Full Description
Can the American media be blamed for the transformation of an ideologically cohesive society into a segmented society of pleasure seekers, startups, and subcultures? This book shows show how Israel's new television system, which has adopted American technologies, genres, as well as the economics of advertising and privatization, anticipates, leads, and celebrates the changes that have occurred in the country's political culture during the 1990s. The central aspects of Americanization are illustrated and analyzed via a series of case studies. The book looks at the increasing vulnerability of public broadcasting, the danger of action news, the construction of scandal, the Americanization of election campaigns, the victory of style over substance in Prime Ministerial debates, the political discourse of authenticity, and the genre of political talkshows, ending with the question of whether and how Americanized media are capable of coping with recurrent crises of national security.
Contents
Abriaged Contents: If You Will, it is No Dream. Performing a Dream and its Dissolution. Failing Finger in the Dike. The Vulnerability of Public Broadcasting. ""Disaster Marathons"": The Danger of Action News. Constructing Scandal: Whistle Blowing, Entrapment and Spotlighting. The Americanization of Election Campaigns, Netanyahu Defeats Peres: The Victory of Style Over Substance. The Political Discourse of Authenticity: American and Israel Style. Political Talk Shows: American and Israeli Style. Americanization Under Siege New Media, Same Middle East. Epilogue References. Author Index. Subject Index.
