The facts speak for themselves:
New study finds Israeli-Arabs, who make up 20% of the Israeli population, are practically absent from TV screens, airwaves. Furthermore, media outlets very rarely employ Arabs workers
While Israeli-Arabs make up 19% of the population, their representation in the media stands at only 1%, a report published by Agenda, The Israeli Center for Strategic Communication, revealed Sunday.
Moreover, the study found that the large broadcasting channels, internet sites and major production companies employ a very small number of Arabs among their staff.
Conducted by Prof Gadi Wolfsfeld of the Hebrew University, the study examined the representation of Israeli Arabs in the Hebrew-speaking media in Israel between June 2006 and May 2007.
According to the study, Channel 2 held the record in excluding Arabs from the screen, and only 0.55% of the items broadcast by the channel featured Arabs. Of these items, 68% presented Arabs as a threat. The numbers for channels 1 and 10 were strikingly similar.
The representation of Arabs in radio stations has also failed to cross the 1% bar, although IDF Radio was slightly more inclined to broadcast items on Arabs than Israel Radio (0.91% and 0.45% respectively). In both stations, some 50% of the items presented Arabs in a negative, menacing context.