Media Coverage of COVID-19 Mobile Phone Surveillance as a Non-Commemorative Site of Nazi Germany and Holocaust Remembrance

Aya Yadlin, Avi Marciano

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

As part of its efforts to battle the spread of COVID-19, the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or the Shin Bet) has been authorized under Israeli Defense Emergency Regulations to track citizens’ mobile phone geolocations. This case became a fertile ground for multiple stakeholders negotiating the image and role of digital technologies within socio-political exigencies. One important arena in which these discussions took place was Israeli news outlets. A thematic analysis of 155 news items from Ynet, Ha’aretz, Walla, and Mako revealed competing frames that legitimized or criticized ISA mobile phone surveillance. One of these frames employed the memory of the Holocaust as an interpretive locus for unpacking surveillance practices and their outcomes. In this article, we show how invoking the collective memory of the Holocaust became a journalistic tool for unpacking current events (and specifically those related to digital media), enhancing their value, and stressing their weight where a national persona is imagined in times of a global crisis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)285-297
Number of pages13
JournalJewish Film and New Media
Volume10
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Sep 2022

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • Holocaust remembrance
  • israel
  • location tracking
  • mobile phone
  • non-commemorative collective memory
  • surveillance

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cultural Studies
  • Communication
  • Visual Arts and Performing Arts
  • Anthropology

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