Hagar Lahav

Bio: Hagar Lahav is an academic researcher from Sapir Academic College. The author has contributed to research in topics: Judaism & Faith. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 13 publications receiving 78 citations.

Are reporters replaceable? Literary authors produce a daily newspaper

Abstract: One of the questions dominating discourse on the changing face of the news industry and the future of journalism concerns the extent to which professional news reporters may be replaced by a series of new human and technological agents, such as bloggers, citizen journalists, user-generated content, offshore reporters and news-story composing algorithms. This article addresses a ‘quasi-experimental’ case study in which a group of international and Israeli book authors reported the news for two special issues of an elite Israeli daily, replacing the regular reporting staff. It maps authors’ weaknesses as news gatherers, describes the means the newspaper employed to mitigate these weaknesses and stipulates the challenges the paper faced nonetheless. Findings suggest that professional reporters remain largely irreplaceable, although for less predictable and less ‘heroic’ assignments.

Authors and poets write the news

Abstract: This study analyzes a journalistic community's interpretation of an experiment in which authors (primarily fiction writers) and poets replaced the reporters of a major Israeli newspaper and produced the news in two special issues Using a mix of methodologies—content analysis, interviews with journalists and authors, a survey among journalists and analysis of readers’ responses—the study shows that the journalistic community reacted conservatively to this exceptional project and framed it as a “deviation” to be rejected as “not real journalism” This may suggest that the journalistic communities’ reflexive protection of their familiar routines is so strong that it may endanger their ability to survive unfolding threats

Postsecular Jewish Theology: Reading Gordon And Buber

Abstract: Considerable scholarly research has been conducted in an attempt to determine whether A. D. Gordon and Martin Buber are to be categorized as religious or secular philosophers. This study seeks to characterize them as postsecular theologians who propound a hybrid theology, rejecting traditional religion on the one hand and atheism on the other. Opening with presentation of the postsecular approach that developed in the social sciences in recent years, with emphasis on secular spaces in Israel, this interdisciplinary study proceeds to a postsecular reading of Buber’s and Gordon’s works, proposing that such a reading reveals the possible relevancy of their works to present postsecular discourses in Israel.

What do Secular-believer Women in Israel Believe in?

Abstract: Secular-believers, who constitute about 25% of Israeli Jews, are self-identified secular people who believe in some kind of divinity. Based on in-depth interviews with secular-believer women, this study aims to reveal their theological assumptions and claims. It examines metaphors and images participants used to relate to the divine as well as the theological categories they emphasized. The study uncovers the pluralistic nature of secular-believers’ beliefs and the common tendency to address faith-related content in a positive light.

The Giver of Life and the Griever of Death: Women in the Israeli TV Coverage of the Second Lebanon War (2006)

Abstract: This article discusses gender aspects of the journalistic coverage of the Second Lebanon War by Israeli TV. The findings reveal that, in the social reality presented in the TV news during the war, women were relegated to the periphery by a complex process of exclusionary representation. Three primary subprocesses produced this exclusionary representation of women: concealing, transparency, and constructing women's presence and gendered images. This representation framed the war as “men's business,” and unjustly legitimizes as well as normalizes their marginal position in the context of the Israeli–Arab conflict. An analysis of the symbolic reality devised by the media exposes the gender and ethnic components of Israel's inclusion (and exclusion) regime. El Dador de la Vida y el Deudo de la Muerte: La Cobertura de las Mujeres en la Segunda Guerra del Libano en la Television Israeli (2006) Hagar Lahav Resumen Este articulo discute los aspectos de genero de la cobertura periodistica de la segunda guerra del Libano en la TV Israeli. Los hallazgos revelan que en la realidad social presentada en la noticias de TV durante la guerra, las mujeres fueron relegadas a la periferia por un proceso complejo de representacion excluyente. Tres sub-procesos primarios produjeron esta representacion excluyente de las mujeres: el ocultamiento, la transparencia, y la construccion de la presencia de las mujeres y las imagenes de genero. Esta representacion enmarca a la guerra como “un asunto de hombres,” e injustamente legitimiza asi como tambien normaliza su posicion marginal en el contexto del conflicto Israeli–Arabe. Un analisis de la realidad simbolica concebida por los medios expone a los componentes de genero y etnicos de la inclusion (y la exclusion) del regimen Israeli. Celles qui donnent la vie et pleurent la mort : les femmes dans la couverture televisee israelienne de la deuxieme guerre du Liban (2006) Hagar Lahav Cet article traite des aspects genres de la couverture journalistique de la deuxieme guerre du Liban par la television israelienne. Les resultats revelent que dans la realite sociale presentee aux nouvelles televisees pendant la guerre, les femmes etaient releguees a la peripherie par un processus complexe de representations excluantes. Trois sous-processus principaux ont produit cette representation excluant les femmes : la dissimulation, la transparence et la construction de la presence des femmes et des images genrees. Cette representation a cadre la guerre comme etant l’affaire des hommes et legitimise injustement en plus de normaliser la position marginale des femmes dans le contexte du conflit israelo-arabe. Une analyse de la realite symbolique concue par les medias revele les elements de genre et d’ethnicite du regime d’inclusion (et d’exclusion) d’Israel. Lebensspender und Betrauerer des Todes: Frauen in der israelischen TV-Berichterstattung zum zweiten Libanonkrieg (2006) Hagar Lahav Dieser Artikel diskutiert Geschlechtsaspekte in der journalistischen Berichterstattung zum zweiten Libanonkrieg im israelischen Fernsehen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Frauen in der sozialen Realitat der TV-Nachrichten wahrend des Krieges durch einen komplexen Prozess ausgrenzender Reprasentation an die Peripherie verdrangt wurden. Drei primare Unterprozesse fuhrten zu dieser ausgrenzenden Reprasentation von Frauen: Verschleiern, Transparenz und die Konstruktion der Prasenz der Frau und geschlechtsspezifische Bilder. Diese Reprasentation rahmte den Krieg als ,,mannliches Geschaft“ und legitimierte und normalisierte unberechtigterweise ihre marginale Position im Kontext des israelisch-arabischen Konflikts. Eine Analyse der symbolischen Realitat der Medien zeigt die ethnische und Geschlechterkomponente der israelischen Herrschaft der Inklusion (und Exklusion).

The Press and Foreign Policy

Abstract: THE PRESS AND FOREIGN POLICY' IT IS a defect of some of the studies of the diplomatic background of the Great War that they tend to ignore the influence on pre-war diplomacy of public opinion in general and of the press in particular. Based primarily on official documents such studies unconsciously tend to overemphasize the parts played by the leaders with whose activities the documents are so largely concerned and to neglect some of the less obvious forces that affected the course of events. The influence of the press, it is true, can never be measured accurately. \"No diviniiig rod can locate it,\" says Miss Salmon, \"no plummet sound its depth, no instrument of precision measure it, no astronomer compute its orbit.\"2 And yet that influence in pre-war Europe was very real and very considerable. Professor Fay goes so far as to list \"the poisoning of public opinion by the newspaper press in all the great countries\"3 as one of the chief underlying causes of the war. If the influence of the press cannot be exactly determined, however, it can at least be roughly estimated; and even where no attempt is made to estimate influence, a kniowledge of newspaper views on questions of foreign policy is of assistance in clarifying the atmosphere out of which the Great WYar came.

Rethinking ExpertiseRethinking Expertise, by CollinsHarry and EvansRobert. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2007. 159 pp. $37.50 cloth. 0226113604.

Abstract: Second, communication within the audience segments is repeatedly acknowledged as the basis of transformation of labeled sets into classes, types into categories, and concepts into forms. One needs to clarify this communication process, describe it, and understand it. Prior ecological works presumed that the classification task was incumbent to the observer, raising questions about the validity, existence, and durability of the categories and forms (e.g., Durand 2006). Undoubtedly, the formalization of diverse audiences’ comparative categorization proposed in the book represents a major reconceptualization, but the societal hierarchies, verticalities, and conflicts need to be part of the communication basis. Third, although the fourth part of the book deals with organizational change, loyal to the core assumptions of ecology theory, the organizations and their spokespersons do not seem able to influence the evolution of the fields, industries, or populations. Organizations hardly possess intentions, governance characteristics, or market and non-market resources to do better than adapt a multimeaning multi-audience reality, to wit to shape, carve, and influence the very selection criteria that rule the fields where they operate. Finally, more than the possibility of categorization, the ontological nature of forms and population is a question looming around the entire population ecology story, old and new style. Yesterday imposed by the ecologist as erudite observer, today forms and populations are “decentralized” to audiences. This displacement fills a caveat of the former version of population ecology. The next question worth investigation nevertheless lies in the epistemological nature and ontological status of concepts, categories, forms, and populations. Does the linguistic turn of organizational ecology open the Pandora’s box for a neo-constructivism, a post-realism about forms and populations? Organizational ecologists have long avoided the too-human considerations of politics and ideologies. However, the decentralization of categorization processes, the evanescence of group membership, and the importance given to (social and cultural) codes imply that beliefs, causal associations, and discursive elaboration are to integrate the newly refounded ecological corpus. Overall, I applaud the conceptual details, thorough definitions, and meticulous demonstrations of this book. Readers of the book will appreciate differently this new theorization of known themes, from full acceptance to some resistance. One may regret certain minimal or backhanded references to extant literature (in particular on social categorization, status construction, and organizational identity). One may reject premises (having a more political theory of legitimacy, a more controversial social positioning of audiences, and a more classificatory argument of audiences’ habitus). But everyone can make up their mind by reading and appreciating the conceptual qualities of this book.

Response to Ellen Mickiewicz's review of When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina

Abstract: Ellen Mickiewicz has done an excellent job of presenting the key elements of our argument and empirical analysis about why the mainstream press proved incapable of independent news framing at critical junctures in the Iraq War. She then raises a series of excellent broader questions: What about the responsibility of government institutions to hold those in power accountable? What about the independent force of public opinion? Were earlier administrations as able to spin the press as successfully as the Bush administration? Each of these questions might well fuel a book. I can only address them briefly in this response.