The refugee crisis is an ongoing challenge for the European Union. Refugees from the Middle East, the majority of them Syrians, are risking their own and their children’s lives, putting their money –both figuratively and literally speaking- on the chance of surviving the almost six-year long war in Syria.The brutal death of thousands of refugees in the Aegean Sea’s waters was the reason why the EU mechanisms have started to mobilize seeking a solution. The ‘problem’ was not possible to be hidden under the carpet anymore. It was reaching the highly developed Europe’s doorstep.The media coverage of the crisis has started to emerge in a greater extent throughout 2015, as a result of the ‘explosive’ increase of the refugee flows. In the beginning it was just a synthesis of innumerous personal tragedies, before it became an official European ‘problem’.If we ‘leap’ through time and refer on today, we can observe that the massive death toll in the Mediterranean was only the starting point of a vicious circle, which is strongly related with developmental, political and communication issues.Through this thesis my goal was to examine how four European newspapers (which represent both Europe’s North and South) have reported on the biggest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the World War II. What strikes me as a very interesting aspect is that the refugees, as representatives of the developing countries have come in the territory of the European developed countries. Therefore I believe that there is space for a wide development dialogue and I would like to examine at what point the media seized this opportunity to reflect on development issues, through their cover stories.I have performed a combination of quantitative/qualitative methods of analysis. A full scale content analysis of 85 articles has been performed as the quantitative part and this was my primary research method. My secondary method of analysis was about the visual elements used by the newspapers and I have relied on semiotics to examine 141 photographs.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is the highest-grossing film franchise that nurtures superhero stories within their narratives. However, in recent years the franchise has undergone a substantial shift in its adversary portrayal, with introducing Russian characters. Therefore, this study’s purpose is to expand the knowledge on the construction and development of Russian enemy images within the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, by focusing on three key movies: Iron Man 2 (2010), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and Black Widow (2021). The research utilizes a diachronic case-oriented comparative design, wherein the selected movies are analyzed through a unique analytical framework, which consists of semiotic analysis and enemy images as theory. The study’s results demonstrate that the construction of enemy images in each movie resembles an ideal type and remained somewhat similar in terms of the demarcation between ‘us’ and ‘them’, and the characterization of ‘their’ essence throughout the years. However, the study’s findings indicate two developmental shifts: first, in ‘our’ character, where similarities are observed with ‘their’ violent behavior, and second with expanding ‘their’ threat from solely physical to psychological aspects as well.

The diploma thesis "The Year 2010 - Pocitame s detmi v Ceske televizi: Programmes for Children and Youth in the Czech Television" deals with broadcasting for children and youths on Czech Television and focuses on the production of cyclic programmes. It summarizes the production of these programmes since the beginning of Czech Television in 1992 until 2010. The author also describes the structure of production centers in Czech Television that used to produce and are still producing those programmes. Furthermore, the author analyzes the strategy Pocitame s detmi v Ceske televizi which followed the previous projects - "Osudove osmicky v nadich dejinach" (the Fateful Eights in our history) and "Rok svobody" (the Year of Freedom). The analysis consists of an overview of existing, new cyclic and also planned programmes which Czech Television started or planned to broadcast during this strategy. The thesis provides quantitative conclusions such as the amount of all the programmes for children and youths broadcast during the existence of Czech Television, average time spent by children, youths and adults watching TV and especially Czech Television and the share of audience that was watching Czech Television. The author uses the tool of semiotic analysis to examine what means of expression are used to display real...

This diploma thesis describes an unexplored field of study - the medialization of the monetary separation and Czech koruna formation in February 1993. The thesis maps Czech media discourse devoted to this theme and answers the question whether the media, through its contents, could contribute to a positive perception and acceptance of this fundamental economic reform that actually completed the dissolution of Czechoslovakia process on January 1, 1993. For this purpose the thesis uses the qualitative research methods, the semiotic analysis and the discourse analysis. The introduction briefly outlines the sociopolitical situation in the country. The theoretical part describes the role of money and monetary policy, the technical preparation of the currency separation, including a new series of banknotes, and outlines Czech media trends after the 1989. The methodological part contains specific objectives, research questions and widely presents the selected research methods. The practical part analyzes media contents devoted to the currency separation in Czech newspapers Blesk (Flash), Hospodářské noviny (Economic Newspaper), MF Dnes (Today), Rudé právo (Red Law) and selected program of Česká televize (Czech Television) in the first quarter of the year 1993. The main outcome of the analysis is a...

