Israeli Newspapers Research Articles

BETWEEN GULAGS AND PRIDE PARADES

Informed by feminist and queer scholarship debates on sexuality, migration, and the nation, this article examines the role of violence—in particular, homophobic hate speech—in negotiating immigrant belonging through sexuality. The article is based on my ethnographic study of Russian-speaking queers who arrived in Israel from the former Soviet Union. My discussion starts from one ethnographic moment—a homophobic poem published in 2002 in a leading Russian Israeli newspaper. The poem condemned the 2002 Pride parade as blasphemous and blamed the marchers for endangering the Jewish nation, which was depicted as fighting for survival. The poem's offensive language was haunted by ghosts of a violent Soviet past, evoked through Soviet criminal jargon and intertextual references to gulag memoirs where same-sex relations were described as disgusting and monstrous. Following Judith Butler's notion of performativity, I approach homophobic hate speech as a form of performative violence that constitutes, rather than simply expresses or devastates, individual and collective subjectivities of “queers,” “Russian immigrants,” “Jews,” and “Israelis.” Yet I also complicate the performative take by engaging with Avery Gordon's notion of haunting. Understanding haunting and its effects, I argue, is essential when reading immigrants' acts of claiming the nation through rejecting or embracing queer sexualities. Exploring how the ghosts of the Soviet gulags do not simply migrate through time and space but also change and meddle with the realities of today's Israel, this article conceptualizes hate speech as a form of affective sociality.

An Army of Housewives: Women's Wartime Columns in Two Mainstream Israeli Newspapers

At the height of Israel's 1948 war, women's columns in the newspapers Ha'aretz and Ma'ariv offered readers advice, stories, and letters. They focused on domestic practices such as preparing food, sewing clothes, dressing fashionably and providing comfort. At first glance, they completely ignored the war raging around them. However, this essay shows that the columnists portrayed housewives' roles, no less than men's frontline fighting, as an important part of the nation's wartime effort. The columnists and their responding readers took the housewives' domestic practices, which made them seem so unfit for battle and turned them into a battlefield of their own. Through these feminine roles, seemingly irrelevant during wartime, they produced their own set of heroines, saviors and victims. Although most of the columnists' advice fell into line with the Zionist nationalist and militarist climate of 1948, this essay shows that the women's columns revealed a few surprising voices of dissention. Finally, the style and content of the columns did not differ greatly from those of women in other wartime settings in the 1930s and 1940s. Rather, their domestic nationalism in wartime followed the pattern of housewives elsewhere in the world.

Female Suicide Bombers: Israeli Newspaper Reporting and the Public Construction of Social Reality

This paper examines the construction of the image of female suicide bombers in Israeli newspapers during the Second Intifada. A comparative analysis was conducted of descriptions of male and female suicide bombers in 436 press reports. The results demonstrated significant gender differences in almost all of the categories that were examined. For example, the frequency of references to the terrorists’ external appearance was higher for women than for men. Additionally, female terrorists who were arrested were often described as crying or screaming, whereas only the rare male terrorist was described as exhibiting the same behavior. This analysis shows that reports tend to use basic interpretation patterns to ‘define reality’ and include a nucleus of cultural and cognitive metaphors for women in general and for Palestinian women in particular. Public narratives construct these women by highlighting particular versions of ‘otherness’ as victims of circumstance; that is, from their despondent and low familial status within Palestinian society.

Media oracles

As noted by Jaworski et al. (2003a, 2003b, 2004), a significant amount of news items refer to future events. This article examines the `discourse of the future' in order to identify its extent and different types. The research examined headlines in Israeli newspapers over a period of 18 years (1985—2003) and found that approximately 70 percent of the main headlines deal not only with past events but with future ones as well. Thus, contrary to the conventional perception of journalism, this type of journalism does not report what has already happened, but speculates on future events, whether directly or by quoting military or political figures. The qualitative analysis suggests four types of discourse of the future: Predictable Future, Informed Assessment, Speculative Assessment, and Conjectured Future. During the last two decades, we can witness a gradual rise of speculation levels. `The discourse of the future' carries cultural significance and political import. From the cultural standpoint, journalists encourage us to raise questions regarding the future of the community: What will happen next? Where do we go from here, in the short, medium and long term? What are our hopes? What do we fear most? Nevertheless, in the highest levels of speculation, such discourse bears political import because it provides fertile ground for releasing trial balloons, magnifying threats, creating solidarity, and justifying acts of government.

