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      Events

      Colloquium, Prof. Jessica Taylor-Piotrowski, 19.12.17: Finding Orchids in a Field of Dandelions

      Prof. Jessica Taylor-Piotrowski, Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA)

      12:15-13:45, 19.12.17

      Terrace building, Room 4026

      "Finding Orchids in a Field of Dandelions"

       In 1961, in a now-classic text, Schramm, Lyle, and Parker summarized their understanding of the influence of television on children:

      For some children under some conditions, some television is harmful. For other children under the same conditions or for the same children under other conditions it may be beneficial. For most children under most conditions, most television is probably neither particularly harmful nor particularly beneficial. This may seem unduly cautious, or full of weasel words, or, perhaps, academic gobbledygook to cover up something inherently simple ( . . . ). We wish it were. Effects are not that simple.

      More than fifty years later, not much has changed.  Except everything has changed. The media space is more diverse and personalized than ever before. Children are accessing media at younger ages, and their rates of use continue to climb. The digital revolution has challenged traditional theories of media effects as users negotiate the space between consumers and producers. And with these changes, scholars are clamouring to understand who is affected by media, when these effects occur, and how these effects unfold. Embracing complexity seems to be the mantra of the day.

      But how? How do we embrace the complexity of today’s media space? How do we resolve the seeming contradiction between a public rhetoric that suggests large media effects and a scientific literature which increasingly argues the reverse? One way may be through the paradigm of differential susceptibility. Rather than looking for omnibus patterns across users and content, the key to modern-day media effects may instead be found by looking for patterns within the intersection between consumer, content, and context.

      Borrowing from developmental psychology, in her talk, Dr. Piotrowski will rely on the metaphor of orchid and dandelion children to illustrate the application of differential susceptibility in media-effects scholarship. Orchid children, like the flower, are able to develop beautifully in conditions of support and nurture but promptly decline in conditions of neglect. In contrast, dandelion children are relatively hardy and able to survive and thrive across a range of environments. But who are the orchids? Who are the dandelions? How do we find them? Presenting results from a series of studies conducted with more than 1000 children in The Netherlands, Piotrowski will highlight how she and her colleagues are attempting to find orchids in a field of dandelions, the theoretical, methodological, and analytic challenges that have emerged during their search, and why these challenges are worth the effort.

      Dr. Nathaniel Poor will lecture (7/12/17) on "Code, cultures and community in online games"

      Dr. Nathaniel Poor (Underwood Institute) will lecture on "Code, cultures and community in online games" as part of an undergraduate course on the internet and the crowd (taught by Dr. Roei Davidson). The lecture will be held on December 7th, 2017 in the main building, room 610.

      Abstract:

      Dr. Nathaniel Poor discusses some of his research into the intersection of online games, community, and code. In online games, especially massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft, the code literally is the virtual world which is then overlaid with human interpretations and norms. Although the technical does not drive the social in these socio-technical worlds, it does heavily structure and constrain human agency in them.

      The department will screen "Landfillharmonic" on December 6th

      The department will screen the film "Landfillharmonic" at the Haifa Cinematheque on the 6th of December (and in collaboration with the Cinematheque). Doors open at 18:30. The documentary film depicts the establishment of a Paraguayan youth orchestra whose instruments are made from recycled materials and components. The orchestra goes on to enjoy global exposure online and performs around the world. The film also discusses the disonnance between its global success and the players' difficult conditions back home. Dr. Roei Davidson will make brief opening remarks and Dr. Oren Livio will add some concluding comments.

       

      A mini-conference on the processing of political information will take place at the department on March 21

      Processing Political Information: Selection, Engagement, Inference and Effects

      Organizer: Prof. Yariv Tsfati, University of Haifa

      March 21 2017, 1200-1530, Room 7052, Rabin Building, University of Haifa

      12:00 – 12:50

      "Everyday dynamics in news selection and effects: An ambulatory assessment approach" Lukas Otto, Michaela Maier and Fabian Thomas, U. Koblenz-Landau, Germany

      13:00- 13:50

      "Ordinary citizens in the news: Media depiction, social inference and impersonal influence." Christina Peter, Ludwig-Maximillian U, Germany

      14:00-15:30 

      "I like what I see: Studying the influence of popularity cues on attention allocation and news selection", Shira Dvir-Gvirsman, Tel Aviv U

      "Women politicians are more engaging: Male versus Female politicians’ ability to generate users’ engagement on social media during an election campaign", Moran Yarchi & Tal Samuel-Azran, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel
      "Exploring the association between selective exposure and empathy: An update", Yariv Tsfati, U of Haifa

      Prof. Pablo Boczkowski will be the keynote speaker at the annual Mark Biano graduate student conference in Communication (25.12.16)

      'Communicating' (Metaksherim), the annual graduate student conference in Communication will be held on December 25th, 2016 at the University of Haifa. 24 graduate students were selected to present their work. In addition, the Ifat prize will be awarded to a number of students for top paper submissions. The conference is named after Mark Biano, a beloved graduate student of the department who was murdered in a terrorist attack in Haifa in 2003. 

