Section I: The Map of Online Communications
Online Journalism in Israel: A Preliminary Typology
Dan Caspi
The media map in Israel has been enriched in recent years with a plethora of online information sites. As with every new medium, the multiplication and institutionalization of the websites may reorder the media map, intensify the competition among the media and put pressure – principally on the printed press and television stations – to adjust to the new situation. In this regard, this article suggests a classification criterion for the numerous web information sites, i.e., the link between them and the print newspapers. According to this criterion, one may distinguish at least four types of online newspapers: (1) an online edition backed by a printed newspaper; (2) an online linked newspaper, alongside a printed paper; (3) a printed edition of an online paper; (4) an independent online paper.
During the preparation of this article, additional changes occurred in the status of online newspapers. In terms of Caspi’s developmental media model and thanks to innovative modes – cellular phones, wireless hand-held computers, electronic newspapers, etc. – it would seem that the online newspapers are moving from the institutionalization stage to a period of defense.
Online Transformation: The Israel Broadcasting Authority on the Internet – What Goes, What Gets by and What Should Give
Amit Schejter
The growing reliance of the public on online media outlets for information, at the expense of traditional media outlets, has not bypassed Israel. This trend poses a special challenge for the Israeli public broadcaster, among other reasons because it is accompanied by less exposure to information on public issues. Like public broadcasters around the world, the Israeli public broadcaster has also been forced to deal with an onslaught of online information channels and the dominance of neo-liberalism among the country’s policy-makers.
This study examines the preparedness of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) for the age of the Internet, on two levels: the macro level and the organizational level. On the macro level, it addresses the IBA’s authority to operate over the Internet, and whether the missions and restrictions imposed on it by law apply to this medium. On the organizational level, it examines the product – the Internet site of the IBA – and its level of adherence to the public mission with which it is charged. It accomplishes this through an examination of the history of the IBA, which is rooted in Israeli political culture, and through a comparison with other public broadcasting authorities around the world.
Previous research has shown that commercial television stations in the United States have chosen the safe path of expansion into the Internet by repackaging broadcast items in an online form and not trying to expand their activity through an individualistic adaptation of the sites. Other studies have demonstrated that public broadcasters have maintained, to a great extent, the characteristics of the model that developed in the era of radio and television and have dragged this model over to the Internet. A similar trend – whose main points are sticking to the traditional and familiar model, disregarding the tasks neglected by the IBA in the traditional broadcasting methods (and in particular servicing the members of the Palestinian minority who are Israeli citizens), and overlooking the Internet’s potential as a public forum – arises from this study as well.
Anonymity and Slander on the Internet: Between Freedom of Expression and Anarchy
Yuval Karniel
Communications containing slander are an inseparable part of the Internet. Communications that besmirch, insult, and slander are part, even a large part at times, of the communicated items, reactions, and discussions in talkbacks, in chats on blogs, and in forums throughout the Internet. This phenomenon is world-wide and finds significant, recognizable expression in the leading sites in Israel as well.
This article attempts to delineate the desirable boundaries between a general negative expression that appears on the Internet spontaneously, anonymously, without any censorship and mediation, and without a precise factual basis, and a more serious publication backed by real, identifiable people, respected forums or known bodies, and which are influential and may cause damage.
The “throw-away” expression that we are dealing with here is usually a general expression, one of anger or pain or even abuse, devoid of any detailed, reliable factual content. The author’s position is that there is a place for such anonymous expression on the Internet, even if it is baseless. Such expressions may insult, but not really harm or cause real damage to anyone’s reputation. They should be kept out of the framework of the legal system and of the courts.
Section II: Sectoral Journalism on the Internet
From the Magazine to the Community: The Growth of Online Women’s Journalism and Its Unique Characteristics
Nava Cohen-Avigdor
This study clearly belongs to the field of communications and technology, but the unique research population – the genre of women’s magazines – also incorporates the issue of gender. This paper deals both with the structural form of the technology – the technical design of the Internet network and the ways in which it is used – and with the implications this has for the communications process, including new types of products, content, features, and applications.
