Abstract
Media can play a crucial role in enabling vital capabilities during a health emergency such as the Covid-19 pandemic. While capabilities are essential to everyone, they are especially vital to marginalized populations. Therefore, this study examined how two prominent minority groups in Israel: ultra-Orthodox Jews and Palestinian-Israelis, were portrayed in the Israeli news media during the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings revealed that the news media typically contributed to security by rendering the audience aware of risks, threats, and behaviors endangering public safety, and that the media habitually lowered potential stigma by contextualizing and explaining incidents, highlighting minority contributions, and portraying complex depictions.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Baruch Shomron
Baruch Shomron is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Communication, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. His research focuses on communication rights, media capabilities, media representations, the digital divide, and health communication, especially regarding marginalized populations.