This study explores the role of urban public spaces for democratic and social engagement. It examines the impact of wireless Internet use on urban public spaces, Internet users, and others who inhabit these spaces. Through observations of 7 parks, plazas, and markets in 4 North American cities, and surveys of wireless Internet users in those sites, we explore how this new technology is related to processes of social interaction, privatism, and democratic engagement. Findings reveal that Internet use within public spaces affords interactions with existing acquaintances that are more diverse than those associated with mobile phone use. However, the level of colocated social diversity to which Internet users are exposed is less than that of most users of these spaces. Yet, online activities in public spaces do contribute to broader participation in the public sphere. Internet connectivity within public spaces may contribute to higher overall levels of democratic and social engagement than what is afforded by exposure within similar spaces free of Internet connectivity.

While the issue of citizens’ declining trust in journalists has received much attention in both research and public discourse, relatively little research has examined how individuals’ evaluations of the accuracy of media coverage of events they witnessed personally may have long-term effects on the level of trust in journalists. Using the responses of Israeli adults (n = 405) to an online survey, this study explored various predictors of public trust in journalists and found that perceived correspondence between direct personal experience and news reports was the strongest predictor of trust in journalists and the only one that remained significant when controlling for all other factors. In addition, general levels of public trust in journalists were found to be in small decline. These findings suggest that declining levels of trust in journalists may be associated with actual evaluations of the quality of media performance by individuals, thus refocusing the question of trust on journalistic practice rather than on audience attributes. At the same time, the fact that personal and possibly anecdotal evidence may have significant long-term effects on audience levels of trust is potentially problematic from a democratic standpoint. We discuss the implications and limitations of our findings.

The introduction of the internet to ultra-Orthodox Jewish society has presented an acute dilemma. While seen as a potential carrier of secular values and officially banned, the internet also presents significant socioeconomic opportunities for a community in which women are often the sole providers. This research focuses on the discursive strategies ultraOrthodox women internet users employ to legitimate their use of this controversial technology. A glaring disparity was observed between these women's actual, subversive technology-related practices and the rhetorical construction of the same practices, which attempted to portray them as congruent with community values. We suggest that when investigating the domestication of new technologies, examining technology-related discourse may be no less important than the more common to date focus on practice.

H o w journalists perceive media influence was explored by comparing resultsfrom a survey of Israeli journalists (n = 200) and a survey of the Israeli adult population (n = 2,203). As predicted, journalists demonstrated signifcant third-person perceptions (TPPs), but these were acfually smaller than those of the public. Journalists tended more than the public to perceive media influence as positive. Journalists perceiving a stronger media influence were relatively new journalists and worked for local media, but had some formal education in journalism.

This study examines the use of the derogatory term mishtamtim (literally, 'shirkers') for Israeli citizens who do not serve in the military, as employed in a variety of widely circulating cultural texts and in several focus group discussions. I suggest that in addition to revealing and reflecting Israeli society's dominant views and opinions on military service and its relation to civil society, the inherent ambiguity of the mishtamtim label enables interlocutors to construct different notions of the Israeli collective, which are then translated into different patterns of inclusion and exclusion, hierarchies of citizenship, and disciplinary meas ures. In addition, the discursive construction of non-service as avoidance of participation in a symbolic, non-violent, civilianized, and benevolent contribution to the collective conceals the military's own tendency to discharge conscripts, as well as its inherently violent nature and the role that violence plays in providing the glue that keeps society together.