Tips for Using this Teaching Guide

The mass media are the main sources of information in modern society.  Most citizens form their opinions, their outlook and even their identity on the basis of contents that appear in newspapers, on television, on the radio or the Internet. 

In Israel there are virtually no systematic pedagogical guides for teaching teachers, lecturers and group facilitators how to address problems in the depiction of minority groups in the media and how to promote critical viewing and reading habits on this issue among news consumers.

This guide aims to address this shortcoming.  The guide is a teaching tool that explores how minority groups are depicted in the media, with special attention on coverage of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel.  The guide offers a platform for discussions about the condition of the community and about the representation of minorities in the media, more generally.  We hope that such discussions will instill in students skills for reading and viewing coverage from a more critical perspective, in ways that can change the social and cultural orientation toward Ethiopian Jews and other minorities in Israel.

The core section of the guide is an in-depth outline of lessons that provide a basis for discussions about coverage of the Ethiopian Jewish community in the Israeli media. The guide offers educators and facilitators background material, examples that can be analyzed and discussed and questions for leading group discussions.   

Structure of the Guide

The guide is structured in modular form.  It can be used in its entirety or certain sections can be taught according to the needs of educators and target groups.   The guide begins with some theoretical background including information on the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel, its problems and needs, theories about the depiction of minorities in the media and research findings on the representation of the Ethiopian Jewish community in the Israeli media.  The guide next discusses four specific aspects of coverage of the Ethiopian Jewish community: context; generalizations and stereotypes; positive and negative elements of “positive” depictions; and graphic design and placement. 

The concluding chapter of the guide focuses on ways that media consumers can respond to problematic coverage of vulnerable minority groups, like Ethiopian Jews. The chapter discusses how news consumers can resist racist and biased messages and how they can apply lessons in critical media consumption in response to such coverage.  This chapter includes items covering the Ethiopian Jewish community that appeared in major Israeli media outlets between January and July 2009.  

The guide does not attempt to provide absolute answers to the question it raises because in many cases there are no absolute answers.  Rather, the guide seeks to provoke critical thinking and discussion about the major dilemmas surrounding coverage of members of the community in the Israeli media.  Such discussions will help instill in users skills for critical media consumption and can help change public attitudes toward minorities in general, and towards the Ethiopian Jewish community in particular.

As an appendix to the guide, we have published an interview with Tzaga Malko, the director of Reshet Alef of the Voice of Israel, and herself an immigrant from Ethiopia.

A.  The Ethiopian Jewish Community in Israel: Background

Approximately 110,000 Jews of Ethiopian origin live in Israel, of whom 31 percent were born here.  The Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel struggles with difficult problems related to absorption in Israeli society and changes in traditional family and community structures.  More than 50 percent of Ethiopian Jewish households are impoverished, compared with 16 percent among the general population. 

The Ethiopian Jewish community is relatively segregated in housing and education. Though the state has formally embraced integrative policies to disperse Ethiopian Jewish immigrants across the country and to integrate Ethiopian children in schools, in practice, many Ethiopian Jews live and learn in relatively segregated environments.  A significant number of Ethiopian Jewish youths are sent to religious boarding schools where the academic level is low.  Ethiopian Jews have made some strides in higher education in recent years, though there is much room for improvement.  Between 2003 and 2004 the share of Ethiopian Jews with at least 13 years of education grew by 9 percent. However, Ethiopian Jews with academic degrees still earn less than the average salary in Israel and about one-third of Ethiopian Jews with academic degrees work in projects related to the Ethiopian Jewish community. 

B.      Depictions of Minorities in the Media

Mass media are the main source of information in modern society.  But mass media outlets do not only reflect reality, they also construct perceptions and understandings of reality.  One key aspect in the “social construction” of reality is that individuals who do not belong to social groups that are part of the elite are often depicted as “others”.  The way in which minority groups are covered in the media does not reflect an “objective truth” about these populations; rather, it is based on the interpretation of certain information, which could be understood in multiple ways. In many cases, media outlets ignore minority groups or cover them in negative terms. 

The power of the media stems from the fact that it is regarded by many as an objective presenter of what transpires in reality.   The illusion of “objectivity” is especially pronounced in coverage of what are billed as “news” events.  In our socially constructed reality, the designation “news” does not reflect an objective reality, but rather it shapes the reality that we know.  One consistent pattern in the presentation of the news is that minority groups are symbolically suppresses, as if they do not exist.   But visibility is only one aspect of media depictions.  Equally important, if not more so, is the question of how a group is presented when it does appear in the coverage.  A significant question in this regard is who represents the minority group and speaks on its behalf in the media?

C.      Depiction of the Ethiopian Jewish Community in the Israeli Media

Research by the Second Authority for Radio and Television has shown that members of the Ethiopian Jewish community seldom appear in the Israeli media, and that they are especially absent from news broadcasts.  Qualitative research by the Israel Association of Ethiopian Jews (IAEJ) has found that the vast majority of media items concerning the Ethiopian Jewish community present the community in the context of stories about poverty, racism, discrimination, diseases, murder and drugs.  The negative depiction of the community in the media contributes to negative perceptions about the Ethiopian Jewish community among the general Israeli public.  The IAEJ study also found that people who depend on the media for all of their information about the community tend to have more negative opinions of this population, while those who have made personal acquaintance with community members tend to have more positive views of the community.   

Besides being portrayed in negative contexts having to do with poverty, discrimination, racism and crime, the IAEJ study also found that Ethiopian Jews are not depicted as an integral part of Israel society.  Their appearances in the Israeli media are usually as representatives of their particular community. News items about the Ethiopian Jewish community are often presented in ways that perpetuate the community’s peripheral status. Many times people outside the community offer analysis of the community and its plight, giving the impression that the community is dependant on wisdom received from non-Ethiopians who supposedly articulate the community’s interests.

Discussion

The discussion section that makes up the major part of the guide is divided into four parts that focus on four principal aspects of coverage of the Ethiopian Jewish community in the Israeli media: Context; Generalizations and Stereotypes; Positive and Negative Elements of “Positive” Depictions; and Graphic Design and Placement.  Each part includes a statement of the goals of the discussion, a list of discussion questions, notes for the teacher or facilitator and theoretical elaboration.

This section includes ten scanned items (newspaper articles and scanned broadsheets) as well as references to other media items. 

Conclusion

The conclusion provides a platform for discussion of media items about the Ethiopian Jewish community that appeared in the Israeli media between January 2009 and July 2009.  It contains examples of nine items that appeared in major media outlets during this period.  The conclusion provides users with an opportunity to apply lessons learned from the preceding parts of the guide.  The concluding section contains stated goals, discussion questions and suggestions for discussion leaders.

Bibliography

The bibliography contains 28 items (not including the media items referred to in the guide).  Fourteen of the bibliographic sources are in English and fourteen are in Hebrew. 

Appendix

As an appendix to the guide we have published an interview with Tzaga Malko, 41, a native of Gundar, who immigrated to Israel in 1984.  Malko began working in radio in 1988 as a broadcaster in Amharic.  Between 1998 and 2003 she anchored a program on Israel Educational Television, Channel 2.  Between 2003 and 2008 she managed the Amharic broadcasting department and was a broadcaster.  Today she directs Reshet Alef radio on the “Voice of Israel”.  In addition, she anchors a program on television Channel 33 and broadcasts on the radio.