervised more than 36 MA students to completion, 10 PhD students to completion, and one postdoctoral fellow.
Degrees
PhD, Concordia UniversityMA, McGill University
BA Honours, McGill University
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Prof. Anne MacLennan was the Editor-in-Chief, 2017-2021, of the Journal of Radio and Audio Media. http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hjrs20/current
2021-2022 Chair of Faculty Council, Faculty of Graduate Studies
2018-21 Board member, Canadian Communication Foundation (Interim president, president 2020-21)
2018-2020 Chair of the Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
2013-16 Graduate Program Director, Joint Program in Communication & Culture, Ryerson & York Universities
2014-15 Chair of Faculty Council, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Community Contributions
Making Space for Radio in Canada, 1922-1956 Archives of Ontario, with Michael Windover, Carleton University. Seeing, Selling, and Situating Radio in Canada, Sound and Moving Image Library, September to December 2017, with Michael Windover, Carleton University.
Research Interests
- President's University-Wide Teaching Award - 2006
- Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching - 2020-21
- Faculty of Graduate Studies, Faculty Teaching Award - 2023
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Canadian radio's potential for representative and inclusive broadcasting has yet to be realized. This research will work to expand the possibilities of radio within the context of current programming, practice, production, and policy realities. For this project community radio is defined as locally specific ` managed by and broadcasting to and for its constituent communities. Canadian community/campus radio is tasked with the representing "diverse cultural groups, including official linguistic minorities" (CRTC 2010-499). Community radio responds to the needs of community/-ies served in distinct and specific ways depending on the local and social context, meaning practices on the ground vary considerably in their negotiations of local factors. We argue that Canada's community/campus radio stations face financial, practical and other challenges to work within the limitations of their resources and policy. This research will investigate the challenges and best practices of Canadian stations through interviews in order to share their innovations and initiatives to help to sustain and advance the goals of community/campus radio stations in Canada. The parallel CRTC reassessment of radio makes it significant.
Start Date:
- Month: May Year: 2018
End Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2022
Collaborator: Katie Moylan
Collaborator Institution: University of Leicester
Windover, Michael and Anne F. MacLennan Seeing, Selling, and Situating Radio in Canada, 1922-1956. Halifax: Dalhousie Architectural Press, 2017.
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic, “Advertising Food for Health and Happiness: Bovril to superfood,” In Food Studies: Matter, Meaning & Movement, edited by David Szanto, Amanda Di Battista, and Irena Knezevic. Ottawa, ON: Food Studies Press, 2022, pp. 247-256. https://dx.doi.org/10.22215/fsmmm/ma28
MacLennan, Anne F., “Forming Networks: National Radio Networks − Public, State, and Commercial,” Routledge Companion to Radio and Podcast Studies, edited by Mia Lindgren and Jason Loviglio, Routledge, 2022
MacLennan, Anne F “Canadian Community/Campus Radio: Struggling and Coping on the Cusp of Change” (Chapter 12) in Radio’s Second Century: Perspectives on the Past, Present and Future edited by John Allen Hendricks, Rutgers University Press, 2020, pp. 193-206.
MacLennan, Anne F., “Promoting Pity or Empathy? Poverty and Canadian Charitable Appeals,” Advertising, Consumer Culture & Canadian Society: A Reader, ed. Kyle Asquith Toronto: Oxford University Press Canada, 2017. (forthcoming)
“Reading Radio: The intersection between radio and newspaper for the Canadian radio listener in the 1930s” in Mollgaard, Matt ed. Radio and Society: New thinking for an old media. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012, pp. 16-29.
“Resistance to Regulation: Early Canadian Broadcaster and Listeners,” Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada. Andrea Langlois, Ron Sakolsky and Marian van der Zon eds., New Star Books, 2010.
(2008) “Linking the Radio Audience from the Past to the Present: Communication of Knowledge through Websites and Electronic Resources,” Social and Human Sciences Research for a Global Civil Society: Research Communication, Public Discourse, and Citizen Engagement. Beaudet, Céline, Pamela Grant-Russell, and Doreen Starke-Meyerring (eds.) Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008
"What do the radio program schedules reveal? Content analysis versus accidental sampling in early Canadian radio history," in Jeff Keshen and Sylvie Perrier, eds. Bâtir de nouveaus ponts: sources, méthodes et interdisciplinarité/ Building New Bridges: Sources, Methods, and Interdisciplinarity. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2005: 225-238.
