New Article: Gilboa and Magen, Crisis Communication Research in Israel

Gilboa, Eytan, and Clila Magen. “Crisis Communication Research in Israel. Growth and Gaps.” In The Handbook of International Crisis Communication Research (ed. Andreas Schwarz, Matthew W. Seeger, and Claudia Auer; Malden, Mass. and Oxford, UK: Wiley Blackwell, 2016): 327-36.

 

Extract

Gesser-Edelsburg and Zemach (2012) explored CC strategies used by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deal with the December 2010 Carmel forest fire disaster. Ostensibly, this crisis belongs to the national type, but the focus on the prime minister moves it to the individual crisis category… They concluded that Netanyahu made effective use of CC principles including inclusion, clarity, and addressing the public’s values and norms. They claimed, however, that those strategies were used to produce what they labeled “cover-up risk communication,” because the end result was a cover-up of a failure rather than an admission of malfunction and willingness to correct defects. The analysis is interesting but the conclusion ignored important measures applied by the government in the post-crisis era. While the government refused to admit guilt, it took immediate and bold measure to correct the defects.

 

 

New Article: Elbaz & Bar-Tal, Dissemination of Culture of Conflict in the Israeli Mass Media

Elbaz, Sagi, and Daniel Bar-Tal. “Dissemination of Culture of Conflict in the Israeli Mass Media: The Wars in Lebanon as a Case Study.” Communication Review 19.1 (2016): 1-34.
 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10714421.2016.1128185
 
Abstract

Societies involved in intractable conflicts develop cultures of conflict because of experiences that have lasting effects on every aspect of collective life. One product of these cultures is conflict-supporting narratives that provide illumination, justification, and explanation of the conflict reality. These narratives are selective, biased, and distortive, but play an important role in satisfying the basic sociopsychological needs of the society members involved. In these societies, journalists often serve as agents in the formulation and dissemination of these conflict-supporting narratives. The present study analyzes the presentations of narratives of the culture of conflict among Jewish Israeli journalists during Israeli wars in Lebanon. It elucidates the dominant themes of the narratives by content analysis of the news published in newspapers and broadcast on television. In addition, in order to reveal the practices used by journalists in obtaining, selecting, and publishing the news, in-depth interviews with journalists and politicians have been conducted.

 

 

 

New Article: Malinsky, Casualty Count Framing in the 2014 Israel–Gaza Conflict

Malinsky, Ayelet. “Death Is in the Eye of the Beholder: A Study of Casualty Count Framing in the 2014 Israel–Gaza Conflict.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 8.3 (2015): 491-502.

 

URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2015.1096653

 

Abstract

The 2014 Israel–Gaza war was the third of a string of conflicts to erupt between the State of Israel and Hamas in neighbouring Gaza and quickly became the deadliest for both sides. Even with the extensive media attention this crisis received, calls for more objective reporting were widespread, as locating sources that were not clearly influenced or reflective of political biases seemed near impossible. This paper seeks to explore the role “cultural proximity” plays in informing casualty count reporting in times of conflict. Qualitative content analysis is conducted on news coverage of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict in the American daily newspaper, The New York Times, and the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz, to assess whether significant differences exist in the way casualty figures are addressed across varying degrees of political and cultural involvement. This research reveals that variations in casualty count reporting do indeed exist across cultural and national contexts, and deems this subject worthy of further research.

 

 

 

Thesis: Hemelberg, CNN and Al-Jazeera Coverage of the Israeli-Arabic Conflict

Hemelberg, Stephany. Between the Headlines of the Israeli-Arabic Conflict: The Coverage of CNN and Al Jazeera, BA Thesis. Bogotá: Del Rosario University, 2015.

 

URL: http://repository.urosario.edu.co/handle/10336/11629

 

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the coverage made by CNN and Al Jazeera (in Arabic) to operation Caste Lead and the Goldstone Report during 2008 and 2009. This investigation is based in the theory of Qualitative Analysis of Content, by Wildemuth and Zhang. The methodology follows up with the one proposed by the authors in the main theory, complementing it with the Gamson and Modigliani´s Framing theory. The methodology mention above display the different in the coverage development, determined by the geopolitical influences; being CNN more influenced by a Western pro-USA and pro Israeli speech, while Al Jazeera is more prone to support the Palestinian cause, this is the thesis of this article. During the development of the investigation, the thesis was demonstrated to be only partially accurate as CNN was not completely supportive to the Israeli arguments during the coverage, but Al Jazeera did have preferential speech for the Palestinian cause.

