ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 analyzes the writing strategies and techniques that Ben-Yehuda, and foremost his son Itamar Ben-Avi, used to induce local customers to continue reading Ha-Zvi every day. I believe that they invoked sensationalistic, spectacular techniques of mass journalism to reinforce the bond between the paper and its readers and to make Ha-Zvi a desired product among the Yishuv population at large, something to buy every day. Here I examine Ha-Zvi’s performance in several affairs in 1908–1909, such as its crusade against Albert Antebi, that I regard as media events—initiated, planned, and amplified by this media vehicle itself in order to promote a strategy of sensationalism and spectacle with which to shape readers’ worldview.
