Behind Media Marginality

Behind Media Marginality examines the considerations and decisions that have resulted in the distorted and negative media coverage of minority groups in the Israeli media. Author Eli Avraham looks closely at media portrayals of those living in the geographic margins of Israeli kibbutzim, Jewish settlements in the West Bank, development cities, and the Israeli-Arab community from the 1960s through the 1990s. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis of newspaper articles; interviews with reporters, editors, and government spokespeople; and statistical and demographic data, Avraham isolates and explores five factors that influence the way the media covers these social groups: the group's characteristics and location, their proximity to foci of power, their social-political environment, the media's policy toward covering the group, and the group's public relations strategies in response to coverage. An analysis both of media operations and of Israeli society, this book provides important insights into the role of the media in the formation of national identity.