 

 

 

New Article: Tenenboim-Weinblatt et al, Conflict Narratives in the Israeli News Media

Tenenboim-Weinblatt, Keren, Thomas Hanitzsch, and Rotem Nagar. “Beyond Peace Journalism. Reclassifying Conflict Narratives in the Israeli News Media.” Journal of Peace Research (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022343315609091

 

Abstract

This article presents a general framework for deconstructing and classifying conflict news narratives. This framework, based on a nuanced and contextual approach to analyzing media representations of conflict actors and events, addresses some of the weaknesses of existing classification schemes, focusing in particular on the dualistic approach of the peace journalism model. Using quantitative content analysis, the proposed framework is then applied to the journalistic coverage in the Israeli media of three Middle-Eastern conflicts: the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the conflict surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, and the Syrian civil war. The coverage is examined in three leading news outlets – Haaretz, Israel Hayom, and Ynet – over a six-month period. Based on hierarchical cluster analysis, the article identifies four characteristic types of narratives in the examined coverage. These include two journalistic narratives of violence: one inward-looking, ethnocentric narrative, and one outward-looking narrative focusing on outgroup actors and victims; and two political-diplomatic narratives: one interactional, and one outward-looking. In addition to highlighting different constellations of points of view and conflict measures in news stories, the identified clusters also challenge several assumptions underlying existing models, such as the postulated alignment between elite/official actors and violence frames.

 

 

 

New Article: Yarchi, Imagefare’ as a State’s Strategy in Asymmetric Conflicts

Yarchi, Moran. “Does Using ‘Imagefare’ as a State’s Strategy in Asymmetric Conflicts Improve Its Foreign Media Coverage? The Case of Israel.” Media, War & Conflict (early view, online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1750635215620826

 

Extract

In their 2014 article in Terrorism and Political Violence, Ayalon, Popovich and Yarchi proposed a different strategy for states to better manage asymmetric conflict, presenting the notion of ‘imagefare’ – ‘the use, or misuse, of images as a guiding principle or a substitute for traditional military means to achieve political objectives’ (p. 12). The current study tests their theoretical framework, and examines whether the use of imagefare as part of a political actor’s conflict strategy improves its foreign image as presented by its ability to promote its preferred frames to the foreign press. The study compares the foreign media’s coverage of two recent rounds of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, in one of which (operation ‘Pillar of Defence’) image considerations played a significant role in the Israeli policy-making process. Findings suggest that whenever a country uses imagefare as part of its strategy, it increases its ability to promote its preferred messages to the foreign press and to improve the country’s image.

 

 

 

New Book: Lebel & Lewin, eds. The 1973 Yom Kippur War and the Reshaping of Israeli Civil–Military Relations

Lebel, Udi, and Eyal Lewin, eds. The 1973 Yom Kippur War and the Reshaping of Israeli Civil–Military Relations. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2015.

The 1973 Yom Kippur War did not only have external implications on Israel, but also some dramatic internal implications, particularly with regards to the civil-military relations as well as the fields of psychology and political sociology. To this day, the consequences of this war are still prevalent in Israel, in terms of drafting security policies and the military doctrine.
After the war, new identities were formed in the Israeli civil society, which began to function as active agents in shaping security policy. These players are not a unique Israeli case, yet their actions in Israel serve as a case study that illuminates their significant impact in other countries as well. This is due to the fact that the “Israeli Laboratory” is a liberal democratic society living with an ongoing conflict; it has a mandatory army that is sensitive to fluctuations in public opinion, culture and the media; and issues of national security and military conduct are always a top public concern.
Consequently, this book examines the rise of five identities and agents that were formed after the 1973 War and highlights the effects they had on the formation of Israeli defense policy from then on. The book also clarifies the importance of exposure to these agents’ activities, referring to the psycho-political social factors that may actually dictate a state’s international policies. It therefore forms a study that connects sociology, political psychology, international relations, the field of culture studies and studies of strategy planning. Thus, the book is of interest to both the domestic-Israeli field of research and to the global scholarly discourse, particularly to academic disciplines engaged in civil-military relations (political sociology, political science).

