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The Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini is the most famous and comprehensive compilation of Albanian customary law. For centuries it strictly governed social behavior and everyday life among Albanians in different historical periods. Even if the Kanun is not legal today, it is widely respected and still practiced in parts of Albania and Kosova. The aim with this thesis is to study how Kosova Albanians in Sweden relate to the customary laws concerning family and marriage in the Kanun. In order to reach the aim, a qualitative research method was used. We have conducted seven semi-structured interviews with Kosova Albanians living in Sweden, more precisely in Helsingborg, and compared their answers to the traditional laws in the Kanun. The theoretical framework for the thesis is based on the concepts ethnicity and culture, Berger’s and Luckmann’s theory on the social construction of reality and Baumann’s conception of the idea of ethnicity as cultural identity. In our study we found that the Kanun is a good example on how culture is institutionalized and socially constructed. Our results show that the laws stipulated in the sections family and marriage are still practiced with certain changes by Kosova Albanians in Sweden and that there are some gender differences in how the informants perceive their ‘reality’.

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 diploma thesis "Construction of the imagination of the first republic era from the point of view of two generations explained by an example of the Czech TV series První republika" focuses on the mechanisms in which the TV series co-constructs the audience perception of the given era. The series was broadcasted from January 2014 untill June 2014 on the Czech Televisions program. The thesis aims to show how the younger generations of TV viewers construct the period in which they did not live through their consuming of media content. This is compared with the old-timers who could compare their own experience with the series. The audiences of both generations are equally scrutinized and consequently compared. The theoretical part introduces the theses about social and media construction of reality accompanied by audience cultivation theories. The final analysis of the acquired data is based on these theories but it aims to invent a new hypothesis. The subject matter of the research part is analysed by the qualitative method of the grounded theory as Strauss and Glaser understand it. For the questioning the semistructured and group interviews were used .

This thesis deals with designing of reality during the Ice Hockey World Championship 2011 in Bratislava, for which Robert Zaruba devised a unique project built on the myth of friendship and cohesion of the Czechs and the Slovaks.The theoretical basis of this work is the social construction of reality, according to which the reality in our minds is shaped by society. In the analysis of the structure of the broadcast channel CT 4, I am trying to find out how much does ice hockey push on viewer's mind and what is the amount of the Czech Republic and Slovakia national teams involvement. As a means of construction and reconstruction of the fictional world, the world created by its author, narrative is applied. The narratives typical for the structure of the CT4 are descibed in the next part in order to find a narrative that could serve as a template for the narrative of the championship. The final form of the narrative is shaped both by the narrator (presenter,commentator), who verbally describes what is happening and also the director whois responsible for the visual composition of the story. Features used in brodcasting, whose final analysis leads to the ability of distinction of the characters creating on the basis of similarity and context of highlighted object or those having arisen from anagreement among...

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.

The thesis How mothers and daughters perceive and use fashion themes in lifestyle magazines for women is aimed at generational differences when it comes to perception of media content. Specifically, it examines differences in perception of fashion phenomenon presented in lifestyle magazines for women (e.g.: ELLE and Cosmopolitan) by mothers and their daughters. Today, not only individuals, but also family relations are influenced by new media, new technologies, and new forms of media content, therefore I focused on differences in consumption of those lifestyle magazine between two generations of women within a family. The thesis first introduces some theories on social construction of reality; how fashion is presented in magazines; how women as readers perceive fashion and how this influences readers' identities as a result of magazines' consumption, and how advertising is perceived by readers. Theoretical knowledge is then researched. Qualitative research was conducted on ten pairs of respondents (mother - daughter) in the form of interviews. The results show that lifestyle magazines do not serve as a main source of information about fashion anymore. Many young women are more likely to search for information related to fashion on the Internet today. Mothers and daughters do not happen to read and...

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)

Diploma thesis "From construction of media reality towards a social stereotype in the printed advertising" deals with stereotypical portrayals of people emerging in Czech magazine production in the first decade of 21st century. The first part of the thesis describes the theoretical fundamentals of the field, including the theory of the social construction of reality by Berger and Luckmann. In its second part, using the sample of magazines Týden, Reflex, Maxim (formerly Quo), Cosmopolitan and Žena a život, the thesis surveys the occurrence of stereotypical depictions in the period from 2000 to 2008, materialized using semiotic codes. These depictions are named, described and it is shown how are they used in the process of constructing a complex communicate. This thesis is trying to point out the disproportion in the depictions of males and females in advertising and (based on previous classifications available) comes up with an original classification of the stereotypical depictions. The thesis also describes the results of a quantitative content analysis in order to find out about the occurrence frequency of the stereotypes in pictorial texts used in advertising production and it segments the occuring stereotypes in three categories according to the frequency of their occurrence. The categories are...

This diploma thesis discusses the image of menstruation in the mass media and in user generated content. Menstruation is a biological process that is essential for reproduction. It not only plays a specific role from the biological point of view, but also from the cultural aspect. Menstruation has remained a taboo and been stigmatised for many years. Today this topic is no longer completely taboo, but some stigma and stereotypes remain. This diploma thesis is based on the theory of social construction of reality, where the mass media is considered one element involved in the construction of this reality. The aim of this work is to analyse the image of menstruation in the mass media created by professionals and compare it with the image of this topic in user generated content created by the public on social networks. Two research methods are used to obtain a comprehensive view of the specific issue - a quantitative content analysis and qualitative framework analysis. The quantitative content analysis is used to establish the frequency and occurrence of the topic of menstruation within mass media. The framework analysis is used to establish how this topic is represented and framed in the mass media and in user generated content.