Review of Duane C. S. Stoltzfus. Freedom from Advertising: E.W. Scripps’s Chicago Experiment.(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007) for Enterprise & Society 9:4 (December 2008): 856-858.
Review of Pierre Pagé Histoire de la Radio au Québec: Information, Éducation, Culture. (Montréal: Éditions Fides, 2007) for Revue d’histoire de l’amerique française 61: 3-4 (Hiver-Printemps 2008): 590-593.
Donison, Jeffrey and Anne F. MacLennan, “Podcasting Marginalized History: Historica Canada’s World War Podcast Narratives and their Audio Archival Considerations,” Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media. 19:2 (2021): 271–89, https://doi.org/10.1386/ rjao_00045_1
MacLennan, Anne F. “Private Broadcasting and the Path to Radio Broadcasting Policy in Canada,” Media and Communication 6 (2018) DOI:10.17645/mac.v61.1219 available for free download at https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1219
MacLennan Anne F. “Transcending Borders: Reaffirming Radio’s Cultural Value in Canada and Beyond,” Journal of Radio & Audio Media 23 (2016): 197-199.
“Learning to Listen: Becoming a Canadian Radio Audience in the 1930s,” Journal of Radio & Audio Media (November 2013) 20:2 311-326.
MacLennan, Anne F. “Cultural Imperialism of the North? The Expansion of CBC’s Northern Service and Community Radio” Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media. 9:1 (2011): 63-81.
“Women, Radio and the Depression: A “Captive” Audience from Household Hints to Story Time and Serials” Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 37:5 (July/August 2008).
Singh, Parbudyal, Deborah Zinni and Anne F. MacLennan, "Graduate Student Unions in the United States." Journal of Labor Research, 27:1 (Winter 2006): 55-73.
Zinni, Deborah, Parbudyal Singh and Anne MacLennan, "An Exploratory Study of Graduate Student Unions in Canada," Relations Industrielles /Industrial Relations 60: 1 (Winter 2005): 145-175.
"American network broadcasting, the CBC and Canadian radio stations during the 1930s: A Content Analysis,” Journal of Radio Studies, 12:1 (May 2005): 85-103.",American network broadcasting
"Charity and Change: Montreal's English Protestant Charity Faces the Crisis of the 1930s," The Urban History Review 16: 1-16.
MacLennan, Anne F. “Visualizing Radio Networks across Canada: Mapping the Growth of Radio in the 1930s,” paper presented at the 126th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Chicago, IL, from January 7, 2012.
“Magic, Mystery and the Unknown: Early Canadian Radio,” Canadian Communications Association Annual Conference 2012, Wilfrid Laurier University, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, May 31, 2012.
“Shaping Views of Mothers Past: American Television, Collective Memory and Mothers in Historical Context on Network Television,” Mothers and History: Histories of Motherhood, Motherhood Initiative, Toronto, Ontario, May 11, 2012.
“Imagining Radio: The perception of early radio in Canada,” Perception, Reception: The History of the Media in Society: Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK, July 5, 2012.
"Dreams to reality: Student career and work expectations in the Communication Studies field experience at York University,” Learning to Earning | Higher Education and the Changing Job Market, Sheraton Centre Toronto, Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, November 1-2, 2012.
MacLennan, Anne F. From kowtow to fist pump: The evolution of the acknowledgement in Canadian scholarly writing. Ninth International Conference on the Book, University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, 14-16 October, 2011.
MacLennan, Anne F., Irena Knezevic and Aidan Moir, “Canadian Identity and Linguistic Dualities: National Commitments to Linguistic Majorities and Minorities,” 25th Annual Two Days of Canada Conference, Brock University, November 3-4, 2011.
“The Contested Space of Linguistic Minorities and Majorities on Canadian Radio” proposal for Radio Evolution ECREA Conference, Braga, Portugal, September 15, 2011.
“Musical Memories: Listening to Radio in Canada during the 1930s,” Music and Environment: Place, Context, Conjuncture, IASPM-Canada Annual Conference Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal June 17, 2011.