 

UDI LEBEL is associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ariel University.

EYAL LEWIN is assistant professor at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science at Ariel University.

 

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  Udi Lebel and Eyal Lewin
• The Combatants’ Protest after the Yom Kippur War and the Transformation of the Protest Culture in Israel
  Eithan Orkibi
• The Significance of the Yom Kippur War as a Turning Point in the Religious-Zionist Society
  Nissim Leon
• From Domination to Competition: The Yom Kippur War (1973) and the Formation of a New Grief Community
  Udi Lebel
• Not Just Intermediaries: The Mediatization of Security Affairs in Israel since 1973
  Rafi Mann
• The 1973 War and the Formation of Israeli POW Policy: A Watershed Line?
  Alexander Bligh
• The 1973 War as a Stimulator in the Reshaping of Israeli National Ethos
  Eyal Lewin
• Index
• About the Authors

 

New Article: Magen, Media Strategies and Manipulations of Intelligence Services

Magen, Clila. “Media Strategies and Manipulations of Intelligence Services. The Case of Israel.” International Journal of Press/Politics 20.2 (2015): 247-65.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1940161214556514

 

Abstract

Existing research on the relationship between Israeli intelligence services and the media is limited and fragmented. This work attempts to fill in the gaps by shedding light on four main strategies that have been commonly implemented by the Israeli intelligence community: ambiguity and concealment of media relations, the “if you would only know” strategy, exploiting patriotism and cooptation, and information manipulations and psychological warfare. These strategies were utilized frequently by Israel’s intelligence services, and thus have had an impact on the intelligence services’ accountability. However, significant changes in Israel’s society and media have created new challenges to the intelligence services in the public sphere. This study examines these changes and differentiates between the organizations within the intelligence community, domestic and foreign, which, facing differing challenges, tailor different methods for addressing the media as a result. This paper is based on several years of research and a large database of literature, media coverage, and in-depth interviews with key figures in Israel’s intelligence community (former Mossad and Israeli Security Authority directors), senior journalists, and politicians.

New Article: Kampf & Stolero, Computerized Simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Kampf, Ronit, and  Nathan Stolero. “Computerized Simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Knowledge Gap, and News Media Use.” Information, Communication & Society 18.6 (2015): 644-58.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2014.982142 

 

Abstract

Serious games like PeaceMaker are emerging as a new medium for peace education (PE). We focus on the assessment of this computerized simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to identify the effects it might have in helping to narrow the knowledge gap between the players. In addition, we examine the role of news media use about the conflict in knowledge acquisition after playing the game. We conducted an experimental study with the participation of 185 Israeli undergraduate students of Jewish and Palestinian origin. In order to gauge the effect of the game with regard to knowledge acquisition about the conflict, we used a pre- and post-intervention experimental design and utilized questionnaires. We found that the knowledge gap between participants who held high levels of knowledge about the conflict and those who held low levels of knowledge about it before playing the game narrowed after playing it. Second, participants holding more knowledge about the conflict before playing the game were more likely to win it than those holding less knowledge. Finally, the game narrowed the knowledge gap between participants who consumed television (TV) as a major source of information about the conflict and those who did not consume it. Our results indicate that serious games like PeaceMaker are effective as a tool for PE, because they are useful in increasing knowledge about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and narrowing the knowledge gap between the players, particularly for young people who are direct parties to this conflict and native to the online world.

ToC: Hebrew Higher Education 17 (2015)

Hebrew Higher Education 17 (2015): Table of Contents

Click here to download the full issue as a PDF.

EDITOR’S NOTE

5 ADINA OFEK

 

ARTICLES

Hebrew literature over various periods

 

7-18 ESTHER HANOCH

האומנם מרחם אלוהים על ילדי הגן? אינטרפרטציה לארבעה שירי יהודה עמיחי

(Does God Pity Little Children? An Interpretation of Four Yehuda Amichi Poems)

 

19-34 TAMAR SETTER

קריאה חדשה בחיי נישואים בעקבות גילויו של רומן וינאי לדוד פוגל

(A New Reading of Married Life Following the Discovery of Viennese Romance by David Vogel)

 

35-47 MICHAL FRAM COHEN

הפילוג החסידי-מתנגדי בספר מזכרונות ימי ילדותי או מראה העיר דווינסק מאת שרה פייגה פונר: עדות היסטורית או הטיה אישית?

