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The Department of Communication at the University of Haifa invites applications from outstanding candidates for an open-rank position in the field of communication studies.*  The Department of Communication  offers single and double major B.A. programs in communication studies, a research M.A. and Ph.D. programs, as well as an M.A. program in Strategic Communication and Public Relations. Faculty in the department  study the meanings and effects of communication in an age of evolving technologies and cultures, using a variety of methodological approaches.

We seek applicants in all subfields of communication research. Only candidates that are expected to have completed their Ph.D. by October 2019 will be considered. While a Ph.D. in communication is preferred, candidates with training in related fields who have published in leading journals in the field of communication will also be considered.  The successful applicant is expected to have at least three publications in top-tier communication research outlets. The language of instruction at the University of Haifa is Hebrew, but a period of adjustment is an option.     

Applications should be submitted by email no later than October 2, 2018 to: Dr. Roei Davidson (roei@com.haifa.ac.il) with the heading "Faculty Search" and should include the following documents:

1) A complete curriculum vitae, including an academic biography that describes the candidate's current research interests and future research plan;

2) A brief description of three potential courses;

3) A list of three references. (Please do not send letters until requested by the committee.);

4) Copies of selected recent publications.

Applicants will be informed by November 7, 2018 as to the status of their submission.  The appointment will begin on October 1, 2019.

* Pending funding.

Prof. Gabriel Weimann discussed the presence of terrorists online and the means to combat them. He noted the futility of removing online content, and suggested alternative means of fighting terrorism online: "Attack the reasons, not just the messages" (The Chicago Tribune), he emphasized. Prof Weimann has published 120 reports and nine books, and has received grants and awards from foundations both Israeli and international.

Dr. Nirit Weiss-Blatt, a graduate of the department's doctoral program, will be (beginning August 2017) a Visiting International Research Fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC). During her post-doc she will be involved in the M{2e} - Media, Economics and Entrepreneurship program.

Prof. Eli Avraham received the Top Paper prize at a conference on "International Place Branding" that was co-organized by the International Place Branding Association and Middlesex University. The conference took place this December in London. Prof. Avraham's paper was titled: "Nation Branding and Marketing Strategies for Combatting Stereotypes and Negative Perceptions towards Countries". 

Photo: Prof. Avraham lecturing at the conference

Prof. Jonathan Cohen has been elected Vice Chair of the Mass Communication Division of the International Communication Association (ICA). As Vice Chair, Prof. Cohen will plan the division's program during the next two annual meetings and then serve as Chairman of the division, which is one of the largest at ICA.

Doctoral student Tamar Lazar has published her first column as the student and early career representative on the International Communication Association's (ICA) board of directors. In the column, Lazar who has extensive practical experience in the field of organizational communication considers and questions her status as a "nontraditional student":

"So, if being a nontraditional student is also about raising difficult questions and complicated dilemmas from a wider point of view---shouldn't we all adopt this state of mind? Regardless of our personal stages in life and the career paths we chose, why not step out of the traditional student "box" every once in a while?" (full column)

Lazar is writing her PhD dissertation on the discourse surrounding unionization efforts, especially on social media. Her PhD advisors are Dr. Rivka Ribak and Dr. Roei Davidson.

Dr. Avi Marciano-Gilburd's PhD dissertation titled "Analyzing Press, Social Media, and State Discourses around the Israeli Biometric Project: Securitization, Resistance, and the Politics of Standardization" has been approved. Dr. Marciano-Gilburd's PhD advisor is Dr. Rivka Ribak. He will be joining the Department of Communication at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev as a tenure-track faculty member. 

Doctoral student Tamar Lazar was elected as Student Board Member within the International Communication Association (ICA), effective at the close of the Annual Conference in Japan. The Annual Conference is scheduled for 9-13 June 2016 in Fukuoka, Japan.

The english language news site, Al-Monitor, interviewed Dr. Rivka Ribak regarding the ousize role the mobile communication application, WhatsApp, plays in the extended Israeli family. She was interviewed for an article on Israel's "cellphone addiction":

Notably, Israelis stand out in their use of the mobile messaging app WhatsApp. A 2013 survey showed that 92% of smartphone owners in Israel uploaded this application. Rivka Ribak, from Haifa University's department of communication, who studies the role of technological devices in our lives, said, “In the United States, this application is hardly in use. In Israel, WhatsApp is widely used, and, in particular, WhatsApp family groups are unique to Israel, setting it apart from the rest of the world.”

