“What I Can’t Change I Don’t See”: How Cultural Minorities Perceive Their Media Representations—Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel as a Case Study

Abstract

This study examines how members of a cultural minority perceive their representations in the mainstream media, using immigrants to Israel from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) as a case study. The research applies Jaspers’ psychological theory on boundary situations to media consumption to provide a theoretical conceptualization and empirical implementation of how FSU immigrants interpret their representations on television. The research proposes the original concept of communication boundary situations and contributes to understanding how FSU immigrants regard their representations. The conclusions aid in formulating a theoretical model for future empirical studies on media representations of cultural minorities.

Keywords:

• Cultural minorities
• immigrants and media
• media perceptions
• communication boundary situations
• Israel
• immigrants from Former Soviet Union (FSU)

Notes

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

2 See Appendices A and B.

3 See Appendix C.

4 Ashkenazi and Mizrahi are stereotypical characteristics of Jews who immigrated to Israel from Western and European countries compared to stereotypical characteristics of Jews who immigrated from Arab countries. For further reading, see Katz & Nossek (2019) and Prashizky (2019).