This article examines the methods through which the formal and emotional components, embedded in the photo sharing and social networking application Instagram, are utilized as a propaganda tool to cultivate solidarity with promoted agendas. The test case is Instagram photos posted on the official Web site of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The article juxtaposes two conceptual systems, the one shared by the members of Instagram and a system based on presuppositions regarding the ideologies, values, and emotional attitudes shared by Israeli Instagram users toward the IDF. This juxtaposition is made possible, thanks to the resemblance found between the aesthetic and emotional aspects of Instagram and the ideological and emotional aspects emphasized by IDF. Three main interrelated motifs demonstrate the article’s argument: soldiers as civilians/photographers in momentary disguise, army and nature, and admiration for appearances of weapons.
This article discusses advertisement postcards that are distributed, free of charge, at special stands in public places. In addition to their primary function (they are rarely used, thus defining them as almost `non-post' cards), the postcards serve those who take them as a collector's item, a conversation piece, a sign of belonging to a particular group (being `in') and as a component in structuring cultural and social frameworks. Taking these postcards as an example, the article attempts to define the spatial, social and linguistic characteristics of the discourse of postcards. The author examines the specific nature of the discourse that develops between the creators of these postcards and their audiences. A certain indirect dialogue takes place, almost devoid of feedback, in which the medium revolves and changes its function when different receivers and diverse locations create new definitions for it. The analysis of the audience demonstrates an inclination towards a particular social group of skilful consumers, who consume the `best' advertisements as cultural products in themselves. This group is expressed by virtue of their active decision to detect and choose a specific postcard and use it in a variety of ways.
This article deals with the multimodal components of televised situations that the author calls ‘iconic’ and that revolve around a dramatic announcement or declaration delivered on camera as part of a television broadcast. She argues that, in contemporary visual culture, iconic still photographs are gradually being replaced by iconic televised situations that become established as units of memory whose repeated airings and viewings ultimately gain an iconic status. Understanding this re-enactment has crucial importance in understanding the process by which the experience of the individual viewer or listener is interwoven with the narrative of the televised situation and in comprehending the role of witnessing. The article focuses on the spoken text, the roles of those who partake in the iconic situation and on the manner in which the fabric of verbal and visual elements helps to establish these situations as memorable. The author addresses three situations that were aired on Israeli television: the official announcement of the assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, the announcement of the death of Israeli singer Arik Einstein and the video message delivered by the abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from his place of captivity in Gaza.
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