Small Investment and Large Returns: Terrorism, Media and the Economy

This study investigates the role of the media to the impact of terrorism on the economy. A unique data set of 3045 articles published in major Israeli newspapers covering 180 terrorist attacks was used to evaluate their impact on the Tel Aviv stock market in 2002. We perform an econometric analysis of editorial decision making regarding the articles' placement and print characteristics: number of articles, front page, pictures and large headlines. We found that media coverage is the main channel by which terrorism produces economic damage: i.e., media coverage was the only explanatory variable found to be significant in the equation explaining the economic damage incurred. The economic damage caused increases monotonically with the amount media coverage. For a given terror attack, the greater its media coverage, the greater the economic damage caused. We also found that the impact of the media coverage of terrorism on the economy decreased over time.

TELLING “OUR” STORY THROUGH NEWS OF TERRORISM

The central point of this article is that journalists accomplish their work through a narrative duality. During everyday news, journalists apply a professional narrative that represents a balance between their core journalistic values and the social pressures from their working world. When society's core values are under threat—such as with physical or political violence or terrorist attacks—journalists switch to a cultural narrative that moves the public mind back toward the dominant cultural order. US and Israeli newspaper coverage of two terrorist events in Israel was analyzed to explore this idea. The analysis suggests that when news about terrorism is culturally proximate, the professional narrative tends to lead. When terrorism is culturally remote, however, cultural narratives must be relied on more heavily to assist journalists’ sense-making, and the news is more mythically-laden. Findings show that cultural affinity affects the choice of myth used, with distant events more tied to cultural references.

Competing Actors and the Construction of Political News: The Contest Over Waves in Israel

The study is meant to provide a more actor-oriented approach to the construction of political news by looking at the competition over news exposure during political waves in Israel. Political waves are sudden and significant changes in the political environment that are characterized by a substantial increase in the amount of public attention centered on a political issue or event. A theoretical model is presented that attempts to explain who initiates political waves, which types of waves provide the most opportunities for the participation of different types of political actors, and which actors are in the best position to be included when different types of waves are covered in the news media. Four major hypotheses are developed that focus on both the nature of the wave and the individual characteristics of the political actors who are competing for exposure. Among the most important individual traits are charismatic communication skills, political standing, and the extent to which the individual can be thematically linked to the wave topic. The research employed two primary sets of data. The first set of data came from a content analysis of news articles that appeared in two major Israeli newspapers over one full year. Thirty-nine separate waves emerged from this analysis. The second set of data contains individual assessments of 91 legislators who were elected to 14th Knesset. All of the major hypotheses were confirmed.

When Literature Meets the Press: Trends in the Literary Supplements of Daily Newspapers in Israel, from the 1950s to the 1990s

This paper examines trends and changes in the Israeli literary supplements, investigates the tense relationship between literature and the printed media, and outlines the social and cultural processes that literary supplements reflect and echo. The research analyzed a sample of 540 literary supplements published in five main newspapers in Israel over a period of fifty years, since the establishment of the state in 1948. In addition, twelve interviews were conducted with present and former editors of the literary supplements. Two main trends—one relates to "form" while the other to "matter"—can be identified in the literary supplements within the fifty years of Israel's statehood. The first trend is shrinkage in their size; the second trend can generally be referred to as "popularization." This has led to the inclusion of pulp literature in literary supplements. As a consequence, literary supplements are in transition from progressive "mini literary periodicals" that publish new works of young writers to a mid-stream conservative supplement that does not take risks.