“Official Language Minorities and the CBC: The Case of CBEF” paper presentation at the 2011 Canadian Communication Association Annual Conference June 1, 2011, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB.
“Reading Radio: The Intersection between Radio and Newspaper for the Canadian Radio Listener in the 1930s.” A paper to be presented at The Radio Conference 2011: A Transnational Forum, January 11-14, 2011, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.
"Broadcasting Intolerance and Enthusiasm: Early Religious Radio Programming” a paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Media, Religion and Culture, Ryerson University, August 11, 2010.
"Learning to Listen: Developing the Canadian Radio Audience in the 1930s" paper presented at the Broadcasting in the 1930s; radio, television and the Depression –A Symposium: A conference on media, theater and history: Celebrating 50 Years of the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research July 7, 2010 Madison, Wisconsin.
"Interrogating the Archive: Everyday Early Canadian Radio" paper presented at the On Archives! A conference on media, theater and history: Celebrating 50 Years of the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research July 9, 2010 Madison, Wisconsin
“Gendered Widow(er) in Popular Media” paper presented at the Canadian Communications Association, June 3, 2010, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec.
“Submerged Women in Popular Culture: Ethereal, Mythical and Sinister” a paper presented at the Greenscapes: Sense and Meaning Conference at Brock University, October 2, 2009.
“Misconceptions in Early Canadian Radio” paper presented at The Radio Conference 2009: A Transnational Forum, July 2009, York University.
“Mediating historical authority through popular culture: historical signposts, timelines and markers of collective memory” paper presented at the Canadian Historical Association, May 27, 2009, Carleton University.
“Failed Consumers versus Missed Opportunities: Representations of Poverty in Advertising in a Canadian and Global Context” paper to be presented at the Canadian Communications Association, May 28, 2009, Carleton University.
“The Wonder of Radio: Early Twentieth Century Experience of Radio in Canada and the Soviet Union,” a paper presented at the Two Days of Canada Conference: Connecting through Media History, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, November 6-8, 2008.
“I Want to Believe”: Religion and Belief in Contemporary American Television,” Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association, October 30-November 2, 2008.
“War and Motherhood in Television Drama,” Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) 12th Annual Conference, Mothering, Violence, Militarism, War, and Social Justice, York University, Toronto, Canada, October 23-26, 2008.
“Television Drama shaping the American collective memory of contemporary and past wars,” Media, War and Conflict Resolution, International Conference, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, September 19, 2008.
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic, “Health and Well Being as Advertised in the Early Twentieth Century,” a paper presented at the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine” Vancouver, June 4, 2008.
“Reaching the Nation: Canadian Radio Reception in the 1930s,” to the Canadian Communications Association, Vancouver, June 4, 2008.
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic, “Adverti8sing Health: Purchasing Wellness,” to the Canadian Communications Association, Vancouver, June 4, 2008.
“Mixing Nationality and Language: Montreal Radio in the 1930s,” a paper presented at the International Communication Association, Montreal, Quebec. May 24, 2008
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic “Radio Broadcasting, Community and Culture: The Case of French-language programming at CBEF Windsor the historical background.” Part 1. Prepared for the Canadian Media Guild.
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic “Where does French-language radio broadcast programming fall? The Case of CBEF in between the Official Languages Act and the Broadcasting Act.” Part 2. Prepared for the Canadian Media Guild.
MacLennan, Anne F., Irena Knezevic and Aidan Moir. “Local Programming and Community Response: The Case of French-language programming at CBEF Windsor” Part 3. Prepared for the Canadian Media Guild.
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic “Local French-Language Programming Recommendations for the Future.” Part 4. Prepared for the Canadian Media Guild.
