The attitude of the local press to marginal groups: between solidarity and alienation. Issue 2 (2nd April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ben-Asher, Smadar; Ben-Atar, Ella
• Is Part Of: Israel affairs. Volume 22:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 528
• Page End: 548
• Publication Date: 2016-04-02
• Subjects: Local press -- solidarity -- fishermen -- interpretive package -- framing -- Kishon Affair; Israel -- History -- 1933- -- Periodicals; 956.94054
• DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1140344
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1353-7121

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines the 2001‒2003 coverage by the local press in the Haifa region of the struggle of the fishermen who claimed to have contracted cancer as a result of coming into contact with the polluted water of the Kishon River. It shows that the local press chose to deliver to its readers an 'interpretive package' that portrays the fishermen as 'The River's Heroes', a group fighting for justice and morality for the benefit of all. However, alongside the favourable framing were also some of the writers' stereotypical elitist perceptions, at times explicit and at others implicit, of the fishermen. In the case of the Kishon fishermen, whereas the local press played an important role in covering their struggle, it only partially presented the solidarity dimension wherein the differences between people and groups constitutes the basis for moral relations between them.