This diploma thesis examines the impact of the former US President Donald Trump's private Twitter account on agenda-building and how the Czech media work with information from this account. The diploma thesis is divided into two parts. The first part of the diploma thesis deals with the key theories and concepts of media studies such as the theory of agenda-setting, gatekeeping, news values, framing and intermedia agenda-setting. It also focuses on the contemporary form of political communication and the phenomenon of celebrity politics. The thesis also includes the overview of existing studies describing the political communication of the former US President Donald Trump on the social networking site Twitter and confirm the agenda-building role of this social network. The second part of the diploma thesis describes the research methodology and subsequent quantitative content analysis of news articles. The findings of quantitative content analysis are explained in the context of the theoretical concepts and previous studies. One of the main findings of this thesis is that Trump was able to some extent build media agenda, frame different topics and events and control his image in the media through his Twitter account.

The storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, came to shock the entire world. An angry mob of Trump supporters had, after months of encouragement from President Trump, attacked the heart of American democracy in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The attempt failed, when a new president, Joe Biden, was inaugurated on January 20, 2021. The aim of this case study is to create an understanding of how President Donald Trump, his administration and allied Republicans tried to overthrow American democracy in connection with the 2020 presidential election, and why they didn’t succeed. Using Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt's 2018 book “How Democracies Die” as the theoretical framework of the thesis, an ideal-type definition of “how to overthrow a democracy” was formed. Based on this ideal-type definition, the source material, consisting of documents, social media posts, newspaper reports and transcribed speeches, was examined. The results indicate that President Trump largely fulfilled almost all signs and variables of the ideal-type definition, by spreading disinformation to systematically undermine election results, interfering with and pressuring institutions, such as the DOJ, to accept conspiracy theories of election fraud, inciting large-scale protests, refusing to condemn threats against government officials and refusing to stop the attack of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The results also indicate that democracy survived mostly because of the brave civil servants and politicians who, even under threat, secured the election result and protected the democratic institutions during the 2020 presidential election and on January 6, 2021. But even though it's been a year since Trump's attempt to overturn the election results, democracy is still under attack. Trump´s strong hold on the Republican Party has resulted in, for example, the exclusion of Republicans who stood against Trump´s attempt to overthrow American democracy and the introduction of new election laws that make it harder for people to vote.

This essay aims to analyse the motives behind President Donald Trump’s choice to remove Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), a provision of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. The true motives are analysed through the lens of Rational Choice theory. The choice of theoretical framework can account as an explanation as to why the law was removed. The essay is moreover based upon drafts originating from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The public has since the removal of the AFFH doubted the motives presented by the President, thus giving room for further scientifical exploration on the subject. The author has chosen to conduct a quantitative text analysis to present the given arguments by the administration and the Republican party and furthermore to present alternative motives. The analysis presents an argumentation analysis to further explore the strength in the arguments presented from the relevant actors. The theoretical framework provides an explanation of the choices made, namely by offering a new dimension in which to examine the true motives behind the choice to remove AFFH.

No description available.

No description available.

The main purpose of this master thesis is to examine the concept of populism in the post- Gutenberg era. The research stems from a premise that the evolution of the political milieu and change of the media landscape implies a need for a different approach to analyzing populism. The decline of traditional political parties, the disappearance of political cleavages, and the personalization of politics precipitate the need to re-evaluate the debate about the right definition of populism. Based on a comparative case study of two leaders - Andrej Babiš and Donald Trump, this thesis examines how various theories of populism explain their behavior and tries to determine the most suitable option. Three definitions of populism are studied - populism as an ideology, populism as a discourse, and populism as a political style. While comparing political programs, discourse, and marketing strategies of both candidates, this thesis offers a complex insight into political campaigning on both sides of the Atlantic. At the same time, this research discusses the relationship between the concept of populism and personalized politics. These two concepts form a personalized leadership where the combination of populism and personality traits of the leader might influence the political programs, discourse, and marketing...

We all know the great impact religion has had on the western civilization throughout an exceptional amount of time. It has been prevalent in a lot of fields and the political field is to no exception. Though The United States of America was founded on secular governmental terms, religion has come to have an immense impact on the field. In this dissertation, the two latest presidents of the country, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be studied in the context of their speeches at the annual “National Prayer Breakfast”. The method used is that the transcripts of their speeches have been analyzed through three concepts: reality, utopia, and strategy they have then separately been linked to the domain religion.