Approach to Teaching
Professor MacLennan teaches courses that usually fall under the area of Media and Culture and a few for the area of Politics and Policy. This year (2022-23) Prof. MacLennan will be teaching COMN 3150 Introduction to Research Methods in Communication and Media Studies in the Fall, then CMCT 7200 (PhD) Advanced Research Methodologies, and a new course, COMN 1405 Death, Destruction, and Disease in the Media! In 2021-22 she taught Introduction to Research Methods in Communication and Media Studies; in 2019-20 she taught Media History Seminar; 2018-19 she taught COMN 3740 Evaluating Media History and Communication & Culture 7200 Advanced Research Methodologies In the past she taught at the PhD level: PhD Field Seminar: Disciplinary Practices; Perspectives in Communication and Cultural Studies; Advanced Research Methods Workshop; at the MA level: Research Methods Workshop; at MA and PhD level: Research Methods Workshop and Core Issues in Cultural Studies; at the BA level: Print! The History and Culture of the Printed Word; Experiential Research Methods at Work; Advertising and Society; Research Methods in Mass Communications; Media, Culture & Society; Broadcasting Policy: Current Issues and Case Studies; Broadcasting Policy: A Comparative Introduction; Strategies of Social Science Research; Popular Culture; and Communication Theory. This year she is teaching Research Methods in Mass Communication and Advertising & Society in the Department of Communication Studies and Research Methods Workshop in the York-Ryerson Joint Program in Communication and Culture.
In previous years she has also taught Media, Culture & Society, Broadcasting Policy: A Comparative Introduction, Broadcasting Policy: Current Issues and Case Studies, Strategies of Social Science Research, Popular Culture, Communication Theory, as well as Core Issues in Cultural Studies for the Communication and Culture program.
Anne MacLennan was a presented with a York University-Wide Teaching Award in 2006. She has over twenty years experience teaching communication studies, media studies, history, methodology and other interdisciplinary topics.
In 2024-25 Anne F, MacLennan will be on sabbatical, which means I won't be teaching courses, but please reach out to me if you are a graduate student looking for a supervisor or committee member; if you are someone with research projects; if you are media; and with other projects, ideas, or interests amaclenn@yorku.ca
Anne F. MacLennan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at York University in Toronto Ontario. In 2023, Anne MacLennan received the Faculty of Graduate Studies Faculty Teaching Award. She was awarded the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (Tenure/Tenure-Track Stream) 2020-21 and previously the University-Wide Teaching Award winner, 2006.
In the Fall of 2023 Anne MacLennan taught a new course, CMDS 3744 National Identities: Canadian Media History; it's focus is connected to her new SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, Interrogating Canadian Identities - Les identities canadiennes une interrogation. In the winter semester 2024, she taught a redesigned designed course, CMDS 2150 Introduction to Research Methods in Communication and Media Studies as the course is transformed from a third-year optional course to a large lecture class required at the second year. She also taught CMCT Advanced Research Methodologies for PhD students in the Communication and Culture joint graduate program in winter 2024. She was teaching Introduction to Communication Research Methods (COMN 3150), which she loves and in the winter CMCT 7200 Advanced Research Methodologies, which she also loves in 2022-23, and a new course in the winter called Death, Destruction, an Disease in the Media this winter.
Her book manuscript in progress is a study of the program listings of seven cities across Canada during the 1930s to explain the distinct element of local non-network radio and the changes across the country as national network radio is put in place in stages. The work is based a on a large data sample of newspapers, archival research, and other documentation. Anne MacLennan and Michael Windover at Carleton University co-authored Seeing, Selling, and Situating Radio in Canada, 1922-1956 in 2017 as part of the work that emerged from their Social Science and Humanities Research Grant of the same name. This research has also resulted in curators talks and curated exhibits of Making Space for Radio at the Archives of Ontario and the Carleton University Art Gallery, Seeing, Selling and Situating Radio at the Sound and Moving Image Library, York University, Radio in Canada 1922-1956 at the MacOdrum Library, Carleton University and the forthcoming digital exhibition in collaboration with Dr. Anja Borck, Director of the Musée des ondes Emile Berliner, Montreal, Quebec with the support of a Digital Museums Canada grant from the Canadian Museum of History to create Radio chez nous/Radio at Home for exhibit in 2022-23. MacLennan has published in Media and Communication, Journal of Radio & Audio Media, Women’s Studies, The Radio Journal, Relations Industrielles, Urban History Review, largely on radio but also on podcasting, history, women, advertising, charity, poverty, television, and labour. She has published nine chapters in books with two more in progress, most recently “Forming Networks: National Radio Networks − Public, State, and Commercial,” Routledge Companion to Radio and Podcast Studies, edited by Mia Lindgren and Jason Loviglio, Routledge, 2022; MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic, “Advertising Food for Health and Happiness: Bovril to superfood,” in Food Studies: Matter, Meaning & Movement, edited by David Szanto, Amanda Di Battista, and Irena Knezevic, Food Studies Press, 2022; and “Canadian Community/Campus Radio: Struggling and Coping on