HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor) and 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: Israel Studies

Semester: 2nd Semester

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Prof Paul Frosh

Coordinator Email: paul.frosh@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours:

Teaching Staff:

Course/Module description:
This course explores the relationship between Israeli society and the media (e.g newspapers, radio, television, the internet and social network platforms). We will ask such questions as: What has been the role of media in the task of nation-building and the creation of a national culture and identity? How have media responded to a context of continual violent conflict, including wars, terrorism and military emergencies, and to what extent have they been censored or self-censored? How have they been influenced and how have they contributed to social integration and multiculturalism in the context of continual immigration and religious and ethnic differences? How have media affected the collective memory of Israelis? And have Israeli media become agents of commercialization and Americanization or are they bastions of home-grown creativity?

Course/Module aims:
The course combines a range of textual, sociological and cultural approaches and theories in order to explore the links between Israelli society and the media.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
To explain the major theories, histories and topics in research on media, particularly in the context of Israeli politics, culture and society.
To achieve a high level of competence in conceptualizing the communicative, social, political and cultural connections between media and Israeli society.
To produce in-depth critical readings of advanced theoretical writings and research in the field.
To compare and contrast relevant thinkers and schools of thought and to interpret and evaluate their points of similarity and difference.

Attendance requirements(%):
100

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Lectures

Course/Module Content:
1. Introduction – Narratives of Media History

2. Media and Modern Societies: General Overviews


3-4. Media and Nationhood


5. Politics and Israeli Media 1: Consensus, Censorship, Professional Norms


6. Politics and Israeli Media 2: Democracy and the Public Sphere


7-8. Politics and Israeli Media 3: Coverage and Discussion of the Arab-Israeli Conflict


9. Multiculturalism, Immigration, and Centre-Periphery Relations


10-11. Media, Social Values and Collective Memory


12-13. Globalization, Popular Culture and Israeli Identity

Required Reading:
Thompson J. B. (1995) “The Media and the Development of Modern Societies” in The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of the Media. Cambridge, Polity Press: 44-80. ERESERVE 001363497


Liebes, T. (2000) “Performing a Dream and its Dissolution: A Social History of Broadcasting in Israel” in Curran J. and Park, M. De-Westernizing Media Studies. Routlegde, London and New York: 305-323. ERESERVE 001363506

Oren, T. (2003) “The Belly Dancer Strategy: Israeli Educational Television and its Alternatives”. Media, Culture & Society, 25 (2): 167–186.ERESERVE 001362191

Peri, Y. (2004) Telepopulism: Media and Politics in Israel. Stanford University Press. Chapter 4 “The History of Media-Politics Relations in Israel” pp. 73-93.
E301.161 P441

Meyers, O. (2005) “Israeli Journalism During the State’s Formative Era: Between Ideological Affiliation and Professional Consciousness”. Journalism History 31(2): 88-97. ERESERVE 001362201

Katz, E. (1996) “And Deliver Us From Segmentation”, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 546: 22-33.

Tennenboim-Weinblatt, K. (2008) “’We Will Get Through This Together’: Journalism, Trauma and the Israeli Disengagement from the Gaza Strip”, Media, Culture and Society 30(4): 495-513. E-JOURNAL


Bloch, L. (2000) “Mobile Discourse: Political Bumper Stickers as a Communication Event in Israel”. Journal of Communication 50: 48-76 ERESERVE 001362215


John, N. and Dvir-Gvirsman, S. (2015) “I Don’t Like You Any More”: Facebook Unfriending by Israelis During the Israel–Gaza Conflict of 2014. Journal of Communication 65: 953–974.

Kunstman, A. and Stein, R. (2015) When Instagram Went to War. Chapter 1 in Digital Militarism: Israel’s Occupation in the Social Media Age. Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp. 10-20.

Frosh, P. and Wolfsfeld, G. (2007) “ImagiNation: News Discourse, Nationhood and Civil Society”. Media, Culture & Society, vol. 29, no. 1, 2007, p. 105-129 ERESERVE 001363871

Avraham, E. (2003) “Press, Politics, and the Coverage of Minorities in Divided Societies: The Case of Arab Citizens in Israel”. Harvard Journal of Press/Politics 8 (4): 7-26. RESERVE 001362271

Neiger, M. (2011) “Cultural Oxymora: The Israeli Idol Negotiates Meanings and Readings.” Television & New Media 13(6): 535–550.

Myers, O., Zandberg, E. and Neiger, M. (2009) “Prime Time Commemoration: An Analysis of Television Broadcasts on Israel’s Memorial Day for the Holocaust and the Heroism”. Journal of Communication 59: 456–480.

