Zohar Kampf

“It Gets Better”: Internet memes and the construction of collective identity:

In September 2010, a video titled “It Gets Better” was uploaded to YouTube, responding to suicides of gay teens who had suffered from homophobic bullying. Before long, thousands of Internet users added their own versions of the clip, creating a mass appeal to young people while simultaneously negotiating the norms of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) collective identity. Conceptualizing this body of videos as an Internet meme, we examine the extent to which participants imitate or alter textual components presented in previous videos. A combined quantitative and qualitative analysis of 200 clips shows that in an arena ostensibly free of formal gatekeepers, participants tend to police themselves, toeing the line with conformist norms. We also identify domains of potential subversion, related not only to the content of the videos but mainly to the forms facilitated by digital media.

Routinizing Terror: Media Coverage and Public Practices in Israel, 2000-2005:

This article argues that counterintuitively, the unrelenting multivictim terrorist attacks on Israel between 1996 and 2004 did not bring about a linear escalation in the intensity of media coverage nor in the demoralization of the public, as seen in the changes in daily routine and in the radicalization of political attitudes. By the use of a combined index based on the length of television’s disaster marathons, their viewing rates, and the extent of changes in the daily lives and the political attitudes of Israelis (drawing on secondary analysis of various sources), the authors distinguish between two periods in terms of the impact of terror. In the first period, from1996 to the end of 2002, they observed a relatively strong effect in all the indicators mentioned above. From the beginning of 2003, in spite of the continuing high frequency of the attacks, the authors see a process of routinization apparent in all our indicators, on the part of the media and of the public.

Black and White and Shades of Gray Palestinians in the Israeli Media During the 2nd Intifada

An examination of the Israeli media coverage of Palestinians during the 2nd Intifada demonstrates a new openness, not compatible with the “crisis routine” of rallying around the flag. Fifteen years earlier, in the 1st Intifada, Palestinians were altogether excluded from the screen. This time round, in spite of the higher level of violence, the Israeli public was exposed to their human side—as political leaders, victims, witnesses, and even terrorists. The authors’ analysis of news photos and television representations (2000—2005) reveals that during the 2nd Intifada coverage was expanded to include a broad range of Palestinian figures. Alongside traditional framing, Palestinians are also seen as ordinary people living under occupation, often as direct victims of the Israeli military. Analysis of the relationship among these images (including their textual framing), with their implied readers and with “real” readers with ideological preconceptions, leads to arguing that the emotional appeal of the varied representation calls into question the understanding of the conflict as a fixated black-and-white dichotomy. The authors suggest reasons for this new media openness. In conclusion, the authors point to the ways in which their model can facilitate an understanding of images of the “other” side in armed conflicts.

Performance Journalism: The Case of Media's Coverage of War and Terror

We argue that the move from print to broadcast has brought about new modes of reporting. Rather than observe events from the wings, contemporary journalists often perform as active agents on stage, sometimes even playing the role of protagonists in the story. Such new journalistic practices are particularly significant at times of conflict; a moment in which the relationship among media, public, and government is challenged. We demonstrate these modes by two interrelated subgenres of performance journalism: embedded-ness and chasing after terrorists. In contradiction to the common perception according to which ‘embedding’ is patriotic and ‘talking-to-the enemy’ is subservice, we claim that both are indifferent to the traditional dichotomy of patriotism versus professionalism.

Journalists as actors in social dramas of apology

During recent decades, the abundance of apologies made by public actors has lent credence to the claim that we are living in the age of apology. The extensive coverage of these gestures by the press in many cases aroused heated public struggles over the norm transgressed and the future of the transgressor in the public arena. This article analyzes the reasons for the interest taken by journalists in covering and generating apology discourse, the active role played by them at each stage of what I term ‘social dramas of apology’ (SDA), and the professional implications stemming from their involvement. The study analyzes 559 SDA that emerged in Israeli public discourse from 1997 to 2004. The findings suggest that journalists’ active involvement takes various forms. Journalists (1) frame actions as transgressions, (2) play the role of instigator, or, the arbitrator, and (3) help the public to determine whether transgressors should be incorporated back into the social structure. Lastly, it is suggested that journalists’ active participation in SDA entails some challenging ethical implications.

Do children apologize to each other? Apology events in young Israeli peer discourse

Abstract Childrens apologies are greatly under-researched. Though there is wealth of information available on the pragmatics of apologies generally, we know much less about whether and how children apologize. Our study explores modes of remedial work by Israeli children in peer discourse. The data were collected through ethnographic observation of Israeli preschool and preadolescents, and consist of 57 (taped and transcribed) apology events identified in natural peer interactions. The analysis of childrens apology events revealed a rich range of apology strategies used by 4–6 year old children, indicating the acquisition of remedial competencies for face management at a relatively early age and showed that with age, a richer range of potential violations is identified, and more elaborate forms of repair are being used, indicating a growing sensitivity to the others face needs. Furthermore, we found that adult intervention in childrens conflictual situations serves to model remedial strategies, but is not necessarily effective for conflict resolution. Importantly, peer talk apology events index the centrality of friendship in young childrens social world: breaches from expected behavior in play are taken as face threatening to the core of friendship, namely the childrens shared face as friends, and hence can function to end (even if temporarily) the friendship. Consequently, in such cases, the restoration of friendship becomes a necessary precondition for the felicitous realization of an apology.