the Cusp of Change,” in Radio’s Second Century: Perspectives on the Past, Present and Future edited by John Allen Hendricks, Rutgers University Press, 2020. She has also received major national grants from SSHRC for ongoing projects for: “Reclaiming the Early Canadian Radio Broadcasting Audience.” SSHRC Standard Research Grant as sole Principal Investigator; SSHRC Insight Grant, Principal Investigator “Programming, practices, production and policy: Canadian community radio” with collaborator Prof. Kate Moylan, University of Leicester; SSHRC Insight Grant, Principal Investigator with Co-PI Irena Knezevic, Carleton University, “The role of entertainment media in the persistence of Canadian and American poverty” and a variety of other research grants. Anne MacLennan was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Radio & Audio Media from 2017 to 2021 and currently serving as co-editor for 2022 as a transition year. She has given 125 presentations in the last twenty years at conferences that include The Radio Conference: A Transnational Forum Conferences; the International Association of Media and Communication Research Conferences; the Canadian Communications Association Conferences; the Broadcast Education Association Conferences, The international perspective on a radio centenary conference, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conferences; Radio Soundscapes in (Post)Colonial Settings; European Communication Research and Education Association – radio and history divisions Conferences; International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC), Social Science Historical Association; Society for the History of Children and Youth; Canadian Historical Association Conferences; Society for Cinema & Media Studies; Radio Preservation Task Force Conferences; Entangled Media Histories: Tracing entanglements in media history, a conference; Business History Conferences; Canadian Association of American Studies Conferences; What is Radio? Exploring the past, present & future of radio Conference, American Historical Association Conference; Two Days in Canada Conferences; Canadian Association of Cultural Studies Conference; International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Broadcasting in the 1930s: Radio, Television and the Depression –A Symposium; Association for Research on Mothering; Canadian Society for the History of Medicine; ,” L’Électricité: Déploiements d’un pardigme la nouvelle sphere intermédiatique 7ème colloque international du Centre de recherche sur l'intermédialité; .” Canadian Industrial Relations Association Annual Conference; Association for Canadian Studies Conferences; and other thematic conferences in her research areas. She has reviewed book manuscripts for Routledge, Columbia University Press, the University of Ottawa Press, and HarperCollins. She has reviewed journal submissions for numerous journals, reviewed for conference, grants and prizes. She more recently has started accepting interview for podcasts and has been interviewed or been a participant on radio and television shows. She is also an active participant on social media, especially Twitter where she tweets primarily about radio with more than 3500 followers. MacLennan will teach her 40th distinct course in 2023, has supervised more than 36 MA students to completion, 10 PhD students to completion, and one postdoctoral fellow.
Degrees
PhD, Concordia UniversityMA, McGill University
BA Honours, McGill University
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Prof. Anne MacLennan was the Editor-in-Chief, 2017-2021, of the Journal of Radio and Audio Media. http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hjrs20/current
2021-2022 Chair of Faculty Council, Faculty of Graduate Studies
2018-21 Board member, Canadian Communication Foundation (Interim president, president 2020-21)
2018-2020 Chair of the Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
2013-16 Graduate Program Director, Joint Program in Communication & Culture, Ryerson & York Universities
2014-15 Chair of Faculty Council, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Community Contributions
Making Space for Radio in Canada, 1922-1956 Archives of Ontario, with Michael Windover, Carleton University. Seeing, Selling, and Situating Radio in Canada, Sound and Moving Image Library, September to December 2017, with Michael Windover, Carleton University.
Research Interests
Awards
- President's University-Wide Teaching Award - 2006
- Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching - 2020-21
- Faculty of Graduate Studies, Faculty Teaching Award - 2023
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
Canadian radio's potential for representative and inclusive broadcasting has yet to be realized. This research will work to expand the possibilities of radio within the context of current programming, practice, production, and policy realities. For this project community radio is defined as locally specific ` managed by and broadcasting to and for its constituent communities. Canadian community/campus radio is tasked with the representing "diverse cultural groups, including official linguistic minorities" (CRTC 2010-499). Community radio responds to the needs of community/-ies served in distinct and specific ways depending on the local and social context, meaning practices on the ground vary considerably in their negotiations of local factors. We argue that Canada's community/campus radio stations face financial, practical and other challenges to work within the limitations of their resources and policy. This research will investigate the challenges and best practices of Canadian stations through interviews in order to share their innovations and initiatives to help to sustain and advance the goals of community/campus radio stations in Canada. The parallel CRTC reassessment of radio makes it significant.
