Mizrahi perceptions of their TV portrayal in Israel

ABSTRACT

This article examines how Mizrahim perceive their media representation on Israeli television. Using Karl Jaspers’ psychological theory of boundary situations, the article seeks to explain the seeming disparity between the negative depiction of Mizrahim on Israeli TV and Mizrahi consumption of these representations. Having conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews with 25 individuals, the article found that most of the interviewees were well aware of their negative representation on Israeli TV yet used various interpretive strategies, stemming from ‘media boundary situations,’ to deal with this prejudice.

KEYWORDS:

• Media boundary satiations
• TV representation
• sociological minorities
• Mizrahim
• symbolic annihilation
• Israel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Avraham, The Hidden Israel; Avraham, First and Elfant-Lefler, The Absent and the Present in Prime-Time; Shiran, “We are Mesuda from Sderoth,” 4–40; Yishuvi, “Inequality in the Media and Human Rights,” 4–40; and Kama and First, On Exclusion.

2. Kimmerling, The End of the AHUSLIM Rule.

3. Hall, “Encoding, Decoding,” 259–71; Avraham, First and Elfant-Lefler, The Absent and the Present in Prime-Time; and Ben Hay-Segev, “Mizrahim in Israel Talk About Prime- Time”.

4. Taylor, Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition.

5. Bhabha, “The Question of the Other,” 79–105; Harindranath, “Ethnicity, National Culture(s) and the Interpretation,” 149–64; and Said, Orientalism.

6. Katz, Blumer and Gurevitch, “Utilisation of Mass Communication,” 19–32; and Katz et al., Leisure Culture in Israel.

7. Fiske, “Television,” 346–64; and Fiske, “British Cultural Studies and Television,” 284–326; Fiske, “Audiencing,” 189–98; and Fiske, “Postmodernism and Television,” 55–67.

8. Fiske, “Television,” 346–64.

9. Fiske, “Audiencing: Cultural Practice and Cultural Studies,” 189–98; and Lembo, “Is There Culture After Cultural Studies?” 33–54.

10. Fiske, “Television,” 170–93; and Hall, “Encoding/Decoding,” 128–38.

11. Goren, Media and Reality.

12. Adoni and Mane, “Media and Social Construction of Reality,” 323–40.

13. Entman, “Framing US Coverage of International News,” 6–27; Entman, “Framing-Towards Clarification of a Fractured,” 51–58; Gamson, “The Social Psychology of Collective Action,” 53–76; and Goffman, Frame Analysis.

14. Renckstorf and McQuail, “Social Action Perspectives in Mass Communication,” 1–17.

15. Cottle, “Introduction,” 1–31; Miller, Don’t Mention the War; Philo, Seeing and Believing; Philo, “Media and Mental Illness,” 54–6; and Ross, “In Whose Image?” 1–31.

16. Adoni and Mane, “Media and Social Construction of Reality,” 323–40; Avraham, The Hidden Israel; and Philo, “Media and Mental Illness,” 54–62.

17. Hall, “Encoding/Decoding,” 128–38.

18. Bourdieu, She’alot besotisiologia.

19. See note 4 above.

20. Bhabha, “The Question of the Other,” 79–105; Harindranath, “Ethnicity, National Culture(s),” 149–64; and Said, Orientalism.

21. Harindranath, “Ethnicity, National Culture(s),” 149–164; Liebes and Katz, “On the Critical Abilities of Television Viewers,” 204–22; and Liebes and Katz, “Dallas and Genesis,” 113–25.

22. Harindranath, “Ethnicity, National Culture(s) and the Interpretation of Television”.

23. Said, Orientalism.

24. See note 22 above.

25. Tanen (1997) and Meyron (2006) translated from the German and based upon the following books by Jaspers: Philosopie,1–3: Philosophische Weltorientierung; Existenzerhellung; Metaphysik, Heideberg, 1994 (1932). Psychologie der Weltanschauungen, Heideberg, 1985 (1919).

26. See note 25 above.

27. Amor, “Israeli Citizenship,” 244–72; Chetrit, The Mizrahi Struggle in Israel; Herzog, Political Ethnicity; Shenhav, Arab Jews, Nationalism, Religion; Svirsky, Not Slow But Slowed; and Svirsky and Bernstein, “Who Worked at What,” 120–47.

28. Hever, Shenhav, and Motzafi-Haller, “Mizrahi Epistemology in Israel,” 244–72; Shenhav and Yona, Racism in Israel; and Yona and Shenhav, Multiculturalism – What is It?.

29. Amor, “Israeli Citizenship,” 244–72.

30. Hever et al., “Mizrahi Epistemology in Israel,” 244–72.

31. Bhabha, “The Question of the Other,” 79–105; and Said, Orientalism.

32. Svirsky and Bernstein, “Who Worked at What,” 120–147; and Hechter, Internal Colonialism.

33. Svirsky, Not Slow but Slowed; and Svirsky and Bernstein, “Who Worked at What,” 120–147.

34. Smooha, “Three Approaches for the Sociology,” 169–206.

35. Herzog, Political Ethnicity.

36. Memmi, “Who is an Arab- Jew?” b 17.

37. Shenhav, Arab Jews, Nationalism, Religion.

38. See note 37 above.

39. Hever, Hanan, Yehuda Shenhav, and Pnina Motzafi-Haller, “Mizrahi Epistemology in Israel,” 244–72.

40. See note 29 above.

41. Avraham, The Hidden Israel; Avraham, First and Elephant-Lefler, The Absent and the Present in Prime-Time; Shiran, “We are Mesuda from Sderoth,” 4–40; and Yishuvi, “Inequality in the Media,” 4–40.

42. Kama and First, On Exclusion.

43. See note 2 above.

44. See note 41 above.

45. Dhoset, “Imagined Communities of Television Viewers,” 90–103; Ross, “In Whose Image,” 1–31; and Saville-Troike, The Ethnography of Communication.

46. Kitzinger, “Media Templates,” 61–48; Philo, “Media and Mental Illness,” 54–62; Ross, “In Whose Image?” 1–31; Cottle, “Introduction,” 1–31; Shkedi, Words Which Try to Touch; and Shkedi, The Meaning Behind the Words.

47. Bryman, Quantity and Quality in Social Research.

48. Baert, Social Theory in the Twentieth Century.

49. Bryman, Quantity and Quality in Social Research; Jensen, “Introduction,” 1–5; Shkedi, Words Which Try to Touch; and Shkedi, The Meaning Behind the Words.

50. Davison, “The Third Person Effect,” 1–15.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nissim Katz

Nissim Katz is Lecturer at the Communication Department of the Kinneret Academic College on the Sea of Galilee, Tiberias

Hillel Nossek

Hillel Nossek is chair of the Communication Department of Kinneret Academic College on the sea of Galilee, Tiberias.