The age of apology: evidence from the Israeli public discourse

This article focuses on corroborating the impressionist claim that contemporary global society is living in the age of apology. I highlight several processes that facilitate the emergence and extension of the practice of apologizing and argue that Israel, as a player in this apology game, has been fertile soil for the growing global practice. Examination of apology discourse in Israel between 1948 and 2004 indicates that the practice of apology was significantly integrated into the local public arena in 1997 following the Labor Partys apology toward the Mizrahim. The importing of the global practice into the local arena led to an expansion of the phenomenon in other fields of discourse. The adoption of the practice has turned the public apology into a common rhetorical genre in Israel, utilized by public figures and organizations as a means of image restoration and as a legitimate tool for managing social relationships. Lastly, in agreement with the rhetoricist position for language and globalization, the age of apology can be understood as a type of discourse of globalization that widens the repertoire of rhetorical resources available for contemporary public figures.

Too hostile, too deferential: Processes of media answerability following political interviews

Processes of media answerability are important for the professional conduct of media organizations and their analysis allows a better understanding of the negotiation among public actors over journalistic practices perceived as deviant. By intersecting public criticism over perceived deviant political interviews with Israeli ombudsmen’s responses to these complaints, our aims are to (1) characterize processes of media answerability within the institution of the ombudsman and in the open public arena; (2) identify diversions between the public and the ombudsmen perspectives regarding perceived deviating practices (over-aggressive and over-deferent style of interviewing) and their causes (political bias and violations of interpersonal codes of behavior); (3) pinpoint the outcomes of media answerability processes. Our findings suggest that while a disrespectful attitude toward public figures bothers the public more than an overly deferential approach, the ombudsmen tend to reject both types of complaint. At the causal level, while citizens point to interviewers’ ideological bias as the main explanation for all types of deviations, the ombudsmen tend to accept complaints regarding violations of interpersonal codes of behavior and reject claims of political bias. In conclusion, we point to the advantages and limitations of a media answerability process.

Why Are Israeli Children Better at Settling Disputes Than Israeli Politicians

One of the most popular metaphors in political communication r esearch is the ‘game’ metaphor (Patterson 1993), whereby similarities are drawn between political practices and practices connected to sports. A related metaphor, probably unique to Israeli political culture,1 and used especially for news coverage of parliamentary debates, is politics as a ‘kindergarten’.2 For Israelis, this metaphor suggests a basic similarity in the behaviour in conflictual situations in the two communities, evoking a derogatory view of the interactions between children. In this chapter we examine conflict-resolution mechanisms in two Israeli Communities of Practice — that of politicians and that of children — against the backdrop of the metaphors of ‘game’ and ‘kindergarten’. We follow Miller (1979) in arguing that such metaphors are essential for making manifest the ‘intelligible structure’ of a political reality. According to Miller, metaphors cannot be verified by direct comparison to reality. However, using ‘metaphorical thinking’ can shed new light on the reality examined. Accordingly, we examine the nature of conflict resolution within two very different Israeli communities and their characteristic activities.

Blood on their hands: The story of a photograph in the Israeli national discourse*

Abstract The intention of this paper is to describe the evolution of a photographic narrative constructed in the Israeli media. The analysis will focus on the case of the ‘lynch in Ramallah’ photograph, an image of upheld blood-stained hands of young Palestinian photographed immediately following the lynching of two IDF soldiers, that was first published on 13 October, 2000. The paper will provide an account of several processes involved in the production and consumption of photographs in contemporary violent conflicts: First, a detailed semiotic description of the characteristics of the lynch image will demonstrate how it became a metonymic representation of the enemy and, thereafter, a defining reference for the ongoing conflict. Second, an account of the reproduction and distribution of the image will illustrate the way in which its communicative mode changed through several visual processes, and how these changes function in the image contest. Third, an analysis of the role of national institutions in the constructed narrative will demonstrate the nature of the efforts invested in bring about closure to one particular episode, within the wider context of an ongoing and unfinished narrative such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By exploring the aforementioned practices this paper intends to conceptualize a basic structural element of the visual narrative — a thematic ‘violation-revenge’ pairing that emerges from traumatic photographs. This conceptualization will further contribute to our understanding of the role of collective visual archives during national conflicts.