'We are staying in our country - Here': Israeli Mediascapes in Melbourne

This paper is based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with broadcasters of two distinctive Hebrew radio programmes in Melbourne. The two programmes are part of a weekly Jewish programme broadcast in Hebrew, English and Yiddish. They operate within the setting of a local ethnic community radio station, a manifestation of Australian multicultural policies whereby nearly 63 different ethnic and language groups produce radio programmes for their distinct communities. Focusing on the Israeli broadcasters who present the Hebrew radio programmes, I examine how different political identities and a sense of being away from Israel are translated into the programmes they make. Despite their shared cultural background, Israeli immigrants have different personal and collective readings of the past in Israel and of present life in Melbourne. The weekly programmes in Hebrew operate as a cultural site in which political and migratory experiences interact and intervene to produce migratory mediascapes in which contradictory interpretations of identity are played out.