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Dan Caspi
DAN CASPI
Prof. Dan Caspi (born in 1946) is a lecturer at the Communication Studies Department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheba, Israel.
Throughout his career, Prof. Caspi has combined research with public activity and extensive, livelycommentary, publishing hundreds of articles in the printed daily and online press, including regular columns in a Jerusalem local paper, in the Israel Publishers’ Association monthly Otot [Signals], in Haayin Hashviit[The Seventh Eye – online media journal], the op-ed section of ynet[an online newspaper produced by Yedioth Ahronoth] and currently, a blog for Ha'aretz.
Contents Life and work Positions Research and publications Books and monographs Textbooks Editing External links
Life and work edit
Dan Caspi (originally Casapu) was born in Săveni and soon thereafter his family relocated to Dorohoi, in Moldova,northeastern Romania. Although physical handicapped by cerebral palsy(CP), he attended regular local schools in Romania and then in Israel after moving there with his family in 1960, at the age of 14. The family settled in Beersheba, where Caspi completed his high school studies.
In the mid-1960s, Caspi began his undergraduate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at the Departments of Political Science and Sociology, followed by graduate studies in political science and communications. Caspi’s doctoral thesis, supervised by Profs. Elihu Katz – recipient of the Israel Prize for Communications – and Emanuel Gutmann, assesses Knesset Members’ perception of public opinion, as differentiated from actual public opinion, comparing the latter with the views the Knesset Members express. After receiving his doctorate in 1976, Caspi spent a year of post-doctoral studies at MIT, under the auspices of Prof. Ithiel de Sola Pool, followed by work at other overseas universities, including Rutgers, Manchester, Concordia, the London School of Economics and Paris VIII. During the mid-1980s, Prof. Caspi moved to the Open University of Israel anddeveloped a communications studies program, writing and editing a series of textbooks now used at universities, colleges and professional schools throughout Israel. In 2000, Prof. Caspi returned to Beersheba to help establish the Department of Communication Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, a department he headed until 2009. Caspi is married, with a daughter, Inbal and three granddaughters, Lior, Yahli and Ariel.
Positions edit
Over the past few years, Prof. Caspi has held several academic and public positions: Member of the Academic Council, Hadassah College, Jerusalem Head of the Department of Communication Studies and the Burda Center for Innovative Communications, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (2004–2009) Member of the panel of judges, Nahum Sokolov Prize (2005, 2007 and 2009) Member of the Israel Broadcasting Authority Executive Board (2000–2003) Member of the Science Council of the biannual Kesher, Tel Aviv University (since 2005) Founding President of the Israel Communications Association (1996–1999) Academic consultant to Tik Tikshoret, Israel Educational Television’s weekly program devoted to media issues (1991–1993) Academic consultant, Koteret School of Journalism and Communications, Tel Aviv University (1992–1993) Consultant to the Israel Ministry of Education and Culture for the drafting of special mass media syllabi (1986–1992) Founder and editor, Medina, Mimshal Veyahasim Beinleumiim [State, Government and International Relations], an Israeli journal of political science (1971–1986)
Research and Publications edit
Prof. Caspi specializes in mass media, media and politics, public opinion and propaganda, media institutions, local media, minority media, media regulation and electoral campaigns.He has published over 20 books on communications and dozens of academic articles in Hebrew, English and Russian, including a children’s book under the name Aba shel Inbal [Inbal’s Father].
Books and Monographs edit
1. Agenda: Media, Society, Politics. TelAviv. Resling, 2011, in Hebrew.
2. Mustafa Kabha and Dan Caspi, The Palestinian Arab In / Outsiders: Media and Conflict in Israel. London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2011.
3. Hanna Adoni, Dan Caspi, Akiba A. Cohen, Media, Minorities, and Hybrid Identities: The Arab and Russian Communities in Israel.Cresskill (NJ): Hampton Press, 2006.
4. Due to Technical Difficulties: The Fall of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority. Mevasereth Zion: Tzivonim, 2005, (in Hebrew).
5. Dan Caspi and Yehiel Limor. The In/Outsiders: The Mass Media in Israel. Cresskill (NJ): Hampton Press, 1999.
6. Dan Caspi and Yehiel Limor. The Mediators: The Mass Media in Israel, 1948-1990. Tel Aviv. Am Oved,1992(second printing – 1993; third printing – 1997), (in Hebrew).
7. Political Polarization and Electoral Rhetoric: The Begin-Peres Televised Debates. Open University of Israel Research Report: Working Paper No. 419/88, January 1988, in Hebrew.
8. Media Decentralization: The Case of Israel’s Local Newspapers. New Brunswick (NJ): Transaction, 1986.
9. The Growth of the Local Press in Israel. Institute for Local Government, Bar-Ilan University, 1980, (in Hebrew).
Textbooks edit
1. Pictures in our Heads: Public Opinion and Democracy. Tel Aviv: The Open University of Israel, 2001,in Hebrew.
2. Dan Caspi and Yehiel Limor, Mass Communication: Communication Institution, Units 8-10.Tel Aviv: The Open University of Israel, 1996, in Hebrew.
3. Mass Communication: An Introduction, Units 5-7. Tel Aviv: The Open University of Israel, 1995, in Hebrew.
4. Mass Communication: An Introduction, Units 1-4.Tel Aviv: The Open University of Israel, 1993, in Hebrew.
5. Mass Media and Politics. Government and Politics in Israel, Unit 10.Tel Aviv: The Open University of Israel, 1990 (revised edition, 1997; Russian and revised edition, 1998), in Hebrew..
Editing edit
1. Tal Samuel-Azran and Dan Caspi, eds. New Media and Innovative Technologies. Beersheba. Ben-Gurion University Press and Tzivonim Publishing, 2008.
2. Dan Caspi, ed. Communication and Politics in Israel. Jerusalem: Van Leer/ Hakibbutz Hameuhad,2007, in Hebrew.
3. Dan Caspi and Yehiel Limor, eds. Mass Media in Israel.Tel Aviv: The Open University of Israel, 1998, in Hebrew.
4. Dan Caspi. ed. Communications and Democracy in IsraelJerusalem: Van Leer/ Hakibbutz Hameuhad,1997 (2nd printing – 1998; 4thprinting – 1999), in Hebrew.
5. Dan Caspi. ed. Trends and Traditions in Mass Communication: A Reader.Tel Aviv. The Open University of Israel. 1995, in Hebrew.
6. Dan Caspi, Avraham Diskin and Emanuel Gutmann, eds.The Roots of Begin’s Success: The 1981 Elections.London: Croom Helm,1984.
Prof. Caspi has long been a staunch opponent of family-owned media conglomerates in Israel and has warned repeatedly of the connection among capital, the press and government, especially regarding the rise in power of the “media barons” who head these conglomerates. In the early 1990s, Prof. Caspi rallied to the public struggle against their cross-ownership and control of television broadcast channels. One of his newspaper articles at the time, “Citizen N. M.” (Hadashot, October 8, 1992), coined a lasting nickname forYediothAhronothpublisher Noni Mozes.In the mid 1990s, Caspi revealed that violence against women even occurs in academic circles, breaking his colleagues’ extended silence by publishing an article entitled “Don’t Ask Him” (People in the Forefront [Haaretz daily supplement], January 27, 1995). The two articles respectively open and close his collection of articles entitled Agenda (see list of Hebrew books, above).
External Links edit
Categories: 1946 births | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev faculty | Media theorists| Israeli media theorists | Israeli textbook writers