Women’s print magazines are the most popular genre of magazines sold in the western world, and women’s online magazines expanded with the development of the Internet. What makes this journalism unique? How different are online women’s magazines from their corresponding print versions? And, are the innovative abilities of the Internet exploited to their full extent by the professionals in the field? These are the questions which this article focuses on.
The study focuses on leading women’s magazines – both online and print versions – which are divided into three groups: print magazines; online magazines that complement the written version (and are published under the same brand name); and new online magazines (e-zines) that have no print version and represent a new product that emerged with the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web.
The research method used is mainly qualitative but also integrates a quantitative approach and content analysis. The findings are based on current and ongoing research, retroactive research, and the transcription of in-depth interviews conducted with professionals (editors and Internet experts) in Israel and abroad. For the purposes of this study, a comprehensive questionnaire was composed, relating to all capabilities of the Internet (the entire questionnaire includes 114 categories). In addition, in order to situate the findings within a broader theoretical context, the stages of penetration and growth of the online magazines were analyzed.
The findings of the study demonstrate that women’s online journalism is no longer subjugated to the familiar frameworks of older media, and is increasingly moving toward the definition of a magazine-site-community (particularly due to the dynamic nature and interactive abilities that characterize the Internet). The complex, immediate, and direct contact among the users, and between the users and the magazine/site’s operators no longer fit the classic definition or classic publication-reader relationship. These trends clearly point to new products in various stages of development that are moving from the initial penetration stage to a more developed stage of growth. The online women’s magazines make use of unique functions which create a new writing and reading style different from the prevalent style in the print press; this requires surfers to contend with a new way of reading of material. Nonetheless, the online women’s magazines have exploited the unique abilities that the new medium has to offer only in part, on a medium to low level.
To Surf without Borders: Online Journalism of the Immigrants from the Former Soviet Union in Israel
Nelly Elias, Marina Zeltser Shorer
The present study aims to examine the emerging map of the Russian-language electronic newspapers originating in Israel, focusing on the following questions: what are the different types of Internet newspapers and their main features? what is their degree of popularity among the surfers? and which transnational characteristics are typical of these websites? The study is based on a sample of 50 websites affiliated with two Russian search engines, which provide updated data as to the websites’ number of visitors and their geographic distribution.
The findings reveal a rich selection of dozens of Internet publications in Russian, which can be divided into seven main categories: online newspapers; portals; websites of radio and television stations; local newspapers; publicist e-journals; websites of political parties and movements; and magazines dedicated to various interests and hobbies. The two most popular websites are the online newspaper mignews.com and the portal zahav.ru, with an average rating of 21,000 visitors per day.
Most of the Internet publications in Russian contain important transnational characteristics, as they dedicate significant space to the coverage of current events in the FSU and in other countries where the Russian-speaking Diaspora resides. The transnational character of these websites is also evident in the various hyperlinks connecting them to the online newspapers, radio stations, and television channels originating in the FSU. Accordingly, the geographical profile of the websites’ visitors also reflect their transnational character, as the percentage of visitors living in Israel was only between 40%-75%, whereas the rest of the visitors live abroad. The research findings, therefore, clearly show that the Russian-language Internet newspapers create a “virtual nation” of post-Soviets who have found, on the web, a space for sharing mutual experiences and an efficient means for intra-communal communication.
Network without Boundaries: The Use of the Internet and Online Journalism among the Arab Population in Israel
Mustafa Kabha
The Arab national minority in Israel is learning to integrate into the Internet revolution, and considers it an alternative communication tool that can deal with the difficulties and compelling circumstances that it suffered from before the Internet revolution and the satellite revolution that preceded it. Within the framework of these constraints, this population group has had to use communication tools that were watched closely and controlled by the establishment’s censorship. The revolution caused by the increasing use of the Internet has once again positioned the Arab national minority in Israel within the broader Arab sector in which the Arabic language, used by most consumers of Arab communications media in Israel, is the dominant language, and in which the Arabic cultural codes of this sector are the clearest dominant codes for these consumers.