Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan are famous Canadian scholars for their contributions to the fields of media ecology and political economy in the 20th century. In his book, Empire and Communications, University of Toronto professor Harold Innis highlighted media technologies as a powerful contributor to the rise and collapse of empires. They were both important members of the Toronto School of Communication at the time. If you study linguistics you may even study the nature of English language schools in bournemouth in general and how human communication differs from that of other animals and birds. He uses an example of the electric light to make this connection and to explain how "the medium is the message". The fact that it is the medium that shapes and controls the form of human association and action makes it the message.