Al Gunther, a Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, will be a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the Department of Communication during March and April of this year. Prof. Gunther studies the psychology of media audiences. He has made, among other things, key contributions to the study of third-person effects (the study of people's perception of how the media influence themselves and others). Most of his research is set in the context of science and health communication controversies. During his stay, Prof. Gunther will visit classes, participate in research group meetings and meet with faculty and research students. 

The University of Haifa will confer the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) on Prof. Carol Padden, a leading communication scholar at the University of California San Diego. The nomination was initiated by Dr. Rivka Ribak and supported by the Department of Communication faculty members, Prof. Wendy Sandler and Dr. Irit Meir of the Sign Language Research Lab, and many other University faculty members. Prof. Padden has conducted path-breaking research on sign languages, their unique structure and evolution and their social implications. She has been awarded in the past a McArthur genius fellowship and a Guggenheim fellowship. She is currently the Dean of Social Sciences at UC San Diego.

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Prof. Tamar Katriel taught today her final class in the Department of Communication before her retirement. To mark the event, students, faculty members and the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences joined the Media and Activism seminar participants in the classroom. Prof. Katriel is a leading scholar in the fields of Ethnography of Communication, Media and Activism and the Rhetoric of Public Discourse. Prof. Katriel is one of the founders of the Department of Communication.

לצילומים מהאירוע...

Doctoral student Ravid Oren presented her work on Mizrachi (Israeli oriental) music in Israel at a conference at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her paper was titled "Haperach Begani (The Flower in My Garden): Changes in the status of Mizrachi music between the years 1974-2010". the paper is based on her doctoral research conducted under the supervision of Dr. Ouzi Elyada and Prof. Motti Regev (Open University of Israel).

The dates of three colloquium lectures have been confirmed (updated schedule).

Prof. Jonathan Cohen has been appointed a member of the council of The Second Authority for Television and Radio. The Second authority regulates commercial television and radio broadcasters in Israel, both national and local.

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Prof. Yariv Tsfati. Credit: Lior Patel

Prof. Yariv Tsfati is the new chair of the Department of Communication. Tsfati replaces Dr. Rivka Ribak who completed her three year term as chair of the department. He is the first chair who is also a graduate (BA) of the department. He did his doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His work focuses on political communication, audience trust in the media and media effects.

Dr. Michal Hershman Shitrit has successfully completed work on her doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Jonathan Cohen. The title of her dissertation is "Why do they do it? Predictors of Reality TV participation".

Abstract:

Over the past two decades, reality TV has become a prominent television phenomena and now occupies a prominent place in broadcast schedules world-wide (Hall, 2006). Not surprisingly, as reality TV increased in audience popularity, the attention of media research to this genre has also increased. In particular, studies have tried to define reality shows and understand why these shows have become so popular and how they may affect audiences (Nabi, So & De Los Santos, 2013).

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The Family Communication division of NCA (National Communication Association) has awarded Dr. Roi Estlein, an MA graduate of the department, the Sandra Petronio Dissertation Excellence Award for his Ph.D. dissertation on "Manifestations of Responsiveness and Control in Husbands' and Wives' Marital and Parental Communication". Dr. Estlein did his Ph.D. work at Rutgers' School of Communication and Information. Dr. Estlein is a research associate at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya. The chair of his dissertation committee was Prof. Jen Theiss.

Masters student, Asfahan Bahalul, has won a Yad Vashem Award for Research given to research students. She was given this award for her ongoing thesis project titled "Between Al-Karitha and Al-Holocaust: Framing and Presentation of the Holocaust in Israel’s Arab-language Media". Her thesis advisor is Dr. Oren Meyers. Yad Vashem is The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Israel.