The Secular Holy Scriptures

This article investigates the tension between the sacred and the secular in the modern press, by examining the role of the holiday literary supplements. It analyzed a sample of 1050 supplements, published in seven main newspapers in Israel over a period of 52 years, since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. In addition, a dozen interviews were conducted with present and former editors of the literary supplements. The main argument is that the literary supplements constitute a secular ritual. Speaking broadly we may call these literary supplements `The Secular Holy Scriptures'. This argument stems from the timing of publishing these supplements (every holiday eve); the writers featured (first-rank authors); the themes and subjects dealt with ('festive' and `high culture' topics); and the significance they acquire, over and above the weekday issues and other sections of holiday editions. Although the case study focuses on Israeli daily newspapers, we believe that, with some adjustments, the main arguments can be usefully applied to other cultures as well, to throw light on the role of the media in the creation of modern culture and civil religion.

“I Buy American”: The American Image as Reflected in Israeli Advertising

Analysis of advertisements in Israeli newspapers over the past decade has shown that American symbols have been widely used to market an array of consumer goods. Products made in America, Israel, or other countries are marketed with some sort of American angle by invoking America's values, symbols, landscapes, or lifestyle. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, we analyzed how central components of the nation-state/national sphere—language, flag, political leaders, borders, landscapes, and sights—are reflected in advertising. We attempt to show how social values metamorphose, shedding their “Israeliness” and taking on an American veneer. Using Israel as an example may provide a test case for the Americanization process in other societies at the turn of the millennium.

The Israeli Newspapers' Coverage of Israeli Arabs during the Intifada

(2002). The Israeli Newspapers' Coverage of Israeli Arabs during the Intifada. Israel Affairs: Vol. 9, No. 1-2, pp. 185-211.

Science and war. The conflict in the Middle East has started a discussion in academic circles about the responsibility of scientists in times of political turmoil.

‘The intifada reaches the ivory tower’, proclaimed the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz in its May 15 issue. Indeed it has. The shockwaves from Palestinian suicide bombings and Israel's war against terrorism in the West Bank territory are reverberating through scientific and educational organisations around the world. The trigger for the headline was an open letter, published on April 6 in the British daily newspaper The Guardian and signed by more than 130 scientists from Europe and Israel. It called for a moratorium on further European cooperation with Israeli scientific and cultural institutions ‘until Israel abides by UN resolutions and opens serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians […].’ The letter created a flurry of further petitions for and against a boycott as well as articles and editorials in European and Israeli newspapers. The waves of the debate finally reached the secluded shores of various science islands in Europe and the scientific journals at the beginning of May, when Nature devoted its editorial to the topic. The journal has since published correspondence both for and against an academic boycott. The scientists calling for a boycott are dismayed with Israel's incursions into the West Bank and its treatment of the Palestinian population. They think that the political community, particularly the US government and the EU, is not doing enough to restrain either side from further escalating the spiral of violence and thus call for additional pressure on the Israeli government. ‘We view the situation as in the case of the South African boycott,’ explained Steven Rose, a neurobiologist and Director of the Brain and Behaviour Research Group at the Open University in the UK, and the initiator of the open letter. ‘I feel that the civil society has to stand up and do something about it. […] There are ways in which we …

Still Photographs, Dynamic Memories: A Study of the Visual Presentation of Israel s Past in Commemorative Newspaper Supplements

This article investigates the ways in which Israel s history was presented via photographs and texts in commemorative supplements of three Israeli newspapers marking the country s anniversaries.

