An article authored by Ravit Tov-Li, a graduate of our research masters program, and Dr. Oren Meyers has been published in the Hebrew language academic journal, Media Frames. The article is based on the thesis Ravit wrote under the guidance of Dr. Meyers.

Tov-Li, R. & Meyers, O. (2015). “His blood constantly cries out from the ground”: Law, media and memory in the Danny Katz affair. Media Frames. 14, pp. 1-32. [in Hebrew]

Abstract:

This research is anchored within the conceptual approach that explores the media and the legal system as interpretive agencies that bestow meanings upon social events and cultural phenomena. The research implements this approach through an examination of the ways in which these two interpretive agencies – law and media – constructed and framed the memory of the 1983 murder of Danny Katz, a 14 years old boy from Haifa. Such an investigation enables us to decipher the manner in which these two institutions operate as memory agents, and specifically the representation of legal verdicts in the media, alongside the representation of the media in legal writing.

Common scholarly criticism leveled against the media coverage of the legal affairs argues that journalists tend to internalize the values of the legal system, and thus abandon their critical stand as external observers. The findings of this study, point at an opposite pattern: throughout 27 years of coverage, the dominant journalistic voice challenged the rulings of the legal system in a comprehensive manner, offering an exonerating narrative that contradicted the actual convicting verdicts offered by the legal system. By doing so, the journalists undermined the “redressive rituals” offered by the legal system, in order to appease the tensions that aroused around this complex affair. We argue that in many respects, this kind of journalistic criticism became possible due to the fact that throughout the years voices from within the legal system challenged the formal verdicts and questioned the guilt of the convicted murderers. And so, echoing findings from political communication research, there is a close connection between the exposure