Bob and Cameron's name for the school of McLuhan studies centered on Winnipeg — the city where McLuhan grew up — one of the many "schools of media ecology" that grew out of McLuhan's work. Named by a Toronto group but researched by Cameron, who dug out its deeper Winnipeg roots, it is the pre-existing counterpart against which the pair later set the Halifax School. Start with dialogue 18, where its provenance is worked out.
Across the dialogues
Enters as one node in Bob's taxonomy of McLuhan-derived schools — and the one he ranks above the rest
The Winnipeg School belongs to a whole taxonomy Bob mapped — his essay on the "six schools of media ecology," the derivatives and extensions McLuhan spawned worldwide.
"All the phases of McLuhan are different derivatives or extensions of McLuhan around the world."
Cameron revises the count upward — the media-ecology schools have multiplied well past Bob's six, toward fifteen or so.
"There are many more schools than that now."
Among all of them Bob ranks Winnipeg first — "the best school" — a verdict he treats as already settled between them.
"But the Winnipeg school is the best school, right? We know that."
Its provenance gets sorted — named in Toronto, its Winnipeg roots dug out by Cameron, and fixed as the elder school the Halifax School is measured against
The credit splits — the Toronto group named the Winnipeg School, but Cameron supplied the research it stands on, recovering figures like Rupert Lodge the namers didn't know.
"They named it, but you did the research."
Cameron names the school's members — Jim Patterson and Rich Altman among its important contributors.
"Jim Patterson and Rich Altman are important contributors to the Winnipeg School."
The school is a live category in Cameron's own archive — twenty to twenty-five posts on his website tagged to it.
"if you click on the Winnipeg School of Communication, I'll bet there's at least 20 or 25 posts that touch on that."
Connections
The elder school beside which the pair set the Halifax School — Bob dates Halifax as having "started before the Winnipeg School of Communication."
Named by the Toronto group ("Jim and Toronto"), but Cameron did the research — recovering the Winnipeg roots (Rupert Lodge and others) behind it.
Takes its name from Winnipeg, where McLuhan grew up and went to school.