This study is an exploration of the representation of masculinity in film, with particular focus on the way in which the leading male characters in a purposive sample of action genre and romantic comedy genre films represent masculinity. It is posited that masculinity is a construct, the meaning of which is dependent on the social context of the individual. Film being a social artefact could then possibly influence individuals understanding of the construct. Therefore an exploration of the kind of masculinity, the variations thereof across genres, and masculine characteristics of masculinity prevalent in each genre, is a first step in understanding possible influences of the definition of masculinity. In order to accomplish this exploration, a combination of methods is used to analyse these fictional characters according to a set of codes and „real‟ world norms. The real world norms are based on seven theoretically derived norms of masculinity developed from previous research on masculinity conducted by Levant, Hirsch, Celentano, Cozza, Hill, MacEachern, Marty and Schnedekerl (1992). The results of the findings from this study indicate that the way in which male characters are created for each genre are different, with male lead characters from the action genre having more characteristics that align with the „real‟ world norms of masculinity (Levant et al 1992). Alternatively, the male lead characters from the romantic comedy genre, have fewer characteristics that align with the seven theoretically derived norms of masculinity. The masculinity represented in the romantic comedy genre is more emotionally available and expressive, less aggressive, more compromising and reliant on others; while in the action genre masculinity is more independent, stoic, aggressive and more physically adventurous. The male lead characters in the romantic comedy genre are more about the emotional aspects of masculinity while the male lead characters in the action genre are more about the physical aspects of masculinity. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication)

The thesis "The Influence of Media on Body Image with Emphasis on the Issue of Eating Disorders" deals with the impact of media on body perception regarding the current beauty ideal, the cult of slenderness as well as the causes of eating disorder spreading in today's world. This thesis aims to determine how media influences body image of the current society and what part it has in the origin of eating disorders. In terms of this aim, the thesis is divided into theoretical background, a part about body image, followed by the part about beauty ideal, then eating disorders and research. The theoretical part discusses the theory of social and media reality, expected media impacts on people as well as selected theories concerning the media impact on body image. The next part deals with the term body image. The third part involves discussion about the ideal of beauty and introduces three current theories about direct impact of media on body image. It also shows some examples from today's media concerning the topic. The fourth part deals with the eating disorders and their media discourse, followed by few examples of their spreading trend and also campaigns against them. The quantitative analysis aims to find out about today's population body image, the importance of appearance and connection between media...

The thesis "Representation of a healthy lifestyle and the ideal of beauty in the media: comparison of lifestyle magazines" deals with the representation and media image of a healthy lifestyle and the ideal of beauty in four Czech printed lifestyle magazines Muscle & Fitness, Dieta, Blesk zdraví and Nová Regena in period from May to October 2013. This thesis aims to analyze presented titles and find out how these magazines represent individual and different way of healthy lifestyle and the ideal of beauty. Under this objective, the content of the thesis is divided into a theoretical part, Czech media system, methodology part and analytical - empirical part. The theoretical part discusses the social and media construction of reality as an anchor basis, follows the theory of media representation, its components narratives and seriality and the theory of stereotyping. It is also analyzed the theoretical framework of lifestyle and the phenomena of contemporary society. The representation of a healthy lifestyle and the ideal of beauty was in examined magazines analyzed by a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods of content analysis, whereby the emphasis was on linking theory and research. Quantitative analysis served as a supporting factor primarily for detecting the basic frequency of...

The thesis Construction of Media Reality during Mirek Topolánek's Resignation Period analyses a total of 294 instances of media output published or broadcast between 20th March and 1st April 2010 and dealing with Mirek Topolanek's resignation from his positions within the ODS in the context of his statements for LUI Magazine. The interview dealt with the Jewish faith, homosexual orientation or the voters of the ČSSD. The theoretical part of the thesis elucidates themes related to the construction of reality as described by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann, media routines, which can contribute to this phenomenon, and the creation of myth according to Roland Barthes. The research part of the thesis uses the propositions of Critical Discourse Analysis with an emphasis on Critical Linguistics, to isolate discourses, which were used to establish a connection between Topolánek's statements for LUI Magazine and his exit from the ODS and politics in general. A partial analysis also notices how the linguistic tools of tabloid and non-tabloid media were brought closer together. Finally, the Semiotic Analysis focuses on the caricatures of Mirek Topolánek and identifies myths which served as a basis for perceiving his image and the possibility of his further political career.

