The Property Tax Relief for the Elderly: A Survey of the Nation

This article investigates various methods that states have employed to provide property tax relief to their senior citizens and evaluates their effectiveness. The pros and cons of homestead exemptions, different credit and rebate programs, deferral programs, property tax freezes, reverse mortgages, and other programs are explored. Twenty-two pages of comparative charts are included for comparison purposes

Review of recent literature on individualized instruction in the intermediate grades

This survey of literature in the field of individualized instruction has been undertaken in the hope of finding helpful information on how this individualization can best be accomplished

Innis and the Emergence of Canadian Communication/Media Studies

The discussion in this paper examines the influence of Harold Innis’ medium theory on contemporary media and communication scholarship in Canada and abroad. The methodological construction of Innis’ medium theory comprises several dimensions including: media bias; the exercising of power through the use and control of media; the bias of communication media toward favouring control over space and control through time; the role of governance in overcoming the bias inherent in media; a materialist understanding of civilizations; space-media outpacing time-media; and dialectics. In this paper particular attention is given to two issues. The first is the connections between Innis’ political economy approach and the work of Marshall McLuhan on the one hand, and the ecological studies of David Suzuki on the other. Both McLuhan and Suzuki, it is argued, may be seen as filling in important gaps in Innis’ work. The second focuses on the reasons why Innis’ medium theory has struck a chord with the Canadian psyche. This stands in stark contrast to the apparent neglect of Innis’ work within American media and communication scholarship

‘Poster Meets Innis: Poststructuralism and the Possibility of Political Economy’

This is the fifth and final column in the Topia series exploring intersections between political economy and cultural studies. The column in Topia 15 (Babe 2006: 91-101) documents the tendency on the part of mainstream American communication/media scholars—from John Dewey in the first decades of the 20th century to postmodernist writers of today—to obscure to the vanishing point concerns and methods of political economy. The earlier column suggests that “readers should scrutinize carefully the writings of contemporary poststructuralist/postmodernist authoritative figures to determine just where they stand on issues of political economy” (98). That is precisely what we do here: we focus on the American poststructuralist Mark Poster and compare his writings to the media analysis of Canadian political economist Harold Innis