Media Decentralization: The Case of Israel's Local Newspapers

Dan Caspi offers a comprehensive introduction to the Israeli mass media and a fresh theoretical look at the role and function of a free press in a democratic society. Two major issues underlie this study, patterned after the pioneering work of Morris Janowitz on the community press in the United States: relations between social and communications systems and reciprocal relations among various mass media.

Caspi's primary concern is to determine whether the recent flourishing of a local press, in the form of weekly tabloids sold or distributed free throughout their respective cities, reflects and in turn contributes to a process of social and political decentralization. The Israeli audience thirsts for information. The nationwide mass media, developed in the shadow of a centralist political system, is rigid and inflexible, downplaying the news value of local events and attending only to Israel's acutely felt security and economic problems. Hence, there is "a "burgeoning of over a hundred local newspapers to fill the need for a more intimate press.

Contents: "Media Decentralization in a Centralized System: Some General Trends and a Communication Model"; "The Daily Press in Israel"; "The Development of the Local Press"; "Institutional Characteristics"; "Personnel Characteristics"; "Functional Characteristics"; "The Struggle between the Local and Nationwide Press"; "The Inception of the Local Press in Four Major Cities: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheba"; "Public Support"; "Political Approaches."