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal Investigator
Start Date:
- Month: May Year: 2018
End Date:
- Month: Apr Year: 2022
Collaborator: Katie Moylan
Collaborator Institution: University of Leicester
All Publications
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic, “Advertising Food for Health and Happiness: Bovril to superfood,” In Food Studies: Matter, Meaning & Movement, edited by David Szanto, Amanda Di Battista, and Irena Knezevic. Ottawa, ON: Food Studies Press, 2022, pp. 247-256. https://dx.doi.org/10.22215/fsmmm/ma28
MacLennan, Anne F., “Forming Networks: National Radio Networks − Public, State, and Commercial,” Routledge Companion to Radio and Podcast Studies, edited by Mia Lindgren and Jason Loviglio, Routledge, 2022
MacLennan, Anne F “Canadian Community/Campus Radio: Struggling and Coping on the Cusp of Change” (Chapter 12) in Radio’s Second Century: Perspectives on the Past, Present and Future edited by John Allen Hendricks, Rutgers University Press, 2020, pp. 193-206.
MacLennan, Anne F., “Promoting Pity or Empathy? Poverty and Canadian Charitable Appeals,” Advertising, Consumer Culture & Canadian Society: A Reader, ed. Kyle Asquith Toronto: Oxford University Press Canada, 2017. (forthcoming)
“Reading Radio: The intersection between radio and newspaper for the Canadian radio listener in the 1930s” in Mollgaard, Matt ed. Radio and Society: New thinking for an old media. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012, pp. 16-29.
“Resistance to Regulation: Early Canadian Broadcaster and Listeners,” Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada. Andrea Langlois, Ron Sakolsky and Marian van der Zon eds., New Star Books, 2010.
(2008) “Linking the Radio Audience from the Past to the Present: Communication of Knowledge through Websites and Electronic Resources,” Social and Human Sciences Research for a Global Civil Society: Research Communication, Public Discourse, and Citizen Engagement. Beaudet, Céline, Pamela Grant-Russell, and Doreen Starke-Meyerring (eds.) Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008
"What do the radio program schedules reveal? Content analysis versus accidental sampling in early Canadian radio history," in Jeff Keshen and Sylvie Perrier, eds. Bâtir de nouveaus ponts: sources, méthodes et interdisciplinarité/ Building New Bridges: Sources, Methods, and Interdisciplinarity. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2005: 225-238.
Review of Duane C. S. Stoltzfus. Freedom from Advertising: E.W. Scripps’s Chicago Experiment.(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007) for Enterprise & Society 9:4 (December 2008): 856-858.
Review of Pierre Pagé Histoire de la Radio au Québec: Information, Éducation, Culture. (Montréal: Éditions Fides, 2007) for Revue d’histoire de l’amerique française 61: 3-4 (Hiver-Printemps 2008): 590-593.
Windover, Michael and Anne F. MacLennan Seeing, Selling, and Situating Radio in Canada, 1922-1956. Halifax: Dalhousie Architectural Press, 2017.
Donison, Jeffrey and Anne F. MacLennan, “Podcasting Marginalized History: Historica Canada’s World War Podcast Narratives and their Audio Archival Considerations,” Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media. 19:2 (2021): 271–89, https://doi.org/10.1386/ rjao_00045_1
MacLennan, Anne F. “Private Broadcasting and the Path to Radio Broadcasting Policy in Canada,” Media and Communication 6 (2018) DOI:10.17645/mac.v61.1219 available for free download at https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/1219
MacLennan Anne F. “Transcending Borders: Reaffirming Radio’s Cultural Value in Canada and Beyond,” Journal of Radio & Audio Media 23 (2016): 197-199.
“Learning to Listen: Becoming a Canadian Radio Audience in the 1930s,” Journal of Radio & Audio Media (November 2013) 20:2 311-326.