      The keynote speaker at the conference will be Prof. Pablo Boczkowski (Northwestern University). Prof. Boczkowski will talk about "Incidental News: How Young People Consume News on Social Media" at 12:00 in the Rabin Observatory on the campus of the University of Haifa.

      Abstract:

      Incidental News:  How Young People Consume News on Social Media

      In this presentation I will share results of an ongoing, mixed methods study of how people ages 18-29 consume the news on social media. The study shows that the ideal-typical mode in which young people consume news on social media can be characterized with the notion of “incidental news.” Although incidental learning of news has long existed, it had been a secondary mode of information acquisition, not the predominant one. I will draw on the basis of these findings to reflect on current dynamics at the nexus of media, technology and politics that have become central to contemporary societies.

       

      Pablo Metaksherim 2016

      On Words and Deeds: A conference in honor of Prof. Tamar Katriel, January 3rd, 2017

      Katriel conf header

      (see full program in Hebrew)

      The conference will be held in the Rabin Observatory, University of Haifa

      10:00-10:15 Greetings

      10:30-12:30 Session on the book Tamar Katriel recently co-edited with Anna Reading, Cultural Memories of Nonviolent Struggles: Powerful Times.

      12:30-12:45 Break

      12:45-1:45 Guest Lecture (in English)

      Moderator: Oren Livio, Department of Communication, University of Haifa

      • Karen Tracy, Chair, Department of Communication, University of Colorado, Boulder: Reasonable hostility: Its origin and evolution as a norm of conduct

      Abstract: “Reasonable hostility” was initially formulated as a defensible communication conduct ideal for citizens’ participation in education governance meetings in the United States. It involves emotionally-marked expression of outrage about a wrong accompanied by small other-directed tokens of politeness.  Following an explication of the ideal’s distinctive features, I provide an example of what it looked and sounded like in school board meetings in local communities.  I then argue how reasonable hostility could be applicable as an ideal for other public situations.   

      1:45-2:45 Lunch

      14:45-15:45 Former students of Tamar Katriel on Media Discourse (in English)

      Moderator: Rivka Ribak, Department of Communication, University of Haifa

      • Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt, Department of Communication and Journalism, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Journalistic transformation: How source texts are turned into news stories
      • Tal Morse, Department of Photographic Communication, Hadassah Academic College: What is "Like"? Negotiating non-verbal rituals in visual interpersonal communication
      • Gonen Dori-Hacohen, Department of Communication, University of Massachusetts, Amherst: A missing description of a term for participation in the Israeli public sphere

      3:45-4:30 Former students of Tamar Katriel on Childhood in consumer culture

      4:30-5:00 Concluding words by Tamar Katriel; Moderator: Gabriel Weimann, Department of Communication, University of Haifa.

      8 members of the department community will present their work at AoIR in Berlin

      The Department of Communication will have a significant presence this year at the AoIR (Association for Internet Researchers) annual 2016 meeting in Berlin. AoIR is a leading association for scholars studying the internet and other digital environments.  Among the participants will be four current graduate students, one recent PhD graduate and three faculty members. Five members of the department will participate in a panel titled "Standards rule? Regulations, literacies and algorithms in times of transition" and organized by Dr. Rivka Ribak. The panel will investigate the role of standards in various digital arenas including Facebook applications (Hagar Bohbot & Rivka Ribak), Crowdfunding (Roei Davidson), Biometrics and digital archives (Avi Marciano & Sharon Ringel), and Media literacy (Neta Ziskind). Prof. Joe Turow of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania will serve as the panel's respondent. In a separate presentation, Masters student Anat Leshnick and Dr. Oren Livio will discuss "The discourse of Hebrew Wikipedia deletion pages". Recent PhD graduate, Avi Marciano, will discuss his work on biometric surveillance in an additional panel.

      Call for submissions: Mark Biano 'Metaksherim' (Communicating) graduate student conference in communication

      For the 13th year running, the Department of Communication at the University of Haifa will hold its annual graduate students conference named after Mark Biano. Graduate students in Communication departments or related fields conducting research in communication are invited to submit an extended abstract (1000-1500 words) of a research project. See the full call in Hebrew or email the conference organizers for further details. During the conference, outstanding projects will be awarded Ifat Media Research prizes. Only submissions that include research findings will be considered for these prizes.

