Netta Barzilai as an Israeli Symbolic Goods

"This paper discusses Pierre Bourdieu’s term symbolic goods (1930-2002) through an Israeli case study, Netta Barzilai. An Israeli performer and songwriter, winner of the Eurovision 2018 with the song “TOY” which became the anthem of the Me-Too movement. Netta as a symbolic good was packaged, marketed and distributed to the public, and the Netta phenomenon has spread throughout the world. Based on interviews with Netta, through listening to the songs and watching the clips that came after “TOY”, “Bassa Sababa” (2019), “Nana Banana” (2019) and “Ricki Lake” (2020), I examine how and if Netta continues to maintain her status as a symbolic good, as an example and role model for many, and whether she continues to convey her message - self-love and self-acceptance - through shattering cultural and social stereotypes. It seems that Netta’s next three songs introduced a powerful big size Netta but also a vengeful, vicious, narcissistic and lazy Netta. The fresh message she carried at the beginning was swallowed up in an ocean of shallow commercial images. A trend that led Netta’s fans to lose interest and Netta to reinvent herself in her latest song, “Cuckoo” (2020). Through sincerity, directness and cleanliness of her message, Netta like a bird in a cage seeks to break free from the evil loop in which she was imprisoned and not only love herself but also love others and let others love her. Keywords: symbolic goods; Netta Barzilai; Me-too movement; Pierre Bourdieu; Women empowerment "

Symbolic Goods in Israeli Posters

"This article deals with symbolic goods in posters in Israel from the period before the establishment of the state to the present day. The poster and the symbolic goods that appear in it, serve as an agent of ideological companies. In this study, I will examine the nature of the relationship between the symbolic goods and the Zionist-Israeli ideology, by comparing the symbolic goods represented in them over time and space. The questions the research asks are: What are the contribution and importance of symbolic goods as an ideological tool in Israeli posters? Has the world of symbolic goods that served Zionist ideology origin or been borrowed from other ideologies? The methodology is Qualitative research by: study case, Visual – genealogical. The conclusions of the study indicate the importance of the symbolic goods in the foundation of the State of Israel by posters and other media. The symbolic goods that characterize the posters in Israel, consist in part of content related to Jewish tradition and religion (Bible stories and myths) and its other part is influenced by the symbolic goods appropriated from ideologies around the globe. Keywords: Symbolic Goods, Posters, Marketing, Ideology, Zionist Movement, Israel. "

How Social Comparison on Instagram Affects Well-Being. Perspectives from a Study Conducted During the Lockdown

"During the Spring of 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries ordered lockdowns. The limitations of movement contributed to the rise of social media activity. The present research focused on how the active use of Instagram had an impact on well-being during the first lockdown in Romania. Aiming to explore how active Instagram use contributes to users' self-esteem, satisfaction with life, and loneliness during an unprecedented situation of a lockdown, we conducted an online survey in April 2020 on young adults (N=411) in Romania. Findings showed that actively using Instagram during the lockdown did not have a significant direct impact on self-esteem and satisfaction with life, but significantly decreased loneliness. Upward comparison of Instagram active users contributed to the increase in self-esteem but decreased the values of satisfaction with life and increased loneliness. The downward comparison had no significant impact on self-esteem, satisfaction with life, and loneliness. Keywords: social media, well-being, Instagram, social comparison, COVID-19 pandemic. "

Critical Thinking in a World of Fake News. Teaching the Public to Make Good Choices

"Fake news are a big concern for media, audiences and governments. Some journalists are engaged in finding fake news and disclose them. Fake news is also a concern to the researchers and journalism professors, but they should not focus only on the way fake news work, or how to teach future journalists about them, a big challenge would be to teach the audiences, the public to make the right choices and identify fake news. Tackling this problem of the popularization of science and teaching the public should actually be one of the key-concerns of the journalism professors today in Romania. It is the purpose of this paper to propose a list of criteria to identify fake news, by using critical thinking, a list that could be easily explained to people from the public, so they can make good choices. The core notion used hereby will be quality. A large discussion on quality in journalism raised at the end of the 1990s in Western Europe, not so in Romania. Therefore, it seems more than appropriate to start it now. Keywords: fake news, media, critical thinking, education, public, criteria. "

Joker in News Media Discourse

"The entertainment media often delivers cultural symbols, which occasionally inform news media discourse. Such is the case of the “Joker” being used as a symbol of chaos. Since the character’s existence and popularity generated a pool of possibilities for political associations, the latest Joker film by director Todd Phillips, which premiered in 2019, caused controversy on many levels: “The real threat of Joker is hiding in plain sight” (The New York Times 2019); “Joker isn’t an ode to the far right – it’s a warning against austerity” (The Guardian 2019). The polemical aspect of the discourse prompted by this film is apparent in the frames used by the news media to cover Joker’s premiere. This paper aims to identify these news media frames, using an inductive clustering method, and further investigate them by exploring theories of social construction of reality, with a focus on psychoanalytic aspects of the hero/villain myth that informs these news frames. Keywords: Media Frames, Myth, Constructivism, Joker. "