Narrating the Double Helix: The Immigrant-Professional Biography of a Russian Journalist in Israel

• Main Authors: Nelly Elias, Julia Lerner
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: FQS 2011-11-01
• Series: Forum: Qualitative Social Research
• Subjects: immigrant-professional narrative; ethnographic approach; immigrant journalists; minority media; Russian-speaking immigrants; Israel
• Online Access: http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1569

This research explores the professional and life experiences of a Russian-speaking immigrant journalist who relocates herself in Israel, within the new professional and cultural environment. She engages intensively in decoding and interpreting her new society for the immigrant readers. We conducted an ethnographic narrative analysis to examine the nature and significance of the "double helix" of an immigrant-professional narrative, constructed by the interplay of life and work experiences. This prism of analysis reveals the intersection between acquiring new professional knowledge and learning a new culture; between journalistic commentary and immigrant interpretation; between professional positioning vis-à-vis the local journalistic community and the immigrant counterparts; and between shaping the journalist's personal views and the collective political, civil, and cultural attitudes of her immigrant audience. The article contributes to the methodologies of qualitative study of migration by suggesting a multi-level interpretation of a migration narrative. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1201155