MacLennan, Anne F. “Cultural Imperialism of the North? The Expansion of CBC’s Northern Service and Community Radio” Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media. 9:1 (2011): 63-81.
“Women, Radio and the Depression: A “Captive” Audience from Household Hints to Story Time and Serials” Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 37:5 (July/August 2008).
Singh, Parbudyal, Deborah Zinni and Anne F. MacLennan, "Graduate Student Unions in the United States." Journal of Labor Research, 27:1 (Winter 2006): 55-73.
Zinni, Deborah, Parbudyal Singh and Anne MacLennan, "An Exploratory Study of Graduate Student Unions in Canada," Relations Industrielles /Industrial Relations 60: 1 (Winter 2005): 145-175.
"American network broadcasting, the CBC and Canadian radio stations during the 1930s: A Content Analysis,” Journal of Radio Studies, 12:1 (May 2005): 85-103.",American network broadcasting
"Charity and Change: Montreal's English Protestant Charity Faces the Crisis of the 1930s," The Urban History Review 16: 1-16.
MacLennan, Anne F. “Visualizing Radio Networks across Canada: Mapping the Growth of Radio in the 1930s,” paper presented at the 126th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Chicago, IL, from January 7, 2012.
“Magic, Mystery and the Unknown: Early Canadian Radio,” Canadian Communications Association Annual Conference 2012, Wilfrid Laurier University, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, May 31, 2012.
“Shaping Views of Mothers Past: American Television, Collective Memory and Mothers in Historical Context on Network Television,” Mothers and History: Histories of Motherhood, Motherhood Initiative, Toronto, Ontario, May 11, 2012.
“Imagining Radio: The perception of early radio in Canada,” Perception, Reception: The History of the Media in Society: Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK, July 5, 2012.
"Dreams to reality: Student career and work expectations in the Communication Studies field experience at York University,” Learning to Earning | Higher Education and the Changing Job Market, Sheraton Centre Toronto, Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, November 1-2, 2012.
MacLennan, Anne F. From kowtow to fist pump: The evolution of the acknowledgement in Canadian scholarly writing. Ninth International Conference on the Book, University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, 14-16 October, 2011.
MacLennan, Anne F., Irena Knezevic and Aidan Moir, “Canadian Identity and Linguistic Dualities: National Commitments to Linguistic Majorities and Minorities,” 25th Annual Two Days of Canada Conference, Brock University, November 3-4, 2011.
“The Contested Space of Linguistic Minorities and Majorities on Canadian Radio” proposal for Radio Evolution ECREA Conference, Braga, Portugal, September 15, 2011.
“Musical Memories: Listening to Radio in Canada during the 1930s,” Music and Environment: Place, Context, Conjuncture, IASPM-Canada Annual Conference Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montreal June 17, 2011.
“Official Language Minorities and the CBC: The Case of CBEF” paper presentation at the 2011 Canadian Communication Association Annual Conference June 1, 2011, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB.
“Reading Radio: The Intersection between Radio and Newspaper for the Canadian Radio Listener in the 1930s.” A paper to be presented at The Radio Conference 2011: A Transnational Forum, January 11-14, 2011, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand.
"Broadcasting Intolerance and Enthusiasm: Early Religious Radio Programming” a paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Media, Religion and Culture, Ryerson University, August 11, 2010.
"Learning to Listen: Developing the Canadian Radio Audience in the 1930s" paper presented at the Broadcasting in the 1930s; radio, television and the Depression –A Symposium: A conference on media, theater and history: Celebrating 50 Years of the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research July 7, 2010 Madison, Wisconsin.
"Interrogating the Archive: Everyday Early Canadian Radio" paper presented at the On Archives! A conference on media, theater and history: Celebrating 50 Years of the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research July 9, 2010 Madison, Wisconsin
“Gendered Widow(er) in Popular Media” paper presented at the Canadian Communications Association, June 3, 2010, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec.
“Submerged Women in Popular Culture: Ethereal, Mythical and Sinister” a paper presented at the Greenscapes: Sense and Meaning Conference at Brock University, October 2, 2009.
“Misconceptions in Early Canadian Radio” paper presented at The Radio Conference 2009: A Transnational Forum, July 2009, York University.