(The Hasidic-Mitnagdi Schism in the book Memories of My Childhood or a View of Dvinsk by Sarah Feiga Foner: Historical Testimony or Personal Bias?)

 

49-73 ABDALLAH TARABEIH and ADEL SHAKOUR

The Influence of the Letter of the Sword and the Pen by Ibn Burd on the Maḥbarot of Alharizi and Ibn Ardutiel

 

Linguistics

 

75-86 LIOR LAX

שקיפות מורפו-סמנטית ומורפו-קטגוריאלית כגורם לשינוי לשוני

(Morph-Semantic and Morpho-Categorical Transparency as a Trigger for Language Change)

 

87-99 BAT-ZION YEMINI

רטוריקה ריגושית בסוגה השימושית בלשון העיתונות

(Emotional Rhetoric in the Journalistic Instrumental Genre)

 

101-115 SHMUEL BOLOZKY and RESPONDENTS

אוריינות בעברית הישראלית ומעמד הגרוניות-לשעבר א’ ה’ ע’

(Literacy in Israeli Hebrew and the Status of the Formerly-“Guttural” ‘alef, he, and `ayin)

 

Teaching Biblical Hebrew

 

117-129 MICHAEL B. SHEPHERD

Hebrew Exegesis Worksheets

 

131-152 RAHEL HALABE

Realistic and Effective Practice and Assessment System for the Biblical Hebrew Introductory Course Teaching Modern Hebrew

 

153-158 ESTER SIMONS

שיקולים לשוניים ותוכניים בכתיבת ספרי לימוד בעברית: עדויות מן השטח

(Writing Hebrew Language Textbooks: Linguistic Considerations and Content Choices)

 

BOOK REVIEWS

159-162 ERAN BUCHALZEV

Modern Hebrew: The Past and Future of a Revitalized Language. By Norman Berdichevsky

163-167 RUTH BEN-YEHUDA ADLER

קשרים. A Text Book for Advanced Learners of Hebrew

מאת אביטל פויר, טל נורמן, שירלי מליחי, רינה קרייטמן ומיכל כהן

(Ksharim: A Text Book for Advanced Learners of Hebrew.

by Avital Feuer, Tal Norman, Shirly Malichi, Rina Kreitman and Michal Cohen)

 

169-170 RINA DONCHIN

חדשון בעברית קלה

(Hadshon: An Online Newspaper for Hebrew Learners)

 

171-173 MICHAL RAIZEN

Poetic Trespass: Writing between Hebrew and Arabic in

Israel/Palestine. By Lital Levy

 

175-180 ORA (RODRIGUE) SCHWARZWALD

The Languages of the Jews: A Sociolinguistic History. By Bernard Spolsky

 

181-183 JODY WASHBURN

Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively. Instructor

Edition. By Paul Overland

 

OTHER PUBLICATIONS IN THE SUBJECT OF HEBREW

 

185-188 HED HA’ULPAN 102-103: Table of Contents

 

189-198 HELKAT LASHON 47-46: Table of Contents

 

INFORMATION FOR CONTRIBUTERS

New Book: Oren, Fishing with the President; The Rise of the Diplomatic Spin (in Hebrew)

אורן, יצחק. לדוג עם הנשיא. עלייתו של הספין הדיפלומטי. תל אביב: רסלינג, 2014.

 

 

URL: http://resling.co.il/book.asp?book_id=806

 

Yitzhak Oren’s book examines and analyzes four dramatic events in the relationships between Israel and the United States towards the end of the 20^th century, in which the diplomatic spin dominated the chain of events: the loan guarantees crisis, Israel’s willingness to attend the Madrid Conference, the deportation of Hamas leaders, and the receipt of the loan guarantees, accompanied by a journalist speculation about “fishing with the president.” The book further diagnoses and proposes the characteristics of the diplomatic spin as a new and fascinating theoretical field. The author adds to these case studies his personal perspective, as one who experiences the events from within the Prime Minister’s office.

Dr. Yitzhak Oren teaches political science and public diplomacy at the Academic College of Emek Yezreel and Haifa University. In the past he was a political advisor to Prime Ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin, as well as an envoy for US congress matters at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. and an Ambassador in Nigeria.