Prime time postzionism : negotiating Israeliness through global television formats

Prime Time Postzionism - Negotiating Israeliness through Global Television Formats looks at the Israeli reality competition show – Kohav Nolad (“A Star is Born”) as a key text to help explore the ways in which Israeli broadcasters in the contemporary commercial television environment, adapt globally dominant televisual forms as models for the production of extremely popular local series. This program, widely perceived as epitomizing contemporary Israeli national identity, is simultaneously also debated as the product of globalization, and as marker of a post-national/post-Zionist era. In these discussions, perceptions of the proper Israeli national culture and identity are juxtaposed with assumptions about the nature and perceived influence of the shift from public state monopoly in television broadcast to a globalized commercial multichannel broadcast environment. Combining production ethnography with analysis of industry, texts, and public reception discourses, this project explores the significance of global format adaptations for marginal and belated broadcast systems like Israeli television.