Where Did We Go Wrong?

The Seventh Eye (Ha-Ayin ha-Shevi'it) was a bimonthly magazine devoted to communication issues, published by the Israel Democracy Institute since January 1996. The motivation for its establishment was the desire to provide the Israeli communications media a platform that would allow journalists to scrutinize themselves closely ("with seven eyes"). The periodical was edited and written by working journalists who joined together to create a framework for self-examination. Prompting its formation was an ever-increasing feeling of unease over developments within the Israeli media, as well as a lack of tools for reining them in.

Thus for 12 years The Seventh Eye served as a meeting place for journalists in which discussion was waged about the profession - its allure as well as its weaknesses. Communications professionals from the entire gamut - from the most senior and well known journalists to the most junior and youngest of their colleagues as they took their first steps in the field - made their way to pages of The Seventh Eye. The journal provided an opportunity for all Israeli journalists to cast a second look at what they had produced, as well as to become aware of worldwide phenomena in the communications arena. At the same time, it offered media consumers a chance to peek into the way journalists criticize themselves and discuss issues at the heart of their profession.

This book is a collection drawn from more than one thousand articles, reports, columns, and sections that appeared in the journal. The selections were aimed at enabling the reader to become familiar with issues that engaged the Israeli press and the processes that it went through. The chosen items comprise texts that have stood the test of time and whose applicability and inherent interest are relevant in any period.