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News Texts and Internet Users: Critical Analysis of Talkbacks as a Virtual Meeting Point between Football, Politics and Identity in Israel
Last modified: 2011-04-01
Abstract
This research examines Talkbacks (=readers comments) as a modern mechanism that continues the long running response tradition of media audiences. In fact Talkbacks constitute a meeting point between news texts and Internet users and thus create a virtual Public Sphere. Talkbacks allow spontaneous comments and discussions by Internet users as a social practice. According to the sport related literature integration and protest are two models of the roles sport can take in society: integration as promoting nationally while protest as supporting social conflicts.
It is impossible to separate football from the wider context of nationality especially in nations were political, national and social schisms. This is true in the Israeli case where the Jewish-Arab schism divides national identity between Jewish majority and Arab minority.
Within this context quantitative and qualitative content analysis was applied to 1339 Talkbacks to 10 news articles posted two days before (257), during and immediately after the Arab Football Club Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin won the Israel State Cup on May 18th 2004 (592), and two days following (492). We sampled every fifth comment which totaled in an analysis of 274 Talkbacks.
Categories used partly emerged from relevant literature and partly from the Talkbacks' content. Among them were the relationship between football and politics, support or objection to an Arab club winning the Israeli Cup and identifying the Talkbacks' discourse as emotional or rational. This critical analysis was aimed at understanding public opinion towards the Arab minority residing in a Jewish state.
According to our findings which will be presented in the full paper political attitudes spill over to sport. According to the Talkbacks analyzed on the winning eve, it seemed Israeli public opinion was very much in favor of Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin holding the cup, this although day-to-day Israeli reality shows that sport does not promote national integration and solidarity.
It is impossible to separate football from the wider context of nationality especially in nations were political, national and social schisms. This is true in the Israeli case where the Jewish-Arab schism divides national identity between Jewish majority and Arab minority.
Within this context quantitative and qualitative content analysis was applied to 1339 Talkbacks to 10 news articles posted two days before (257), during and immediately after the Arab Football Club Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin won the Israel State Cup on May 18th 2004 (592), and two days following (492). We sampled every fifth comment which totaled in an analysis of 274 Talkbacks.
Categories used partly emerged from relevant literature and partly from the Talkbacks' content. Among them were the relationship between football and politics, support or objection to an Arab club winning the Israeli Cup and identifying the Talkbacks' discourse as emotional or rational. This critical analysis was aimed at understanding public opinion towards the Arab minority residing in a Jewish state.
According to our findings which will be presented in the full paper political attitudes spill over to sport. According to the Talkbacks analyzed on the winning eve, it seemed Israeli public opinion was very much in favor of Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin holding the cup, this although day-to-day Israeli reality shows that sport does not promote national integration and solidarity.