Making a Good Impression

While many studies have investigated what social and political movement actions are covered by the mass media from a largely event-based media routine perspective and many studies have investigated what activists want to say, few studies have looked into the signaling process by which movements let media know when the movement has information it wishes to express. In particular, there has been little quantitative methodological research on the critical link that press releases provide between movements and media. Are movement press releases more likely to be covered by the news media when the press releases are of good quality? Using Israeli newspaper coverage of two Israeli peace movements and press releases by the two groups, the author tested the relevance of knowing the attributes of a press release independent of event-based information. After controlling for time, place, and manner information that can be derived from an event-based approach, information that can be derived either solely from press releases or most accurately from press releases remained significant predictors of newspaper coverage. Peace movement press releases that (1) emphasize socially resonant themes,(2) emphasize the movement’s possession of new factual data, (3) have short and informative titles, (4) are part of a group of releases on the same issue or event, and (5) are written or presented by the movement’s regular spokesperson are more likely to be reflected in newspaper media coverage.

Negotiated and Mediated Meanings: Ethnicity and Politics in Israeli Newspapers

In this article the author explores the ways in which the media articulate discursive structure and lived experience through an analysis of the coverage of the 1999 Israeli national elections in one Israeli newspaper. Recent changes in Israeli electoral law unleashed new social forces that granted major political influence to ethnic parties. The renewed salience of (Jewish) ethnicity clashes, however, with dominant discourses of national identity, according to which a unitary Israeli identity subsumes particularistic Jewish ethnicities, while silencing Palestinian identity. Such changes imply an important role for the Israeli media, which has traditionally marked identity difference through distinct regimes for the expression and control of affect. The author examines constructions of affect, and their inscription onto particular social identities, in Yediot Ahronot , Israel's widest-circulation daily.

Religious Newspapers in Israel: A Rhetorical Perspective

Religious Newspapers in Israel: A Rhetorical Perspective

“Things you Can See from there you Can’t See from Here”

This article focuses on the theory of globalization and its relevance to the coverage of the Olympic games based both on a theoretical discussion and the author’s empirical study of the 1992 Barcelona games. Employing content analysis, supplemented with interviews with journalists, it examines, comparatively, the buildup and coverage in British and Israeli newspapers in the context of the theoretical discussion. The findings of the empirical analysis show that despite the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) declarations, which in essence go toward a united world, the local—in this case national—perspective was the prevailing one in the coverage of this global event.

Leading Israeli newspaper collection to be digitised

Leading Israeli newspaper collection to be digitised

Gender Issues in Newspaper Coverage of People with Disabilities: A Canada-Israel Comparison

ABSTRACT This research compared how over a three-month period Canadian and Israeli newspapers wrote about females and males with disabilities. The results showed that in both countries there was significantly greater coverage of males than females. In addition, different (and stereotypical) types of details were used to describe the two groups, and females were associated with different kinds of problems than males, including a higher incidence of violence and victimization. There were also some significant differences between the male and female journalists in this study, and evidence of sexism within the newspaper industry. This paper concludes with some ideas for altering the images of disabled women in the media.

Processing inflected morphology in second language word recognition: Russian-speakers and English-speakers read Hebrew

This paper reports on an investigation into the morphosyntactic processing of second language (L2) learners who differ in terms of language learning experience. The chief area of interest was the relationship of L2 learning patterns and experience to the acquisition of automatized processing skills in the morphological domain. English- and Russian-native speakers of Hebrew as L2 were assessed on their sensitivity to complex morphological structures which do not exist in their respective native languages (L1). The Hebrew word formation rule which was the focus of investigation was the affixation of prepositions to nouns, resulting in single words which are also full prepositional phrases. In both English and Russian, prepositions and nouns in prepositional phrases must be autonomous. Participants named high frequency words of one (e.g., /parah/ ‘cow’) and three morphemes (e.g., /bakis/ ‘in the pocket’), which were presented in a control condition and also presented in conditions which either preserved or disrupted the natural morpheme boundaries through the manipulation of font-size. In addition to the experimental measure, participants were also asked to read an expositional passage from a popular Israeli newspaper. Results showed that the Russians, although significantly more accurate than the English speakers at text reading, were significantly less accurate and slower than the English at the naming task, and less impaired by the experimental manipulations. The results are discussed in terms of automaticity, print exposure and age of L2 acquisition.