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 aim of the diploma thesis Media Representation of Adultery and Its Participants From the 1970s is to analyze and describe the image of partner infidelity in selected Czech and Czechoslovak television series through the time and sociocultural context. The analyzed material and topic requires first an outline of the basic media theories, with focus on the theory of media construction of reality. Then follows the theoretical concept of partnership and adultery, at first seen through the optics of social context and then through the partnership itself, which helps us to understand the imaging analysis, models and stereotypes in the stories. The third theoretical chapter brings a brief description of the history of the Czechoslovak and Czech series, with an emphasis on the period since the 1970s accompanied by the theory of construction of reality in television series. We analyze three series - Nemocnice na kraji města, Život na zámku and Ordinace v růžové zahradě; our analysis is based on qualitative methods, specifically the naratological and discourse analysis, which helps us in the end to answer the defined research questions, to record the occurrence of certain models or stereotypes in the image of unfaithful characters, plots and other interesting phenomena within the social context of the series.

The diploma thesis "Media Coverage of Prague Public Transport Company" intends to describe the media image of the company in selected Czech dailies Metro, MF Dnes, Právo and Pražský deník during the years 2011 and 2012. A total of 680 articles were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively systematically describing their content during the period mentioned. The theoretical part introduces the reader to a broader context and serves as a platform anchoring the practical part. At first this part introduces the chosen methodology and then the results and interpretation. The quantitative content analysis explores how often and how much the topic appears in print media, its timing during the given period, and deals with researching of mainly published topics mentioned in press and their relationships in connection to Prague Public Transport Company. The thesis also focuses on the types of articles (hard news and soft news) and also examines which actors appeared in the selected newspapers. The next part deals with the linguistic interpretation of individual statements about Prague Public Transport Company, therefore, in what areas is the subject of analysis evaluated positively or negatively, on the basis of the attributes of language resources and comparison. The obtained data evaluation leads me...

The diploma thesis The White House Presents: The Media Image of Barack Obama examines the media presentation of the President of the United States, Barack Obama, through the official media channel of the White House. Five video recordings of President Obama's speeches are analyzed with a focus on linguistic, visual and auditory sign systems with the use of the qualitative semiotic content analysis. Before the analysis itself, an explanation of theoretical terms related mostly to the representation of reality is provided. On these grounds the analysis is then approached as a description of different means of achieving media construction of reality, to which both the President himself and the White House Office of Communications contribute. This Office is in charge of the content of the above-mentioned channel. To broaden the context, general information about the functioning of the President's media communication is included. The aim of this thesis is an interpretation of the communication tools presented by the White House media channel and the analysis of their symbolic meaning in order to explicate the process of a specific media image of the President coming into existence. The approach to the analyzed content from the perspective of intercultural communication is also of importance. It must be...

The main concern of the thesis is the ability of the media to construct the image of criminals and it is demonstrated on the case of Jiří Kajínek. Criminality is a special topic most of the population has no personal experience with, and, therefore, they have to rely completely on the information offered by media. Jiří Kajínek is the most famous czech prisoner and, in its practical part, the thesis tries to explore the way the publicistic titles presented his case to public in 2010. Most of the examined titles takes Kajínek's side and does not offer balanced information regarding the case. This partiality is reflected mainly in the way of signification associated with Kajínek, in the framing and in the form of particular articles. The thesis then observes the influence of the Kajínek movie on his media presentment and its development. It focuses at the amount of media space given as well as at the way of the representation itself. Differences in both aspects have been found in particular titles.