      Mark Biano was an outstanding graduate student and local television reporter who was murdered together with his wife, Naomi Biano, in a terrorist attack in Haifa in October 2003.

      Science, media and public policy

      You are cordially invited to a special joint seminar of the Department of Communication and the
      Department of Marine Biology, Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences. Our guest speaker will be:

      Dr. Dominique Brossard, Professor and chair, Department of Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison

      Science, media and public policy

      Recent debates surrounding controversial scientific topics have highlighted the fact that many questions raised by scientific breakthroughs do not have scientific answers, but instead ethical, political or societal ones. Dr. Brossard's talk will discuss what we know about how these issues are likely to play out in media and in the political sphere.

      Monday, Dec. 21st 14:00-16:00, Rabin Building, room 7052

      Communication for the promotion of understanding between Jews and Arabs in Israel

      The third conference organized by the Department of Communication and the International Christian Communities in Israel – Nazareth (ICCI) will be held at the University of Haifa on December 17, 2015. The conference features three sessions: Promoting understanding through the media, Promoting understanding through discourse, and Promoting understanding through the arts. Prof. Rassem Khamaisi of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and Head of the Jewish-Arab Center at the University, will give the keynote lecture.

      Program of the conference

       

      New Frontiers in Selective Exposure Research

      International ISF Workshop, October 13-15 2015

      Organized by Yariv Tsfati

      The advent of new communication technologies in recent years has renewed scholarly interest in selective exposure, and with this renewed interest came very good questions begging for further theorization and empirical research: Do partisan media really polarize attitudes? (or rather , as argued by some, the association between selective exposure and political polarization is a methodological artifact). If ideologically-congruent exposure indeed polarizes political attitudes, what is the psychological mechanism underlying the association? How come people who prefer ideologically-consistent materials also seem to take in counter-attitudinal materials? With improvements in measurement techniques, even the hypothesis that people prefer ideologically supportive political content calls for further investigation.

      Workshop participants: Cornelia Mothes & R. Kelly Garrett, Yph Lelkes, Lourdes Martinez, Andy Tan and Nehama Lewis, Lilach Nir and Yariv Tsfati, Hernando Rojas, Shira Dvir Gvirsman, Meital Balmas-Cohen, Israel Waismel-Manor, Magdalena Wojcieszak, Michaela Maier, Gadi Wolfsfeld, Moran Yarchi and Tal Samuel-Azran, Jonathan Cohen and Nurit Tal Or, Benjamin K. Johnson, Kevin Arceneaux, Yariv Tsfati.

      A retirement event for Prof. Sondra Rubinstein will take place on June 2nd

      On June 2nd, the Department of Communication will bid farewell to Prof. Sondra Rubinstein upon her retirement. Prof. Rubinstein taught for over 10 years at the department. The event will take place in room 4026 (Terrace building) at 12:15. 

      Fulbright scholar Prof. Al Gunther discussed his work on the Hostile Media Effect at the department's Media Psychology research group

      Prof. Al Gunther from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison discussed his pathbreaking work on the Hostile Media Effect and his current research dilemmas in this area. This discussion took place at the department's Media Psychology research group. Prof. Gunther is visiting the department as a Fulbright scholar.

      IMG 3558

      An international research workshop on Media Psychology opened with a lecture by Prof. Elihu Katz

      An international workshop on Media Psychology funded by the Israel Science Foundation opened with a keynote lecture given by Prof. Elihu Katz. The workshop is co-organized by Dr. Nurit Tal-Or and Prof. Jonathan Cohen. Prof. Katz discussed "Five concepts in need of retirement".

      Read more …

      Ilana Gershon (Indiana University) will be the keynote speaker at 'Metaksherim', the annual communication graduate student conference

      Ilana Gershon, an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Culture at Indiana University, Bloomington will be the keynote speaker at the 'Metaksherim' ('Communicating') conference. 'Metaksherim' is an annual communication graduate student conference organized by students and staff of the Department of Communication at the University of Haifa. It is held for the 11th time in memory of our graduate student Mark Biano. Prof. Gershon will give an additional talk at the departmental seminar (see full program in Hebrew).

      Metaksherim Graduate Student Conference, December 21, 11:15, Rabin Observatory

      Hiring 2.0: Career Opportunities are the Ones that Never Knock

      What do you need to do to get a U.S. job in this digital age?  Do you need a LinkedIn profile?  Are hiring managers looking for your personal brand? Job-seekers in post-recession America struggle with these questions as hiring and the nature of work changes.  In this talk, I analyze the advice job-seekers receive about how to craft a genre repertoire – an agglomeration of a business card, resume, cover letter, interview questions, Twitter presence and LinkedIn profile.  I then discuss what role this genre repertoire plays in actual hiring practices.

