Telepopulism: Media and Politics in Israel

by Yoram Peri

Overview

Two revolutions occurred in Israel in the last decade of the twentieth century. The first was in the field of communications and the second was in politics. Telepopulism describes the political and cultural processes that took place in Israel during the 1990s, depicting the major political events of this period from a new, original, and provocative angle, based on solid theoretical analyses.

The book describes the political and media developments of this period from a historical point of view and analyses the new, symbiotic construct that was created—mediapolitik. The author explores the ways in which the media in Israel became multichannel and commercial, and how visual culture, advanced by television, took the place of written culture and undermined the hegemony of the press. Telepopulism outlines the path that led toward the establishment of Benjamin Netanyahu’s new “coalition of the rejected.” Finally, this work shows how the media influenced the crystallization of the six new “tribes” of modern Israel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804750028
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	03/18/2004
Edition description:	1
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Yoram Peri is the Head of The Chaim Herzog Institute for Media Politics and Society and Professor of Political Sociology and Communication in the Department of Communication at Tel Aviv University. His previous books include The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin (Stanford, 2000).

Table of Contents

	Introduction: The Union of Media and Politics in Israel	1
Part 1	The Emergence of "Mediapolitik"
1.	The Media Revolution of the 1990s	13
2.	Television and Popular Culture	33
3.	The Political Revolution of the 1990s	52
4.	The History of Media-Politics Relations in Israel	73
5.	The Fusionist Character of "Mediapolitik"	94
6.	Israel's Media-Centered Democracy	120
7.	Symbolic Politics	144
Part 2	Netanyahu's Telepopulism
8.	Populism and Neopopulism	165
9.	Netanyahu's Media Strategy	189
10.	The Characteristics of Israeli Telepopulism	215
11.	Netanyahu's War Against the Media	234
Part 3	Communitarianism and the Alternative Media
12.	Minority Media in a Sectorial Society	261
13.	Will the Public Sphere Survive?	284
	Conclusion: "Mediapolitik" and the Future of Democracy	297
	Notes	321
	Works Cited	337
	Index	357

Editorial Reviews

"Brilliantly written and jam-packed with anecdotes and examples....the book deserves the attention of media scholars and political scientists, as well as that of anyone concerned with Israeli society during the 1990s. It offers many important insights and raises many interesting questions." —Shofar


"Peri's book contributes significantly to the neglected aspect of the mediapolitik's implications for the quality of the government."—Political Communication


"Peri's book contributes significantly to the neglected aspect of the mediapolitik's implications for the quality of the government."—Political Communication

From the Publisher

"Peri's book contributes significantly to the neglected aspect of the mediapolitik's implications for the quality of the government."

Political Communication

"Brilliantly written and jam-packed with anecdotes and examples....the book deserves the attention of media scholars and political scientists, as well as that of anyone concerned with Israeli society during the 1990s. It offers many important insights and raises many interesting questions."

Shofar