本文設定出三個研究目的 1.觀點建構：為了重新評估新聞敘事的生產與接受過程，我們基於社會真實建構論與James Carey所說的「溝通之儀式觀點」，進而提出敘事表演論，即敘事正是儀式表演。這裡，本文基於「社會空間一劇場空間－文本空間」的類比，進而主張敘事表演的背後程式和社會結構的運作邏輯密切有關。 2.理論建構：為了有系統性的探討整場敘事表演所展現的意義，同時提高閱聽眾的「批判的語言警覺性」，本文按照四個表演構成因素之間的關係網，區分了三種意義場域：「人際意義」(言者一聽者)、「理念意義」(故事主角)、「文本意義」 (舞臺場景工程)。據此，本文分別建構具體的理論工具箱，以期不但識別出文本上的微觀物理線索，即語法證據一如「語態」、「詞彙語域」、「社會行動詞」、「言說標誌詞」等；且進而尋繹出敘事所努力完成的意義網路和意象建構，即語用途徑－如「直示中心轉換模式」、「敘事轉換模式」、「引語文體」等。 3.實際應用：使用該語言工具箱來實際分析新聞範例－ 「97年台電核廢料案」，探討台/韓新聞媒體針對同一個社會事件，運用怎樣的象徵資源，如何再現言者對該議題的觀點位置，如何設定故事主角的形象與理念，又如何實現其報導內容的連貫性與事實性。對此，本文再細分成底下主要問題：(1)言者的觀點立場透過怎樣的語言用法和策略裝置展現在敘事新聞中？；(2)針對同一個故事，台/韓兩方的新聞版本所再現的理念圖像有什麼異同？；(3)針對同一個故事，台/韓雙方的新聞版本如何重說以塑造出敘事流程的一致方向？ / Is the press news a mirror of reality or constructed reality? In this debating epistemological approaches, we are based on latter as well as on the perspectives of “narrative as ritual performance” ,which is in the contextual mood of textual-oriented critical discourse analysis. From the view of media function of ‘reality-definition’, and also with socio-cultural anthropological perspectives, we are assumes that news is not reality itself and not information transfer too, but socially constructed multiple realities through social interaction on a ‘stage’ by various social actors as performers, either they are on ‘frontstage’ or ‘backstage’. In other words, in this study we attempt to reintroduce performative model into the discourse-textual analysis in media studies, and therefore propose that news is a mediated collective ritual performance in which we are both a performer and a participant, who have function of the “double subjectivity” in the context of news making and its reading. This study essentially also have a basic concern with the cultivation of what Fairclough called ‘critical language awareness’, in other to reflectively reconsider the problems of ethnocentrism and the webs of power-knowledge which can be inscribed in the form and content of ritual performance. And now, what is “narrative performance”? Based on Victor Turner‘s notion of performance, i.e. the processual sense of ‘bringing to completion’ or ‘accomplishing’, this study further defines narrative performance as those two connotations: generally speaking, it means “ritual performance of telling-stories in everyday life” and then specifically speaking, it means “all written text or printed text displaying dramatic formats ” which not only represents our interpretation of what is social reality, but also continually performing and reconstructing our collective consensus and affective memories of the historical culture including the context of “here-and-now”. What we want to do in this paper is to articulate and demonstrate the correspondence between social space and textual space which is based upon the analogies of “life-as-theatre” and “symbolic interaction-as-drama performing”. News narrative result of journalist’s convention, their sociocultural context, and the routinalized reporting practice. Through this study, we believe, it would provide a sort of alternative perspective and a set of useful metaphor for searching out new methodological directions in the fields of communication and mass media studies. The main object of this case study is to analyze the narrative structure of the press news on “the issue of Taiwan nuclear waste”, in other to identify the function of reality construction of a ritualized press performance as well as to show the process of image construction which is represented in the textual context of time-space. More specifically four research questions are raised. First, How we should rethink and reevaluate the process and significance of news-making? Second, How does teller‘s position represent in the news narrative by the use of what sorts of language-uses and tactic device? Three sub-questions as follows: a. How dose teller highlight “we-oriented” view points in the news reporting? b. How dose teller dissimulate “they-oriented” view points in the news reporting? c. How dose teller purposefully persuade the audience to be oriented and attached to the story-teller owns attitudinal position? Third, In relation to the given same social events, what is the distinctive differences of ideational pictures re-presented between Taiwan and Korean version of news story? Forth, In relation to a original newspaper article, how Taiwan and Korean press distinctively retelling or re-performing the story to be construct the thematic coherence of narrative flows ? In other to give answers to these practical questions, this study collected articles of Korean newspaper ‘Joongang Ilbo’ and Taiwan’s ‘United Daily’ and ‘China Times’, each dealing with the case of ‘nuclear waste’ which have drawn a