      Department of Communication Faculty Seminar, December 23, 12:15, room TBA

      I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man: Hiring a Neoliberal Self

      Under contemporary U.S. capitalism, white collar workers increasingly view themselves as a business:  they are the "CEO of me."  In this perspective, hiring resembles a business-to-business contract, a short-term connection centered upon solving market-specific problems. This has not been an easy transition for many Americans looking for jobs.   The social dilemmas present in U.S. job markets reveal many problems in enacting the self-as-business model, which are especially prominent when using new media that are designed presupposing the self-as-business model.  My talk draws on a year of fieldwork in California's Bay Area on how new technologies contribute to a challenge so many Americans face these days - getting a job in the digital age.

      Doctoral student Haim Hagay led an Atlas.ti workshop attended by students and scholars in the Faculty of Social Sciences

      In late July, Ph.D. student Haim Hagay led an Atlas.ti workshop. Atlas.ti supports computerized analysis of qualitative data. The workshop was attended by doctoral students and faculty members from the Department of Sociology and the School of Political Sciences at the University of Haifa. The workshop included an introductory lecture as well as hands-on instruction in managing an Atlas.ti project, coding data, building complex queries and working on group projects.

       

      A research seminar on Partisan Selective Exposure will take place on 11.3

      A research seminar on "Partisan Selective Exposure and Political Polarization" organized by Prof. Yariv Tsfati (Department of Communication, University of Haifa) and Dr. Shira Dvir-Gvirsman (School of Communication, Netanya Academic College) will take place on the March 11th 2014. The seminar is sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology. 

      Read more...

      Dmitri Epstein will discuss his work on online civic participation (29.12.13)

      Dr. Dmitri Epstein (Cornell Law School) will discuss his work on online civic participation on 29.12.13. He will lecture in the Communication Technologies seminar, 14:15, Rabin 5004.

      Language and Media course: 50 Year anniversary of "I have a dream"

      The Language and Media course, taught by Dr. Oren Livio, will hold a special session to mark the 50 year anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. Among the speakers: Prof. Michal Sobel (Department of History: The speech in historical and cultural context), Dr. Oren Meyers (Department of Communication: The speech in collective memory) & Dr. Oren Livio (Department of Communication: Rhetorical aspects of the speech). The session will take place on 18th of November 2013 at 16:15 in Rabin 5009.

      The Religion, peace and media coverage conference took place on 7-8 of November, 2013

      The Religion, peace and media coverage conference took place on 7-8 of November, 2013 (full program, PDF). The conference was co-organized by the Department of Communication at the University of Haifa and the International Christian Committee in Israel - Nazareth. It was held at the Golden Crown Hotel in Nazareth.

      Click here for conference picture gallery

      ISF workshop on the Culture Industries took place Sep. 30 - Oct. 3

      The workshop, organized by Dr. Oren Meyers and Dr. Roei Davidson, aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current nature and meaning of work in the culture industries (program). It facilitated a discussion of the ways in which individuals’ careers are structured in current culture labor markets, how changes in various culture fields are experienced by workers and how these work experiences are represented in various mediated texts. Close to 30 foreign and local scholars attended the workshop and presented their work. The workshop culminated with a field trip to the Ein Harod Museum of Art, the first major art museum established in Israel.

      Click here for workshop picture gallery

      Prof. Gabriel Weimann will lecture at the Library of Congress

      On April 1, 2014 (Tuesday) at 12:00, Prof. Gabriel Weimann will lecture on "Terrorism in Cyberspace: The next generation", at the Library of Congress (Washington DC). Prof. Weimann is currently a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

      Read more …

      The annual 'Communicating' (Metaksherim) graduate student conference was held on Dec. 1; Keynote speaker: Prof. Lance Holbert (University of South Carolina)

      Metaksherim -- The annual communication graduate student conference in memory of Mark Biano

      University of Haifa, Hanukah, 1.12.2013 (Poster, Abstracts - mostly in Hebrew; FB event)

      Keynote speaker: Prof. Lance Holbert (University of South Carolina)

      The conference enables communication research students to present their research. Our objective is to establish a social network of young scholars that could take an active part in communication research in Israel. The papers presented showcase a wide range of communication-related topics which emphasize diverse theories and methodologies. The conference is dedicated to the memory of Mark Biano, an outstanding student, loved teaching assistant and a reporter of “Hadashot Haifa Bakvalim”. Mark was murdered in a terror attack at Maxim restaurant in October, 2002, together with his wife, Naomi.

      Photos and additional information...

      Department of Communication, University of Haifa | Department address: Room 9309, 9th floor Rabin Building, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel, Haifa 31905 | Phone: 04-8249283 | Fax: 04-8249120 | e-mail: nnathan@univ.haifa.ac.il |

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