The aim of the diploma thesis What do the girls want? The reflection of their world in the magazines Super Dívka and BravoGirl! is to analyze the representation of lifestyle in the magazines for girls and the evolution of this representation within fifteen years. For the needs of this work, the individual theoretical concepts have been discussed, in order to better understand the problematics of media representation of reality. We defined notions such as social and media construction of reality, theory of representation, gender, stereotypes, myths and ideology. Other chapters are dedicated to the notion of lifestyle from its sociological and media perspective, to the girls' magazines themselves and to their up to now researches. These researches are concerned especially with the problematics of consolidation of gender stereotypes in the society through proposed patterns of behaviour and creation of norms of femininity. At the same time, they consider the magazines to be the holders of ideology in consumer and patriarchal society. For the needs of this thesis, the mixed analytical method has been used. The content analysis quantitatively classifies thematic agenda of magazines and semiotic analysis follows denotative and connotative level of signs and their meanings for the representation of...

The subject of this thesis is the analysis of promotional materials of the sports event - European Indoor Championship in Athletics, which took place from 5 March to 8 March 2015 in Prague. For this purpose, the method of complex semiotic analysis is used. The thesis includes introduction into context. Theoretical background of chosen method is not omitted. In the thesis is explained the application of semiotic analysis to the selected problem. The main and secondary research questions are defined and there are specified the forms of promotion or types of media, on which are the partial semiotic analysis performed, too. This thesis is aimed on revelation differences in promotional materials of the event targeting the general or the professional public. For this reason, in the course of selecting the specific forms of promotion, which are included in the research, was paid attention on the similar characteristic of the pattern for each target group from the viewpoint of media mix. In the sections dedicated to the research are, by the semiotic analysis, analysed chosen promotional materials targeting the general or the professional public. There are interpreted the meanings of symbols and codes used in the promotional materials. Outputs arising from the analysis are evaluated by answering the...

The main topic of this thesis is the role of media in society with respect to the relation between media, society and culture. The thesis aims to reassess selected issues, based on critical theory of media and society, and to verify their relevance in contemporary Czech context. These subjects are theoretically based on several concepts of authors connected with the so called Frankfurt School and on the critical theory developed by their followers. Their opinions are applied on the Czech environment through the perspective of cultural studies because of the shift in social and historical context since the former theories appeared. After media studies left the ideas of technological determinism, their dominant paradigm has changed to social constructivism, being interested in the meaning of media contents. In cultural studies, the meaning is interpreted using tools of structural and semiotic analysis. The same research perspective and method are applied in this thesis. Considering the interpretation of meaning in the representation of art in the program Události v kultuře, we could partly reflect on the mythology and ideology of Czech society in its relation to culture. The primary result of the empirical research is the fact, that media messages about art represent (implicitly or explicitly)...

My diploma thesis deals with respecting the journalism ethics by two most read general- interest newspapers in the Czech Republic - Mlada fronta DNES and Hospodarske noviny, when using complex communicate including a news photo. My research sample contained just breaking news (home and world) published nationwide in March, 2014. A relationship between meanings of particular parts in complex communicates (the headline, the caption, the photo and the article) and has been my variable that I was searching for within the sample. As all the parts work together in building one sense, which should represent a reality, I suppose, that meanings of these parts should show a relationship of harmony and substitution within one complex communicate. I used semiotic analysis to analyse meanings within a communicate, both denotation and connotation level. I applied my knowledge of social and visual semiotics, semantics and pragmatics to explain the meanings of individual signs. At the end of my research I compared results of my analysis to outcomes of Magda Polmanova's research - a former Charles University student that dealt with almost the same topic as me in her bachelor thesis, analysing the same dailies however from 2011. The findings of: How many times have these dailies published complex communicates that...

