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This study addresses questions of access and agency as they come into play in intergroup contact. In such a context, access to information about the outgroup and conflict, as well as active agency in the form of engagement in intergroup discussions about the conflict, group identity, goals and compromises, are often a function of the intensity and effect of the contact. Although intergroup contact has been proven to be efficient in reducing stereotypes and advancing mutual understanding, these effects are inconsistent. The authors introduce eye tracking as a method for assessing participant engagement and attention as predictors of the contact effect on participants. They examine this approach through the use of simulated virtual contact, an innovative method which allows citizens direct access to information about and from the outgroup, and emphasizes participant agency by increasing participant control over the session. Israeli students participated in a simulated virtual contact with a Palestinian while their ocular behaviour was recorded. Anger and hatred toward Palestinians decreased after the session. Perception of Palestinian trustworthiness and ability to change increased. Desire to access information about Palestinians, changes in the belief of Palestinian ability to change, acknowledgment of a shared identity and support for compromises all correlated with visual attention to the speaker, leading to reflections on the relationship between attention and contact intensity and effect. Practical recommendations for promoting participant attention and possibly increasing contact effect are discussed, and the article concludes with a general theoretical discussion on the use of eye tracking for measuring contact intensity and designing better contact experiences.

Members of parliament's (MPs) social media channels are significant arenas for communication between the public and national leaders. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to explore how these channels function during emergencies. We present findings from a mixed-method study of automatic and manual content analysis of a unique dataset composed of all posts on Israeli MPs' Facebook pages during the entire 19th Israeli parliament. We compare scope of posting, engagement with posts, and the content in MPs' Facebook pages during "ordinary" periods and an "emergency" period, focusing on the 2014 Israel/Gaza war. Findings present MPs' social media pages as hubs of interaction between MPs and audiences in emergencies, even more so than during ordinary periods. MPs' social media pages involve significantly more posts (and engagement with posts) during emergencies. In addition, the content in them becomes more emotional, less personal, and focused on the emergency situation and the national leaders responding to it.

Members of parliament's (MPs) social media channels are significant arenas for communication between the public and national leaders. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to explore how these channels function during emergencies. We present findings from a mixed-method study of automatic and manual content analysis of a unique dataset composed of all posts on Israeli MPs' Facebook pages during the entire 19th Israeli parliament. We compare scope of posting, engagement with posts, and the content in MPs' Facebook pages during "ordinary" periods and an "emergency" period, focusing on the 2014 Israel/Gaza war. Findings present MPs' social media pages as hubs of interaction between MPs and audiences in emergencies, even more so than during ordinary periods. MPs' social media pages involve significantly more posts (and engagement with posts) during emergencies. In addition, the content in them becomes more emotional, less personal, and focused on the emergency situation and the national leaders responding to it.

Media panics research is concerned with widespread social anxiety formed around a new technology or medium. This study adds to existing research by characterizing a new form of media panic around augmented reality applications, and specifically that which erupted concerning Pokémon GO, a popular augmented reality game. Based on a content analysis of items related to the game published in Israel's major print and online media in the period immediately following the game's launch, we classify the negative media coverage as a media panic and propose an explanation for its emergence. We argue that the negative reactions to the game stem specifically from the game's unique features and its mobile infrastructure, and especially its use of augmented reality that combines users' virtual experiences and their interactions in actual physical space. We identify a third wave of mobile panic in this current phenomenon, one which takes into account the unique features of mobile technology as infrastructure for augmented reality applications. In contrast to previous incidents of media panic that focused on the harmful effects of increased technology use by young users, and their detachment from their physical environment, this wave represents an essentially opposite phenomenon, in which physical mobility itself, facilitated by the use of augmented reality, is deemed dangerous to players' health and safety.

Many government-sponsored policies and programs have been implemented in recent years to reduce digital inequality, but research on the effectiveness of such programs is severely lacking. We examine the short-term effects of participation in Lehava, the largest such program in Israel. Participants in our study completed a survey before and after taking introductory computer and internet classes. The findings demonstrate that motivations for participating in the program (measured before taking the course), as well as knowledge gains (i.e., differences between levels of familiarity with concepts before and after taking the course), were predicted almost exclusively by participants' perceptions of technology and the internet, and not by socio-demographic or other variables. We conclude by discussing the significance of perceptions over and above socio-demographic considerations for bridging digital inequality gaps.

Introduction . - Israel at the polls 2015: a moment of transformative stability / Eithan Orkibi 573-577 . - PART 1: CAMPAIGN AND RESULTS ANALYSIS . - The run up to Israel's 2015 elections: a political history / Manfred Gerstenfeld 578-596 . - Who turned out at the polls? Socioeconomic and geographic perspectives on 2015 voter turnouts in Israel / Nir Atmor & Chen Friedberg 597-612 . - A new integrated model of the formation of coalitions: perspectives on the Twentieth Knesset / Dganit Ofek & Assaf Meydani 613-627 . - PART 2: FIGURES OF LEADERSHIP AND POLITICAL IDENTITIES . - Likud's success in the 2015 elections: Netanyahu's Hobbesian moment / Doron Navot & Aviad Rubin 628-640 . - De-militarization as political self-marginalization: Israeli Labor Party and the MISEs (members of Israeli security elite) 1977-2015 / Udi Lebel & Guy Hatuka 641-663. - The covert political ethnicity of the Kulanu party / Nissim Leon 664-682. - Back to the Knesset? Israeli Arab vote in the 20th Knesset elections / Arik Rudnitzky 683-696. - Leadership and identity politics on the eve of the Israeli 2015 elections: children's perspectives / Michal Alon-Tirosh & Dorit Hadar-Shoval 697-710 . - PART 3: MEDIA AND NEW-MEDIA . - Not all about that Facebook: political campaigns and civic engagement in the 2015 elections / Sharon Haleva-Amir 711-726. - Trends in public and media agenda-setting during the 2015 Israeli elections / Dana Weimann-Saks, Yaron Ariel, Vered Malka & Ruth Avidar 727-742. - The F-campaign: a discourse network analysis of party leaders' campaign statements on Facebook / Nili Steinfeld 743-759. - PART 4: POLITICAL DISCOURSE AND PERSUASION . - The enemy within us: emotional politics in the 2015 Israeli elections / Mira Moshe 760-771. - Pragmatic and value-based argumentation in the 2015 Israeli elections / David Kleczewski & Ruth Amossy 772-787. - The Bibi Sitter and the Hipster: the new comical political discourse / Rafi Mann 788-801