Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2004. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-151). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

World Press Photo 1955-2010: a content analysis of the winning photos is a theoretical and empirical research. In the theoretical section the issues of photography as a reality representing medium, historical and current status of photojournalism as a profession and finally visual sociology including content analysis of photography are described. Main research question is: are there any tendencies in the winning photos' imaging of international events from the beginning of the contest in 1955 to 2010? Six hypotheses which assume these tendencies in the field of photography content as well as in the field of photography production are determined. A content analysis is applied on every World Press Photo of the Year including title and technical data. The goal of this research is to find some latent trends of the way international events are displayed in the photographs and to interpretate them in the terms of media studies. In the empirical section the procedure for the verification of hypotheses, the application of frequency, correlation and factor analysis are described and the results are interpretated. In final conclusion these results are discussed and other research aims to further knowledge in the field of content analysis of photos are proposed.

This diploma thesis focuses on the topic of Instagram accounts of media companies in the context of news values. It studies how selected media companies choose their content for Instagram accounts, and what news values are crucial to them when picking their posts. The aim of the work is the analysis of the dominant news values and the description of the specifics of Instagram contents. Using a combination of quantitative content analysis of Instagram posts of monitored media accounts and qualitative structured interviews with administrators and editors of Czech media newsrooms profiles, the author tries to answer research questions and confirm or disprove the hypotheses. The conclusions of the thesis show that the Instagram environment is highly competitive for news organizations with pressure on the speed and attractiveness of their posts. Therefore, the news media use various opportunities, which their Instagram account allows them, to satisfy their audience or attract new followers. However, the monitored sample does not confirm the existence of cross-prevalent dominant news values, or universal posts or topics that would be used by the media on Instagram.

This thesis deals with visual communication in the form of photography. Explaining the theories of Roland Barthes and Vilém Flusser we point out the tight relationship of this medium with reality that obscures its constructive character. The witness role of photography seems to be essential in the context of journalism, where we are offered a story by the pictures that is however mistaken for reality itself. The thesis tries to present practices of media discourse that make us perceive an event as newsworthy. It draws on the theory of news values and the methods of social semiotic analysis and applies these to the winning photos of the contest Czech Press Photo (2006-2015). We highlight the semiotic resources used in the meaning-making process in relation to each picture. The results show that the preferred constructed news values are negativity, aesthetic appeal, proximity and personalisation and that the winning photographs mostly strengthen their semblance of being strictly informative.