“Mediating historical authority through popular culture: historical signposts, timelines and markers of collective memory” paper presented at the Canadian Historical Association, May 27, 2009, Carleton University.
“Failed Consumers versus Missed Opportunities: Representations of Poverty in Advertising in a Canadian and Global Context” paper to be presented at the Canadian Communications Association, May 28, 2009, Carleton University.
“The Wonder of Radio: Early Twentieth Century Experience of Radio in Canada and the Soviet Union,” a paper presented at the Two Days of Canada Conference: Connecting through Media History, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, November 6-8, 2008.
“I Want to Believe”: Religion and Belief in Contemporary American Television,” Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association, October 30-November 2, 2008.
“War and Motherhood in Television Drama,” Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) 12th Annual Conference, Mothering, Violence, Militarism, War, and Social Justice, York University, Toronto, Canada, October 23-26, 2008.
“Television Drama shaping the American collective memory of contemporary and past wars,” Media, War and Conflict Resolution, International Conference, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, September 19, 2008.
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic, “Health and Well Being as Advertised in the Early Twentieth Century,” a paper presented at the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine” Vancouver, June 4, 2008.
“Reaching the Nation: Canadian Radio Reception in the 1930s,” to the Canadian Communications Association, Vancouver, June 4, 2008.
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic, “Adverti8sing Health: Purchasing Wellness,” to the Canadian Communications Association, Vancouver, June 4, 2008.
“Mixing Nationality and Language: Montreal Radio in the 1930s,” a paper presented at the International Communication Association, Montreal, Quebec. May 24, 2008
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic “Radio Broadcasting, Community and Culture: The Case of French-language programming at CBEF Windsor the historical background.” Part 1. Prepared for the Canadian Media Guild.
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic “Where does French-language radio broadcast programming fall? The Case of CBEF in between the Official Languages Act and the Broadcasting Act.” Part 2. Prepared for the Canadian Media Guild.
MacLennan, Anne F., Irena Knezevic and Aidan Moir. “Local Programming and Community Response: The Case of French-language programming at CBEF Windsor” Part 3. Prepared for the Canadian Media Guild.
MacLennan, Anne F. and Irena Knezevic “Local French-Language Programming Recommendations for the Future.” Part 4. Prepared for the Canadian Media Guild.
Approach to Teaching
Professor MacLennan teaches courses that usually fall under the area of Media and Culture and a few for the area of Politics and Policy. This year (2022-23) Prof. MacLennan will be teaching COMN 3150 Introduction to Research Methods in Communication and Media Studies in the Fall, then CMCT 7200 (PhD) Advanced Research Methodologies, and a new course, COMN 1405 Death, Destruction, and Disease in the Media! In 2021-22 she taught Introduction to Research Methods in Communication and Media Studies; in 2019-20 she taught Media History Seminar; 2018-19 she taught COMN 3740 Evaluating Media History and Communication & Culture 7200 Advanced Research Methodologies In the past she taught at the PhD level: PhD Field Seminar: Disciplinary Practices; Perspectives in Communication and Cultural Studies; Advanced Research Methods Workshop; at the MA level: Research Methods Workshop; at MA and PhD level: Research Methods Workshop and Core Issues in Cultural Studies; at the BA level: Print! The History and Culture of the Printed Word; Experiential Research Methods at Work; Advertising and Society; Research Methods in Mass Communications; Media, Culture & Society; Broadcasting Policy: Current Issues and Case Studies; Broadcasting Policy: A Comparative Introduction; Strategies of Social Science Research; Popular Culture; and Communication Theory. This year she is teaching Research Methods in Mass Communication and Advertising & Society in the Department of Communication Studies and Research Methods Workshop in the York-Ryerson Joint Program in Communication and Culture.
In previous years she has also taught Media, Culture & Society, Broadcasting Policy: A Comparative Introduction, Broadcasting Policy: Current Issues and Case Studies, Strategies of Social Science Research, Popular Culture, Communication Theory, as well as Core Issues in Cultural Studies for the Communication and Culture program.
Anne MacLennan was a presented with a York University-Wide Teaching Award in 2006. She has over twenty years experience teaching communication studies, media studies, history, methodology and other interdisciplinary topics.
