I am Head of Marketing Communication program at the Department of Communication at Sapir Academic College. In addition, I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Communication at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Haifa.
I am the author of the Communication and High-Tech: Journalism, Public Relations, and Media culture book (2022).
I am the chair of the Research Students Forum at Israel Communication Association (ISCA) and a Ph.D. fellow of the Israel Scholarship Education Foundation (ISEF). My research interest lies in the relationship between media representations and the promotion of technology innovation in society. Specifically, I analyze the spatial distribution of tech storytelling and investigate how media and marketing influence this distribution. My dissertation’s title is Diffusion of the innovation idea in the media: The coverage patterns of the technology industry in the Israeli press and the factors behind them (1950-2020).
I am proud to be recognized as an award-winning scholar, with my media, social, and academic activities acknowledged over the years. I received the Haifa Communication Award from the University of Haifa (2015), followed by the Israeli Public Relations Association’s (ISPRA) annual Roaring Lion excellence competition (2017). My work was honored with the Metaksherim award for best communication research (2018), and the Israel Public Relations Association (2019) awarded me and my team the Tech and Finance division prize. In addition, I won the best study and presentation award at the Haifa International Social Science Conference (2020), and my paper received the Yedioth Haifa excellence award for academic paper (2021). Most recently, in 2022, I was awarded the Shalom Rosenfeld Institute for Research of Jewish Media and Communication scholarship by the S. Daniel Abraham Center for International and Regional Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Tel-Aviv University.
Before my Ph.D. studies, I have accomplished an MA degree in strategic communication and public relations (University of Haifa, Israel). There I conducted a pioneering and mix-method study titled: Cover Patterns of Technology in the Media: High-Tech Companies in the Israeli Online Journalism and the Strategic Role of Marketing Factors. The study examines the media representation of the Israeli high-tech industry. I have a BA degree in Marketing Communication from the Sapir Academic College, Israel.
On the professional side of things, I started my journey in the communication industry at the age of 16, as a reporter and editor at local newspapers in my hometown Sderot. Later, I worked at the Israeli Second Authority for Television and Radio in Jerusalem. At the same time, I elected to be the Israeli representative at the global online broadcasting project (VOICES). Moving to the other side of the media fence was natural. Over the years as a communication consultant in award-winning firms, I accompanied media activities and campaigns for a variety of organizations and public figures. The focus of my professional career is on strategic consulting for technology companies. Over the years, I had the opportunity to work with leading tech brands.
I am also the founder of the SPICE internship program (Sapir’s Practice in Communication Experience). SPICE’s goal is to contribute to students’ practical knowledge through internships in media organizations, digital-marketing companies and public relation firms.
In the past few years, I have published dozens of op-ed articles on a variety of leading media outlets (Forbes, Globes, The-Marker, The Times of Israel, Ynet, Davar1, INN, Jerusalem-Post, NRG, The7eye, Israel-Hayom). The articles focus on media and technology. Many of the pieces are also dealing with the periphery journalistic representation. From this perspective, and since I am enthusiastic about the media sphere, I have founded the Media-Representations web project. The project aims to stimulate a critical discourse about the media coverage of populations and disadvantaged groups in Israeli society.
Itzhak Mashiah 