International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Israel, a young democracy, established in 1948, with a 120-member unicameral parliament elected officially every four years in universal, proportional, nationwide elections, is located in the Middle East, along the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt. It lies at the junction of three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. From the outset, Israel's media system took shape in the shadow of an extended conflict with Arab states and the Palestinian people that culminated in several military clashes – 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 1989, 2000, and 2006. According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2009, the country's population exceeded seven and half million, consisting of 5,664,900 Jews (75.4 percent of the population); 1,526,000 Arabs (20.3 percent); and 319,000 with no religious affiliation (4.3 percent). Israel's founders overtly aspired toward creation of a modern, western, democratic state. As such, the concept of social responsibility had a decisive influence on the development of mass media in the fledgling democracy. During Israel's six decades of independence, its media institutions have undergone extensive structural change, shifting from a centralized, monolithic system to a decentralized one that integrates traditional and new media and boasts a well-developed telecommunications infrastructure ( Caspi ... log in or subscribe to read full text