The consumer's choice: Language, media consumption and hybrid identities of minorities

This study focuses on two large minorities in Israeli society: the 'returning Diaspora' of Russian immigrants and the 'involuntary' Arab minority. Using surrey data, this paper examines the relationship between the use of Hebrew, Russian and/or Arabic media, and the strength of two identities that members of a minority group possess; i. e., the one shared with the Israeli majority and the one based on one's respective minority. Based on the use of media in their native languages (Russian or Arabic) as well as Hebrew media, four types of media consumers were discerned in both minority communities: adapters, dualists, separatists, and detached. Most of the Russians were separatists, with dualists in second place while the modal type among the Arabs were the dualists, with separatists ranked second. The proportion of adapters among the Russians was double that among the Arabs. Among the Russians there was a significant interaction between Russian and Hebrew media use and the majority identity, while among the Arabs there was a significant interaction between Arabic and Hebrew media use and the minority identity. The findings suggest that dualist-hybrid media consumers, who are relatively high users of the media in the two languages, seem to be the best equipped and most compatible for integration into Israel's evolving multicultural society.