Thomas L. McPhail
Curators Statement

After completing his Ph.D. in Communication at Purdue University, Tom McPhail began his academic career in Montreal, Canada. He began at Concordia University as an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Departments of Communication and Sociology. Two significant events occurred at this early stage which would impact his stellar career.

First, he began an academic collaboration with a fellow Canadian communication scholar, Marshall McLuhan. He became McPhail’s mentor until his death in 1980. This collaboration involved giving lectures and seminars at the University of Toronto to students in McLuhan’s Center for Culture and Technology, appearing at conferences as panelists, and finally, as an advisor to the Canadian Federal Government on communication matters, trends, and policy. This last activity was to lead to the second significant event.

In 1971, in a progressive move, the Canadian Government created the first North American Department of Communication with fellow Montrealer Eric Kierans M.P. as the Cabinet Minister. Kierans, a world class economist, hired McPhail as a consultant on social policy and regulatory aspects of broadcasting. This involved a multitude of tasks as the landscape for media systems was changing with the introduction of new technologies, such as videotext, cable and satellites.

Given the demands and time being spent in the nation’s capital, Ottawa, McPhail became an associate professor of journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa. Much like Mizzou, Carleton’s School of Journalism is the oldest and largest in Canada and had significant entree with the National Press Corps based in Ottawa. McPhail quickly became a nationally renowned media analyst and academic commentator for a considerable number of media outlets. Also during this time McPhail became a member of the Canadian Commission for the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). He eventually was elected chair of the Communication and Culture sub-committee. In this capacity traveled to Paris and other international venues for meetings as a representative of the Canadian Government.—with diplomatic status. This is the initial connection to his current scholarship dealing with global communication.

In 1978 while on sabbatical leave, he moved to Paris to improve his French speaking ability and do further research and policy work at UNESCO Headquarters. A key contact was made just prior to departing while visiting a high school friend at the Boston Globe, Paul Szep, a three time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He introduced McPhail to Steven Erlanger, the Globe’s senior foreign correspondent (now with the New York Times). Erlanger was aware of UNESCO’s activities relating to a contentious New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO). During the fall of 1978, UNESCO was holding its General Conference in Paris and Erlanger asked if McPhail would cover the meetings over six weeks as a freelancer for the Boston Globe—for the princely sum of 17 cents per word. Being a humble and poor academic, McPhail agreed.

In Paris, McPhail attended many sessions and the NWICO debate became the dominant policy issue splitting the various international delegations in two camps. The one, led by the old Soviet Union, favored some type of government control of the mass media. The other group, led by the United States, and consisting of the industrialized nations wanted no government oversight or control of the mass media. Throughout the six weeks McPhail send dispatches back to the Globe on a weekly basis. But unknown to him Erlanger had suddenly left the United States to cover the fall of the Shah of Iran and the growth of Islamic extremism under the Ayatollah. Thus McPhail’s various dispatches sat on Erlanger’s desk until early 1979 when both returned to North America. By coincidence Erlanger was now teaching a journalism course at Harvard and used the McPhail materials to demonstrate how to edit a chapter for a manuscript/book. The single edited piece of 40 pages is what he eventually returned to McPhail. Quickly recognizing an opportunity, McPhail sent the sample chapter to SAGE Publications Ltd. along with a letter detailing the balance of a book to be titled “ ELECTRONIC COLONIALISM: THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING AND COMMUNICATION” SAGE returned a contract along with a guarantee that and preeminent media scholar, Everett Rogers, would write the Foreword.

The book came out in 1981 as a publication in the prestigious SAGE Library of Social Research series. It went through several printings and led to a fully revised second edition in 1987 with SAGE. By then the United States and Great Britain had withdrawn from UNESCO over the NWICO issue. (Both have since returned).

Also during this period McPhail had been recruited by the University of Calgary to be the founding Director of the Graduate Programme in Communication. (It is now the largest such programme in Canada). Here, with Brenda McPhail, in 1990 he produced another book contributing to the scholarly literature with Copp Clark Pitman entitled COMMUNICATION: THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE.

It was also in 1990 that the McPhails decided to join the University of Missouri-St.Louis. Tom McPhail became Chair of the Department of Communication and continued his scholarly research and writings. Recognizing his administrative acumen, Chancellor Touhill appointed him to a five year term in the Office of Academic Affairs. Yet McPhail remained active in various professional organizations and was approached on a frequent basis to both update his earlier works and expand on his theory of electronic colonialism, which by now had substantial international exposure. Almost all dissertations in the English speaking world dealing with international communication make some reference to McPhail’s theory and works.

Armed with a contract from Allyn & Bacon he returned to the classroom and writing in 2000. The new edition, GLOBAL COMMUNICATION: THEORIES, STAKEHOLDERS, AND TRENDS, was published in September 2001. It did very well despite not having any mention of the global war on terrorism, embedded journalists, or Al Jazeera. Quickly another edition was produced updating the materials and expanding again on the theory of electronic colonialism. In addition, a new publisher, with a greater European and international focus, Blackwell Publishers of London, produced what is labeled as the second edition of GLOBAL COMMUNICATION. In effect, it is the fourth book since 1981 that traces the evolution of international communication during this important era. Now the book has moved beyond the classroom to inform policy-makers, media lawyers, communication industry leaders, and regulators around the world. In 2006 alone McPhail has been invited to five international congresses to discuss his scholarship and the implications of his theory. One is in Latin America, one in the Middle East, and three in Europe.

There are many other significant contributions to the discipline detailed in his 23 page vitae which is attached.

Finally, one other item deserves specific mention. McPhail has become a media analyst and critic for local, national, and international media outlets. Ranging from the Associated Press, USA Today, to the New York Times, McPhail is one of the highest profile academics in the UM System. This media exposure benefits the image of UMSL as a world class research institution. And McPhail makes his time available to these journalists in addition to his teaching, student advising, research and scholarship, and service, including being a consultant/advisor to North Central Association.