Research Interests: Cultural mediation of communication technologies and texts; construction of political and gender identities through the media; domestication of technologies (computers, telephones) in cultural contexts (the home, theKibbutz); privacy and other technological threats from an intercultural perspective; feminist, technological, developmental theory; media education.
Tel.: 04-824-9602
E-mail: rribak@com.haifa.ac.il
Room: Rabin Complex 9316
Rivka Ribak has BA in psychology and art history from the University of Haifa, a MA in communication from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and Ph.D. in communication from the University of California in San Diego. Her research focuses on the meanings people assign to media content and technologies. In recent years, she published articles on media use and nonuse in different cultural contexts, on ideas and practices of privacy among internet users and developers, and on emergent practices of digitization and photography. Recently, she advised students' theses and dissertations on the biometric database, archival digitization, professional and amateur life cycle photography and the use of smartphones in religious Muslim families.
Selected Publications
Ribak, R. (2019). Translating privacy: Developer cultures in the global world of practice. Information, Communication and Society.
Davidson, S. and Ribak, R. (2018) The adult-child coach in television commercials. Journal of Consumer Culture.
Lazar, T., Ribak, R. and Davidson, R. (2018). Mobile social media as platforms in workers' unionization. Information, Communication and Society.
Davidson, S. and Ribak, R. (2017). The adult-child persona in Israeli television commercials. Media Frames, 16, 41-60.
Davidson, S. and Ribak, R. (2017). “Yes, I'm worth it”: The economy of girls' photo-rating in social network sites“Yes, I'm worth it”: The economy of girls' photo-rating in social network sites. Communication, Culture and Critique, 10/1, 2-19.
Ribak, R. and Rosenthal, M. (2015). Smartphone resistance as media ambivalence.. First Monday. 20/11.
Ribak, R. (2009). Remote control, umbilical cord, and beyond: The mobile phone as a transitional object. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 27/1, 183-196.
Hijazi-Omari, H. and Ribak, R. (2009). “I hugged my mobile each night and waited”: The mobile phone in the lives of Palestinian teenage girls in Israel. Megamot, 46/1-2, 197-221.
Hijazi-Omari, H. and Ribak, R. (2008). Playing with fire: On the domestication of the mobile phone among Palestinian teenage girls in Israel. Information, Communication and Society, 11/2, 149-166.
Ribak, R. (2007). Children & new media: Some reflections on the ampersand. Journal of Children and Media, 1/1, 68-76.
Ribak, R. (2007). “Privacy is a basic American value”: Globalization and the construction of web privacy in Israel. The Communication Review, 10/1, 1-27.
Ribak, R. and Rosenthal, M. (2006). From the field phone to the mobile phone: A cultural biography of the telephone in Kibbutz Y. New Media and Society, 8/4, 551-572.
Tsfati, Y., Ribak, R. and Cohen, J. (2005). Rebelde Way in Israel: Parental perceptions of television influence and monitoring of children's social and media activities. Mass Communication and Society, 8/1, 3-22.
Ribak, R. and Turow, J. (2003). Internet power and social context: A globalization approach to web privacy concerns. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 47/3, 328-349.
Ribak, R. (2001). “Like immigrants”: Negotiating power in the face of the home computer. New Media and Society, 3/2, 220-238.
Ribak, R. (1997). Socialization as and through conversation: Political discourse in Israeli families. Comparative Education Review, 41/1, 71-96.
Liebes, T. and Ribak, R. (1994). In defense of negotiated readings: How moderates on each side of the conflict interpret intifada news. Journal of Communication, 44, 108-124.
Liebes, T. and Ribak, R. (1993). Socialization to Conflict: How Jewish and Arab adolescents in Israel negotiate their political identity. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 5, 362-368.
Liebes, T. and Ribak, R. (1992). The contribution of family culture to political participation, political outlook, and its reproduction. Communication Research, 19, 618-641.
Liebes, T. and Ribak, R. (1991). A mother's battle against TV news: A case study of political socialization. Discourse and Society, 2, 203-222.
Liebes, T. and Ribak, R. (1991). Democracy at risk: The reflection of political alienation in attitudes towards the media. Communication Theory, 1, 239-252.
Liebes, T., Katz, E. and Ribak, R. (1991). Ideological reproduction. Political Behavior, 13, 235-252.