Page 143 - Communication Theory and Research

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128 Communication Theory & Research
Analysis of newspaper coverage

The critical analysis of the newspaper coverage highlights several recurring
themes suggesting a discourse of struggle with the infiltration of women into the
public sphere through the framing of the Four Mothers movement’s activities
within the private sphere. The following suggests the discourse strategies through
which this framing was achieved.

Naming and its essence

The first and most prominent theme is related to the naming of the movement
‘Four Mothers’, a label used by both the journalists and the members themselves.
The first article to adopt this name appeared in a local paper, following the
informal gathering of the four soldiers’ mothers who initiated the protest against
the drafting of young men to an unchallenged war. Since the article appeared
just before the Passover holiday, when according to Jewish tradition the story of
the exodus of the Jewish slaves from Egypt is celebrated and the four biblical
Jewish mothers are mentioned, the journalist’s choice of the symbolic title of
‘Four Mothers’ was timely. Ben-Dor, the initiator of the movement, recalls:

We decided to adopt the name, but we didn’t conceive that motherhood and
femininity would serve our opponents as an opportunity to divert attention
from the issue and dwell on us and on our name. We tried time and again
to say that fathers and many good citizens are partners in our protest, but
the exposure was mainly to us as a phenomenon. (interview, 21 July 1998)

Most of the newspaper items include a reference to this name in their titles:
‘Mothers’, ‘What do mothers say in the days and in the nights’, ‘Mothers’ voice’,
‘Four mothers and one war’, ‘A mother’s plan’, ‘Ten mothers joined four
mothers’, ‘Four mothers and a deputy minister’, ‘We all have mothers’, ‘The
minister and the mothers’, ‘Girlfriends of soldiers join mothers’, ‘Mothers’ war-
games’, ‘Mothers and withdrawal plans’.
The titles’ framing of this civil resistance to the war, as rooted in the
dependency role of motherhood, strongly reflects the dominant theme in the
articles themselves. Motherhood serves as the means of legitimizing these
women, thereby validating their right to express their views and for the media
practitioners to give them a voice.
As one article opens:

When their sons were drafted to the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF], it was clear
to the mothers that this is what needs to be done. Four mothers . . . wiped
their tears and knew that from this time on a new way of life begins for
them: elite units, a life of worries from one leave to the next, relief when
destiny skips over them, and a terrible pain when it did not skip over their
friends. (Shneid, Ma’ariv, n.d.)