Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 297-300).

- Jakub Machek Prague Illustrated Courier. The Prague Penny-press as a Window into the World of Common Men. This work is dedicated to early sensational pictorial press (Pražský Illustrovaný Kurýr and its less successful predecessors) and its urban readers, as an example of the rising Fin de siècle popular culture in the Czech lands and its significance for revealing fundamental social and political changes that took place at the turn of the 20th century. During this era, even the members of lower social classes broadened their economical and cultural potency and thus capacity to absorb the development of new common culture generated by the rapid industrialization and urbanization. Production and reception of emerging popular press is analysed as a marker of the new modern urban experience and its social influences. Global pattern of successful mass daily press was, however, modified for Prague audience, its specific local beliefs, values and desires, distinctively different from those of western urban centre dwellers.