ToC: Israel Affairs 21.2 (2015) – special issue: Israel at the Polls 2013

 

Israel Affairs, Volume 21, Issue 2, April 2015 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

Special Issue: Israel at the Polls 2013: Continuity and Change in Israeli Political Culture

This new issue contains the following articles:

Articles
The Run-Up to Israel’s 2013 Elections: A Political History
Manfred Gerstenfeld
Pages: 177-194
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008240

The Peculiar Victory of The National Camp in the 2013 Israeli Election
Arie Perliger & Eran Zaidise
Pages: 195-208
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008243

‘Something new begins’ – religious Zionism in the 2013 elections: from decline to political recovery
Anat Roth
Pages: 209-229
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008238

An uneasy stability: the Haredi parties’ emergency campaign for the 2013 elections
Nissim Leon
Pages: 230-244
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008241

The political transformation of the Israeli ‘Russian’ street in the 2013 elections
Vladimir (Ze’ev) Khanin
Pages: 245-261
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008244

The Transmigration of Media Personalities and Celebrities to Politics: The Case of Yair Lapid
Rafi Mann
Pages: 262-276
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008239

‘New politics’, new media – new political language? A rhetorical perspective on candidates’ self-presentation in electronic campaigns in the 2013 Israeli elections
Eithan Orkibi
Pages: 277-292
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008242

The 2013 Israeli elections and historic recurrences
Eyal Lewin
Pages: 293-308
DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1008245

New Book: Ribke, A Genre Approach to Celebrity Politics

Ribke, Nahuel. Righteous A Genre Approach to Celebrity Politics. Global Patterns of Passage from Media to Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

 

 

The study of celebrities has been the focus of several works from two main fields: Cultural Studies and Political Communication. But up until now, such works have produced only fragmented views of links between celebrity culture, the entertainment industries, and the political systems, which this book attempts to transcend. Analyzing the movement of celebrities to politics, this book contributes to a thorough understanding of the links between media industries and the political system, providing tools for grasping the varied ways in which media capital is converted into electoral power. To achieve this goal, Nahuel Ribke has assembled a wide range of data from the United States, Brazil and Israel, providing a complex comparative view of the migration of celebrities to politics, which incorporates a historical and cultural analysis, an examination of the respective political institutions, as well as an understanding of the impact local cultural industries had on the development of celebrity politics.

 

Table of Contents

1. Celebrity Politics: A Theoretical and Historical Perspective
PART I: TELEVISION CELEBRITIES AND ISRAELI POLITICS
2. Female Models in Israeli Politics: From the Runway to TV, and from the Small Screen to the Knesset
3. Like Father Like Son: Converting Media Capital into Political Power (Or, How an Israeli TV Presenter Became Finance Minister)
PART II: MAKING MUSIC MATTER: THE ELECTORAL POLITICS OF POP CELEBRITY IN LATIN AMERICA
4. Tropicalizing Politics: Gilberto Gil’s perplexing Miscegenation of Music and Politics
5. The Harvard Lawyer against The Bad Boy from Bronx: Explaining the Political Performance Gaps Between Rubén Blades and Willie Colón
PART III: CINEMA CELEBRITIES IN AMERICAN POLITICS
6. The American Pattern of Celebrity Politics: From ‘Military’ Role Model to Civilian Hero?
7. Entertainment Industries and ‘Liberal’ Celebrities: The Failure of Converting Attention into Political Power
PART IV: CELETOID POLITICS: VICTIMS, HEROES AND ORDINARY PEOPLE AS A VALUABLE ELECTORAL ASSET
8. Juan Carlos Blumberg and the Populism of Fear Politics in Argentina: Converting Mediatic Crimes into Political Capital
9. Reality Shows and Celebrity Politics: An Accelerated Platform for Rookie Politicians?
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index

 

NAHUEL RIBKE obtained his PhD from Tel Aviv University in 2010. His doctoral thesis examines the emergence and expansion of the Globo Television Network during the military regime in Brazil (1965-1985) through the analysis of historical, political, economic, cultural and technological aspects of television work. His research interests cover Institutional and Cultural Processes through Latin American Mass Media, Celebrity Politics and Mass Media History.

 

 

 

New Article: Girsh, Israeli Adolescents’ Views of Heroes and Celebrities

Girsh, Yaron. “Between My Mother and the Big Brother: Israeli Adolescents’ Views of Heroes and Celebrities.” Journal of Youth Studies 17.7 (2014): 916-929.

 

URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13676261.2014.881984

 

 

Abstract

Sociological interest in popular culture has contributed much to our understanding of heroes and celebrities as promoted by the media in a macro-cultural sense. However, knowledge of how individuals interpret these processes and the characters promoted thereby is lacking. Based on 44 group interviews with Jewish adolescents in 12 Israeli high schools, this study explores youth attitudes toward heroes and celebrities, including how they are differentiated from one another, and the cultural, social, and personal meanings associated with them. In contrast to prevalent social conceptions, and offering a differing focus from that of previous research, this article argues that the characters promoted by the media have little meaning for adolescents. Moreover, adolescents view celebrity worship as a phenomenon that threatens one’s identity. A few celebrities do gain the title of hero, however, thus shifting the traditional dichotomy between hero and celebrity toward a more nuanced position on the continuum. These findings undermine the moral panic accompanying celebrity worship and the place of celebrities in adolescents’ lives, and challenge the analytical hero-celebrity dichotomy.

 

 

New Article: Ribke, Female Fashion Models’ Transition into Israeli Politics

Ribke, Nahuel. “Modeling Politics? Female Fashion Models’ Transition into Israeli Politics.” European Journal of Culturla Studies 17.2 (2014): 170-186.

 

URL: http://ecs.sagepub.com/content/17/2/170

 

Abstract

This article analyses the recent phenomenon of the passage of former models/television hosts into Israeli politics. The transition of these former models into politics can be seen as part of a wider phenomenon of Israeli media celebrities’ transition to professional politics. Despite the wide media coverage and the heated public debates around the fashion models’ candidacy, until now there has been no serious analysis of this phenomenon. Distancing itself from the popular derogatory approaches toward the participation of celebrities in politics, this study proposes to examine their entry into the political sphere seriously, incorporating a cultural and historical perspective along with an analysis of the dynamics of ethnic and gender relations in Israeli politics.