firestorm from South Korea after Taiwan and North Korea had made the Jan. 11, 1997 deal of nuclear waste. To analysis these news articles, this study systemically build a set of analysis methods and several types of research-tools focusing on three categories of meaning-field, that is, fields of interpersonal meaning, ideational meaning, and textual meaning. Interpersonal meaning field including two types of tool or cues, that is “modality” and “deixis” by which to explore the process of image constructing of teller-audience nexus on backstage；in the filed of ideational meaning, there are three tools, that is “registers of lexical categorization”, “social-action-verbs”, and “modes of narrative transposition ” by which to investigate the process of image construction of social actors staged-on；and the textual meaning field mainly based on “discourse marker” and “speech genre(as quotation)” by which to demonstrate the thematic coherence in the semantic and pragmatic levels embodied by the operations of symbolic selection and composition of narrative devices. The above methodological approaches can be illustrated as follows: ┌───────┬──────┬───────┬──────────┬─────────┐ │Meaning-Field │Focus │Relation-Web │Image-Construction │Language-use-Cues │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├───────┼──────┼───────┼──────────┼─────────┤ │Interpersonal │enonciative │enonciative │teller and listener │modalities deixis │ │ │event │context │ │ │ ├───────┼──────┼───────┼──────────┼─────────┤ │Ideational │episodic │representation│story actor’s │lexical registers │ │ │event │of 'people- │social action │social-action- │ │ │ │world' │ │verbs modes of │ │ │ │relations │ │narrative │ │ │ │ │ │transposition │ ├───────┼──────┼───────┼──────────┼─────────┤ │Textual │symbolic │thematic │selection and │discourse markers │ │ │textualizing│coherence │composition of │speech genres │ │ │ │ │narrative devices │ │ └───────┴──────┴───────┴──────────┴─────────┘ Major conclusion of the study: For the research question 2, we found that teller’s view position was demonstrated in those ‘deictic centers’ as like ‘WHO’, ‘WHEN-WHERE’, and ‘WHAT’ , which served as a sort of mechanism making a tragic spectacle, in other to set up the sympathetic involvement toward “Mr. Yan” as a hero as well as the resentment toward “Taiwan authority” as an antagonist, which is assume to be generated from the imagined domain of Korean audiences. More importantly, we further found that the three types of tactic devices of persuasiveness used by Korean teller which is this: a. to show concrete evidence including critical witness as a vivid symptoms on the could-be-impacts of pollution crisis；b. to evoke universal sense of moral justice；c. to support the technique of punishment. For research question 3, we found that Korean and Taiwan news articles not only shown the differences of representational orders on the ideational picture of the case of Taiwan nuclear waste, but also it supported the fact that, as Mary Douglas argued, ‘ritual of social hygiene’ would be performed when a social communities faced the pollution problems to solves, in order to manages the crisis through mobilizing a sorts of symbolic capitals available to use. we show first that the dominant value of Korean domains on the news issues are standard aggressive patterns of “the program of the witch-hunting” which is based on the ethical politics of environmental protection and the justice of human rights；and second that, compared with the Korean domain’s, Taiwan news narrative demonstrated the distinctive representational order, i.e. “the program of consolation” which is based on lawful and economic ways of thinking. For research question 4, we found that Korean and Taiwan news reporting did not have a distinctive characteristics in the ways of using ‘discourse markers’ to construct local coherence of narrative flow, because both of they are follow basic conventional norms of news writing just as . But, in the other hand, from the aspects of ‘speech genre’, we found that there are differences in the ways of quotation, Korean teller is favor to use ‘free direct speech’ with a discriminating reporting verbs by which highlight the negative aspects of the deal, While on the contrary, Taiwan teller is favored to use ‘indirect speech’ and with a neutral reporting verbs by whichrean teller is favor to use ‘free direct speech’ with a discriminating reporting verbs by which highlight the negative aspects of the deal, while on the contrary, Taiwan teller is favored to use 'indirect speech' and with a neutral reporting verbs by which selecting the good ones and dismilating the negative aspects of the deal.