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Crowdfunding constitutes a novel distributed online approach for raising capital. It has the potential to restructure the culture industry and sideline traditional gatekeepers such as movie studios or publishers. Entrepreneurs have established a large number of crowd funding sites first in the United States and later in other developed economies. The most prominent of these sites, Kickstarter.com, focuses on creative projects. By early 2014 more than $1 billion had been raised through it. These platforms are a global phenomena. We will study their use in two countries - Israel and the U.S.

We (Roei Davidson and Nathaniel Poor) are studying how creators use crowdfunding platforms and whether they would consider using it again. Davidson is a lecturer in communication at the University of Haifa, Israel. Poor is an independent scholar based in Brooklyn, NY. Both did their doctoral work at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Over the past decade Davidson has been studying media and economics. Poor has been focusing on media technologies. Over the coming months we'll be interviewing film-makers, musicians, videogame creators, writers, painters with the aim of finding out what they think about these platforms. We will also conduct an online survey on this topic.

Our thanks go out to all those who have already contributed their time to answer our questions online or off!!! If you've received a request to participate in our online questionnaire, please do consider answering the survey! Thank you!

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Picture (from left): Gabriel Weimann, Nehama Lewis-Persky, Oren Livio, Yariv Tsfati, Oren Meyers, Jonathan Cohen, Eli Avraham, Rivka Ribak

Faculty members at the department of communication salute Prof. Elihu Katz, their teacher, on the occasion of his retirement. Prof. Katz, a sociologist by training, is a key figure in the study of the functions and effects of mass media, diffusion of ideas and innovations, and dynamics of public opinion. He is a founder of communication research in Israel. In addition, in the late 1960s, Prof. Katz headed the task force charged with the introduction of television broadcasting in Israel. On the occasion of his retirement from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania his many students among the department's faculty sent him this visual greeting.

Ph.D. student Matan Aharoni has been awarded a research scholarship by the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. The Scholarship will enable Matan to complete his Ph.D. dissertation on Ultra-Orthodox Community Film-making in Israel under the supervision of Prof. Tamar Katriel.

Doctoral student, Avi Marciano, has been awarded a Wolf scholarship for academic excellence by the Wolf foundation.

The Israeli Communication Association (ISCA) has awarded MA student, Yael Patkin, a best student paper for her seminar paper "Laughing in the square? The commemoration and murder of Yitzhak Rabin as depicted in Israeli humor".

PhD student Vlad Vasiliu will present a co-authored paper together with Dr. Yaron Ariel (Yezreel Valley College) at GOR (General Online Research) 2014 hosted by the Cologne University of Applied Sciences. Their paper is titled "Political Participation and Voting Intention of SNS Users" (abstract).

An article authored by Avi Marciano, a doctoral student in the department, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC). Avi's article is titled: "Living the VirtuReal: Negotiating Transgender Identity in Cyberspace". The article is based on Avi's master's thesis completed under the supervision of Dr. Rivka Ribak.

Doctoral students, Avi Marciano and Sharon Ringel, presented separately their work at the Information and Knowledge Conference hosted by the Faculty of Management at the University of Haifa on 13.11.2013. Avi discussed his work on "The Israeli program for issuing smart ID's and passports and building a national biometric database". Sharon presented her work on "Digital technology and the shaping of future memory: The digitization of the National Library of Israel".

Photo: Nirit Weiss-Blatt beside her award-winning poster

Doctoral student, Nirit Weiss-Blatt, presented her work on online agenda setting at the 2013 Early Stage Researchers Colloquium organized by The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin. Her work won a best poster award for Novelty of Presentation or Ideas.

The paper by Nathan Walter, Anat Gesser-Edelsburg and Mafred Green, "Healthcare workers as part of the system or part of the public:Ambivalent risk perception in healthcare workers", has been accepted for publication in American Journal of Infection Control.

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Dr. Eran Keter, a graduate of the PhD program, successfully defended his doctorate in the Department of Geography at the University of Haifa. Dr. Ketter wrote his doctoral dissertation on the role of marketing in tourism planning. His advisors were Prof. Eli Avraham from the Department of Communication and Prof. Yoel Mansfeld from the Department of Geography. Dr. Keter is a graduate of the BA and MA program at the Department of Communication, and he currently teaches in the MA program in Strategic Communication and Public Relations at the Department of Communication.