A reception analysis on Skellefteå Krafts external communication on CSR and sustainable development and in what ways students decode the message. As an effect of today's climate changes and global issues, one of the most important subjects for companies to communicate to consumers and stakeholders is corporate social responsibility (CSR). The purpose of this paper is to investigate in what ways the concept of responsibility in relation to corporate social responsibility and sustainable development infuse meaning in the external communication by the company Skellefteå Kraft. The paper also examines the way three respondent groups of students relate to this message. The theoretical frame stretches from different views on CSR- communication to green brand strategy and sustainable development. The critic on CSR-communication includes the concept of greenwashing. The study also relies on theories within semiotic analysis, reception analysis and Stuart Halls encoding decoding model. Using the method visual semiotic analysis made it possible to reveal what Stuart Hall calls the preferred reading of the company's external communication. To be able to analyze the way students relate to the message qualitative interviews was used. Tools within reception analyze was applied on the material from the interviews. Both the visual semiotic analysis and the analyze of the interviews showed that the external communication did not include the economic side of CSR as much as the social- and environmental aspect. This was to be expected since the campaigns are focused on customers and other stakeholders. The main result was that the respondents in large made a hegemonic read of both the advertising films and the campaign site. They lay focus primarily on the caption and less on the image itself. The respondents could mainly distinguish the communication of social responsibility. This may be because both campaigns focus primarily on the human being and different life styles. When it comes to environmental responsibility the analysis show that Skellefteå Kraft uses ecological arguments in their external communication about energy and electrician, but they do not demonstrate the extraction which does in fact have some negative effects on nature. If Skellefteå Kraft had been more willing to demonstrate the extraction process they probably would have been described as honest and their ecological arguments would have been more comprehensible. This would also be proof that the company has little to hide when it comes to environmental responsibility. The advertising film as well as the campaign site communicates joyfulness and naturally produced electricity.

The use of the social media platform Instagram has increased the fastest and has given the opportunity for the phenomenon of influencer marketing to grow in the fashion industry. The increase of influencer marketing has led marketers to understand that a change of focus is needed. Much of the previous research done in the field has focused on what distinguishes or does not distinguish effective use of influencer marketing for a company. Therefore, it is interesting to study the actual role of influencers in a fashion company’s brand communication and this by studying the fashion companies’ choice of influencers and the way consumers perceive the role of influencers in a fashion company. To operationalize the study, a semiotic analysis has been applied where images have been analyzed to answer the purpose of the study from a business perspective. The results from this are the basis for the design of a qualitative method which is then followed up by a quantitative method for answering the purpose from a consumer perspective. The data was collected through the themes formulated with the support of previous research and theories. These were consumption, the consumer’s approach to influencers and belonging to a group and identity. Within the framework of these themes, the study’s findings showed that influencer marketing is beneficial to use for a company in some areas and in others not. The semiotic analysis showed with certain deficits in the match that the companies choose influencers based on the respondents’ preferences and wishes. / Användningen av det sociala mediet Instagram är den plattform som idag ökar snabbast och har gett möjlighet för fenomenet influencer marketing att växa fram främst inom modebranschen. Ökningen av influencer marketing har lett marknadsförare till att förstå att det behövs ett fokusskifte. Mycket av den tidigare forskning som gjorts inom området har fokuserat på vad som utmärker eller inte utmärker effektiv användning av influencer marketing för ett företag. Därför är det intressant att studera den faktiska rollen av influencers i ett modeföretags varumärkeskommunikation och detta genom att studera modeföretags val av influencers och på vilket sätt konsumenter uppfattar rollen av influencers i ett modeföretag. För att operationalisera studien har en semiotisk analys tillämpats där bilder analyserats för att besvara studiens syfte utifrån ett företagsperspektiv. Resultaten från denna ligger som grund för utformningen av en kvalitativ metod som sedan följs upp av en kvantitativ metod för att besvara syftet utifrån ett konsumentperspektiv. Datan samlades in genom de teman som formulerats med stöd av tidigare forskning och teorier. Dessa var konsumtion, konsumentens förhållningssätt till influencers samt grupptillhörighet och identitet. Inom ramen för dessa teman visade studiens resultat att influencer marketing är gynnsamt att använda för ett företag i vissa avseenden och i andra inte. Bildanalysen visade med vissa brister i matchningen att företagen väljer influencers utifrån respondenternas preferenser och önskemål.