Denna undersökning kommer analysera Kinas handelspolitiska strategier med finanskrisen och handelskriget som tidpunkt samt även påpeka hur dess strategier förändrades underrespektive tillfälle. Undersökningen redogör för vilka likheter och skillnader det finns i handelspolitiken mellan perioderna med syfte att förklara förändringen i handelspolitiska preferenser. Den handelspolitiska förändringen som Kina genomgick mellan perioderna är viktig att undersöka då Kina fortsatt växer sig starka på den globala marknaden. Metoden i studien utgörs av en teorikonsumerande fallstudie där rational actor model används för att undersöka och förklara den rationella aktörens beslutsfattande i respektive situation. Spelteori används som en komplimenterande teori för att förklara Kinas vägval under handelskriget. Slutsatsen i undersökningen är att Kinas främsta mål och rationella val i krissituationer är att främja sin egen ekonomiska tillväxt oavsett vilka långsiktiga konsekvenserna detta kan innebära. Mot den bakgrunden återfinns även den främsta skillnaden mellan kriserna som var hanteringen av protektionism. Kina förebyggde mycket protektionism under finanskrisen men utövade det själva under handelskriget. Förändringen av agerandet mellan kriserna berodde likaväl på USA som på Kina och kan förklaras som det mest rationella valet för Kina för att främja sitt främsta mål med handelspolitiken, ekonomisk tillväxt. Förändringen förklaras som en tillfällig avvikelse från deras handelspolitik givet att det var det mest rationella beslutet givet omständigheterna och rådande situation.

The aim of this thesis is to study how the international media CNN frame their news reporting with the change of presidency in America, after a year of being accused of spreading fake news by president Trump. By using a Critical Discourse Analysis, CDA and a rhetorical analysis I examined a selection of articles published in CNN. In total I examined ten articles from 2015 focusing on how CNN choose to portray the identity of the president at the time Barack Obama. I also selected ten articles from 2017 to analyze how the CNN choose to construct Trumps identity a year after his ascent to the president office. The result show that Barack Obama is portrayed as an inspiring president always there for his people. Donald Trump is instead portrayed as a bad leader for the country while CNN started to focus on regaining the trust of the public. In 2015 CNN also used more pathos and ethos arguments than in 2017 when they instead focus on arguments through logos. CNN show that they stand by their goal to control and oversee the power of governments in democracy. Media and governments in a democracy work together to balance their power. / Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att studera hur det internationella mediet CNN gestaltar sin nyhetsrapportering, med förändringen av olika presidenter, efter ett år att ha blivit anklagade att sprida falska nyheter av president Trump. Genom att använda en kritisk diskursanalys och en retorisk analys undersökte jag ett urval av artiklar publicerade i CNN. Totalt studerade jag tio artiklar från 2015 som handlade om Barack Obama som var president det året. Sedan valde jag tio artiklar från 2017 för att analysera hur CNN valde att gestalta Trumps identitet, ett år efter han blivit president. Resultatet visade att Barack Obama gestaltas som en inspirerande ledare som alltid finns där för sitt folk. Donald Trump gestaltades istället som en sämre ledare för landet och CNN fokuserade på att vinna tillbaka förtroendet från allmänheten. 2015 använde CNN också mer patos och etosargument än 2017 då de istället fokuserade på logosargument. CNN visar att de står fast vid sitt uppdrag att kontrollera och bevaka demokratiska länders regeringar. Medierna och regeringar arbetar tillsammans för att balansera sin makt.

This study asks whether and how the presidential inaugural address influences American audiences. The current study explores how the 2017 Presidential Inaugural Address of Donald Trump influences audiences. Two areas were studied: Candidate image and the state of the nation. I hypothesized that participants who watched the address would have different attitudes regarding candidate image and the state of the nation compared to non-viewers. I also hypothesized that viewers of the address who voted for Donald Trump would respond differently to candidate image and the state of the nation when compared with those who did not vote for Trump. With one exception, none of the findings was significant. That is, attitudes of inaugural address viewers and non-viewers were similar, and attitudes of those who voted for the president and those who did not vote for the president were also similar. The exception was noted between those who voted for the candidate and oppositional voters: Those who voted for Donald Trump reported the nation is headed "in the right direction" while dissenters disagreed.