Ebenstein, R. (2003) “Remembered Through Rejection: Yom HaShoah in the Ashkenazi Haredi Daily Press, 1950–2000”. Israel Studies 8(3): 141-167. ERESERVE 001362291

Avraham, E. and First, A. (2003) “’I Buy American’: The American Image as Reflected in Israeli Advertising”. Journal of Communication : 282-299. ERESERVE 001362297

Sznaider, N. (2000) ‘Consumerism as a Civilizing Process: Israel and Judaism in the Second Age of Modernity’. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 14(2): 297-314.ERESERVE 001362301

Frosh, P. (2005) ‘Penetrating Markets, Fortifying Fences: Advertising, Consumption and Violent National Conflict’. Paper presented to the International Communication Association Conference, New York. ERESERVE 001381748

Additional Reading Material:
Benkler, Y. (2006) Introduction: A Moment of Opportunity and Challenge. Chapter 1 in The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press (1-28).
Available for download as a PDF file from:
http://www.benkler.org/wealth_of_networks/index.php/Download_PDFs_of_the_book

Lazarsfeld, P. and Merton, R. (1971) “Mass Communication, Popular Taste and Organized Social Action” in Schramm & Robert (eds) The Processes and Effects of Mass Communication. Urbana, University of Illinois Press: 459-480. ERESERVE 001362190
Also in: Marris P. and Thornham S. (eds) Media Studies: A Reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press: 18-30. Main Library P 91 M389 1999

Nossek H. and Limor Y. (2001) “Fifty Years in a ‘Marriage of Convenience’: News Media and Military Censorship in Israel”. Communication Law and Policy 6 (1): 1-35. ERESERVE 001363511

Mann, R (2013) Beyond the Military Sphere. Media History. 19:2, 169-181.

Weimann, Gabriel, Sheafer, Tamir and Yariv Tsfati. (2007). “The Media and the 2006 Election Campaign: The Needs of the Public and the Media's Performance”. In Arian, Asher and Michal Shamir (Eds.), The Israeli Elections 2006, Jerusalem: The Israel Democracy Institute. JMS JQ 1825 I865 A7453 2008

Liebes, T, and Peri, Y. (1998) “Electronic Journalism in Segmented Societies: Lessons from the 1996 Israeli Elections”. Political Communication 15: 27-43.
E-JOURNAL

Liebes, T. (1999) “Displacing the News: The Israeli Talkshow as Public Space”. Gazette 61 (2) 113-125. RESERVE 001362214


Liebes, T and Kampf Z. (2009) “Black and White and Shades of Grey: Palestinians in the Israeli News During the Second Intifada”, International Journal of Press and Politics 14(4): 434-453. E-JOURNAL

Tenenboim-Weinblatt, K. (2011) “Mediated Negotiations: A Case Study of a Transcultural Exchange between Lebanon and Israel”. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 8(2): 165-185.

Wolfsfeld, G. (2004) Media and the Path to Peace. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 4 “The Palestinians and the Israeli Media”, pp. 104-136. ME301.161 W861

Wolfsfeld, G. (1997) “The Varying Role of the News Media in the Arab-Israeli Peace Process”. Political Communication 14: 29-48. E-JOURNAL

Neiger, M. and Zandberg, E. (2004) “Days of Awe: The Praxis of News Coverage During National Crisis”. Communications 29: 429-446 ERESERVE 001362260

Orgad. S (2009) “Watching How Others Watch Us: The Israeli Media’s Treatment of International Coverage of the Gaza War”, The Communication Review 12(3) 250-261.
E-JOURNAL.

Nossek, H. (1994) “The Narrative Role of the Holocaust and the State of Israel in the Coverage of Salient Terrorist Events in the Israeli Press”. Journal of Narrative and Life History 4 (1&2): 119-134. RESERVE 001362186

Adoni, H., Cohen, A. and Caspi, D. (2002) “The Consumer’s Choice: Language, Media Consumption and Hybrid Identities of Minorities”. Communications 27: 411-436. ERESERVE 001362255

Caspi, D., Adoni, H., Cohen, A. and Elias, N. (2002) “The Red, the White and the Blue: The Russian Media in Israel”. Gazette 64 (6): 537-556. ERESERVE 001362275

Pinchevski A., Liebes T. and Herman, O. (2007) “Eichmann on the Air: Radio and the Making of an Historic Trial”, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 27(1): 1-25. E-JOURNAL

Katz, E., Haas, H. and Gurevich, M. (1997) “Twenty Years of Television in Israel: Are There Long-run Effects on Values, Social Connectedness and Cultural Practices?”. Journal of Communication 47 (2): 3-20. E-JOURNAL

Peri, Y. (1999) “The Media and Collective Memory of Yitzhak Rabin’s Remembrance”. Journal of Communication 49: 106-124. RESERVE 001362284

Azaryahu, M (2000) “McIsrael? On the ‘Americanization’ of Israel. Israel Studies 5 (1): 41-64. RESERVE 001362299

Pinchevski, A. and Torgovnik, E. (2002) “Signifying Passages: The Signs of Change in Israeli Street Names”. Media, Culture & Society 24 (3): 365-388. ERESERVE 001362287

Frosh, P. and and Tsapovksy, F. (2015) Television Audiences and Transnational Nostalgia: Mad Men in Israel. Media, Culture and Society, 37(5): 784–799.

Peri, Y. (2004) Telepopulism: Media and Politics in Israel. Stanford University Press. Chapter 1 “The Media Revolution of the 1990s” pp. 13-32 AND Chapter 2 “Television and Popular Culture” pp. 33-51. E301.161 P441

Katz, E. and Liebes, T. (1990) “Interacting with ‘Dallas’: Cross Cultural Readings of American TV”, Canadian Journal of Communication. 15(1, Winter): 45-66. ERESERVE 001362294

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 20 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 70 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 10 %
Attendance and participation in discussions

Additional information: