Motti Neiger
I am Associate Professor at the School of Communication at Bar-Ilan University. My academic interests include various aspects of the correlations between media and culture: mediated collective memory, journalism during conflicts, popular culture and the role of culture mediators.I served as President of the Israel Communication Association (2006-2009) and as the founding editor of Media Frames: Israeli Journal of Communication.
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Media Temporalities
identify its extent and different types. The research examined headlines in Israeli newspapers over a period of 18 years (1985–2003) and found that approximately 70 percent of the main headlines deal not only with past events but with future ones as well. Thus, contrary to the conventional perception of journalism, this type of journalism does not report what has already happened, but speculates on future events, whether directly or
by quoting military or political figures.
The qualitative analysis suggests four types of discourse of the future: Predictable Future, Informed Assessment, Speculative Assessment, and Conjectured Future. During the last two decades, we can witness a gradual rise of speculation levels.
‘The discourse of the future’ carries cultural significance and political import. From the cultural standpoint, journalists encourage us to raise questions regarding the
future of the community: What will happen next? Where do we go from here, in the short, medium and long term? What are our hopes? What do we fear most? Nevertheless, in the highest levels of speculation, such discourse bears political import because it provides fertile ground for releasing trial balloons, magnifying threats, creating solidarity, and justifying acts of government.
Keywords:
Media and Time; News Narratives; Print versus Online Media; Journalistic Cultures; News Definition
Media Memory
The article implements a ‘‘zoom in’’ perspective: first, we examine the broadcasting schedules, exploring the role of newscasts in the process of leading the audiences in and
out of the commemorative ritual. Next, we suggest a typology distinguishing between (a) items dealing with current events, (b) commemorative items focusing on Holocaust remembrance, and (c) dog whistle items that are ‘‘attuned’’ to the specific cultural ear and thus enable mundane news items to be interpreted as related to Holocaust commemoration.
We argue that the dual aim of the items featured in MDHH newscaststo provide both news values and commemorative valuesleads to the construction of ‘‘reversed memory,’’
a narrative that commemorates past events (the ‘‘there and then’’) by narrating present events (the ‘‘here and now’’). Reversed memory commemorates the difficult past through the achievements of the present, and thus not only eases the collective confrontation with painful traumas, but rather avoids this encounter altogether.
Keywords: Collective memory; Newsworthiness; Commemoration; Newscasts; Holocaust
Holocaust in popular music? (2) Who is permitted to sing or write about it? (3) How are those individual artists permitted to sing about the Holocaust within the context of popular music? The findings suggest that the authority of the songs as ‘cultural
objects’ is derived from a complex combination of their quiet tone and slow tempo, the biographies of their creators and performers, and their lyrics, written by poets who embrace a philosophical-existential point of view. Beyond this analysis, the article seeks to understand the power and efficacy of popular music as a cultural object.
המחקר משלב ניתוח כמותי ואיכותני של 16,652 השמעות שירים ששודרו בימי השואה בשנים 1993–2002 ב-16 תחנות רדיו ציבוריות ומסחריות. בשלב הראשון אותרו 15 השירים המושמעים ביותר ביום השואה בתחנות השונות. פסקול זה מסמן את הקאנוניזציה לאורך השנים של מספר מצומצם של שירים (ובכללם "הליכה לקיסריה" מאת חנה סנש ו"כי האדם עץ השדה" מאת נתן זך).
בהמשך בחן המחקר מהם מקורות הסמכות המכשירים שירים אלה לשמש כסַמנים מובהקים של ריטואל האבל התקשורתי. המאמר מנתח את מילות השירים ואת זהות היוצרים וטוען כי הסמכות של השירים כעַצְמֵי תרבות (cultural objects) נובעת משילוב מורכב בין הטון השקט והמקצב האיטי של השירים, מן הביוגרפיה של יוצריהם ומשיוכם של השירים לרובד הגבוה של הייצור התרבותי הפופולרי: שירי משוררים הכתובים מנקודת מבט פילוסופית אקזיסטנציאלית.
זיכרון קולקטיבי ושידורי הרדיו בישראל ביום הזיכרון לשואה בישראל. מגמות 46(2-1): 280-254.
identify its extent and different types. The research examined headlines in Israeli newspapers over a period of 18 years (1985–2003) and found that approximately 70 percent of the main headlines deal not only with past events but with future ones as well. Thus, contrary to the conventional perception of journalism, this type of journalism does not report what has already happened, but speculates on future events, whether directly or
by quoting military or political figures.
The qualitative analysis suggests four types of discourse of the future: Predictable Future, Informed Assessment, Speculative Assessment, and Conjectured Future. During the last two decades, we can witness a gradual rise of speculation levels.
‘The discourse of the future’ carries cultural significance and political import. From the cultural standpoint, journalists encourage us to raise questions regarding the
future of the community: What will happen next? Where do we go from here, in the short, medium and long term? What are our hopes? What do we fear most? Nevertheless, in the highest levels of speculation, such discourse bears political import because it provides fertile ground for releasing trial balloons, magnifying threats, creating solidarity, and justifying acts of government.
Keywords:
Media and Time; News Narratives; Print versus Online Media; Journalistic Cultures; News Definition
The article implements a ‘‘zoom in’’ perspective: first, we examine the broadcasting schedules, exploring the role of newscasts in the process of leading the audiences in and
out of the commemorative ritual. Next, we suggest a typology distinguishing between (a) items dealing with current events, (b) commemorative items focusing on Holocaust remembrance, and (c) dog whistle items that are ‘‘attuned’’ to the specific cultural ear and thus enable mundane news items to be interpreted as related to Holocaust commemoration.
We argue that the dual aim of the items featured in MDHH newscaststo provide both news values and commemorative valuesleads to the construction of ‘‘reversed memory,’’
a narrative that commemorates past events (the ‘‘there and then’’) by narrating present events (the ‘‘here and now’’). Reversed memory commemorates the difficult past through the achievements of the present, and thus not only eases the collective confrontation with painful traumas, but rather avoids this encounter altogether.
Keywords: Collective memory; Newsworthiness; Commemoration; Newscasts; Holocaust
Holocaust in popular music? (2) Who is permitted to sing or write about it? (3) How are those individual artists permitted to sing about the Holocaust within the context of popular music? The findings suggest that the authority of the songs as ‘cultural
objects’ is derived from a complex combination of their quiet tone and slow tempo, the biographies of their creators and performers, and their lyrics, written by poets who embrace a philosophical-existential point of view. Beyond this analysis, the article seeks to understand the power and efficacy of popular music as a cultural object.
המחקר משלב ניתוח כמותי ואיכותני של 16,652 השמעות שירים ששודרו בימי השואה בשנים 1993–2002 ב-16 תחנות רדיו ציבוריות ומסחריות. בשלב הראשון אותרו 15 השירים המושמעים ביותר ביום השואה בתחנות השונות. פסקול זה מסמן את הקאנוניזציה לאורך השנים של מספר מצומצם של שירים (ובכללם "הליכה לקיסריה" מאת חנה סנש ו"כי האדם עץ השדה" מאת נתן זך).
בהמשך בחן המחקר מהם מקורות הסמכות המכשירים שירים אלה לשמש כסַמנים מובהקים של ריטואל האבל התקשורתי. המאמר מנתח את מילות השירים ואת זהות היוצרים וטוען כי הסמכות של השירים כעַצְמֵי תרבות (cultural objects) נובעת משילוב מורכב בין הטון השקט והמקצב האיטי של השירים, מן הביוגרפיה של יוצריהם ומשיוכם של השירים לרובד הגבוה של הייצור התרבותי הפופולרי: שירי משוררים הכתובים מנקודת מבט פילוסופית אקזיסטנציאלית.
זיכרון קולקטיבי ושידורי הרדיו בישראל ביום הזיכרון לשואה בישראל. מגמות 46(2-1): 280-254.
נייגר, מ., & Neiger, M. (2000). Les premiers suppléments littéraires dans la presse hébraïque / לראשית המוספים לספרות בתרבות העברית. Revue Européenne Des Études Hébraïques, 4, 55–75. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23493006
Decade after decade the volume untangles the various publishing models which were developed in Israel: the family publishing-houses, the socialist parties publishing-houses, the mécénat model, the commercial publishers and the publishing groups. The study is based on dozens of interviews with leading figures from the past and present of Israel’s publishing industry and on the analysis of catalogues of the publications as the use of archival documents, press coverage and biographies and autobiographies of the main actors in the field. The combination of dozens of stories about publishing and the cultural nation building of the state enables the study to shed light on the cultural role of the publishing industry and the mediation of culture in general and the establishment of the Hebrew publishing and Israeli culture, in particular.