Rowland, Wade 1944–

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Rowland, Wade 1944–

PERSONAL: Born 1944, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; father in the Royal Canadian Air Force; married Christine Collie (a television art director and professional photographer), 1978; children: Hilary, Simon. Education: Attended University of Manitoba; Trent University, M.A.; York University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Don Sedgwick, TransAtlantic Literary Agency, 1603 Holy Cross Rd., Petite Riviere, Nova Scotia B0J 2P0, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Newspaper reporter and editor, including positions with Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and Toronto Telegram, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; television producer, and writer, c. 1972–. Worked for Canadian Television Network, including position as director of policy and development, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), including positions as senior producer of the consumer affairs program Marketplace and senior executive in network television news division. Ryerson University, former instructor in television arts, then Maclean Hunter Professor of Ethics in Communication, 2001–03; Trent University, adjunct faculty; University of Toronto, visiting fellow of McLuhan Program on Culture and Technology.

WRITINGS:

(With Tiny Bennett) The Pollution Guide, Clarke, Irwin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1972.

The Plot to Save the World; The Life and Times of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, Clarke, Irwin (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1973.

Fuelling Canada's Future, Macmillan (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1974.

Making Connections: The Behind-the-Scenes Story, Gage (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1979.

(With Rosemary Dudley) How to Find Relief from Migraine, Beaufort Books (New York, NY), 1982.

(With Harvey Kirck) Nobody Calls Me Mr. Kirck (memoir), Collins (Don Mills, Ontario, Canada), 1985.

(With Jeff MacInnis) Polar Passage: The Historic First Sail through the Northwest Passage, Random House (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989.

Spirit of the Web: The Age of Information from Telegraph to Internet, Somerville House (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1997, 3rd edition, Thomas Allen Publishers (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2005.

(Editor) Derrick de Kerckhove, Connected Intelligence: The Arrival of the Web Society, Somerville House (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1998.

Ockham's Razor: A Search for Wonder in an Age of Doubt, Patrick Crean Editions (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1999.

Galileo's Mistake: The Archeology of a Myth, Thomas Allen Publishers (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 2002, published as Galileo's Mistake: A New Look at the Epic Confrontation between Galileo and the Church, Arcade Publishing (New York, NY), 2003.

Greed, Inc.: Why Corporations Rule Our World and Why We Let It Happen, Arcade Publishing (New York, NY), 2005.

Editor, "Rowland Travel Guides to Canada" series, 1986–90. Contributor to Toronto Star and Computer-World, among other periodicals.

SIDELIGHTS: Canadian media scholar Wade Rowland is a writer and editor as well as an educator, media consultant, and television producer of news and documentaries. He has published books with a number of coauthors that focus on topics ranging from the treatment of migraine headaches to the history of the Northwest Passage. His editorial work has included several travel guides to Canada and Connected Intelligence: The Arrival of the Web Society, a book written by a fellow professor at the University of Toronto, Derrick de Kerckhove. Rowland's work on Connected Intelligence reflects his increasing involvement in new media. During the late 1990s Rowland began working as a consultant providing broadcast and interactive media expertise. During this time he published articles on topics including the Netscape-Microsoft rivalry, the future of the World Wide Web, Canada's Communications Decency Act, the metaphor of "the information highway," and the possible appearance of the CBC on the Internet. Rowland's recent work, some of which has been published in academic journals, centers on moral philosophy and its role in the analysis of current societal problems.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Books in Canada, March, 1980, p. 24; March, 1998, pp. 80-81.

Catholic Insight, October, 2002, John B. Shea, review of Galileo's Mistake: The Archeology of a Myth, p. 42.

Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), December 8, 2001, review of Galileo's Mistake; April 23, 2005, Allan Hutchinson, review of Greed, Inc.: Why Corporations Rule Our World and Why We Let It Happen, p. D8.

Quill and Quire, November, 1997, review of Spirit of the Web: The Age of Information from Telegraph to Internet, p. 27; April, 1999, review of Ockham's Razor: A Search for Wonder in an Age of Doubt, p. 32.