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New media's emerging influence on society and the design profession is profound. Currently unrealized, the intersection of graphic design history and digital media is an area worthy of further examination. For graphic designers trained in the design of fixed content for traditional media, new media's challenge—to develop open-ended systems that adapt to dynamic content, customization, and multiple authorship—can be unsettling. But the potential benefits of this exploration are many. The ability to synthesize video, sound, static imagery, and textual information to present interactive content that adapts to the contemporary history of graphic design student's multi-modal and mobile lifestyle will provide a significant advantage.

Participation in The Digital Public: New Media Art as Online Community examines community online art projects— works of art produced and orchestrated by artists who employ the interconnected and participatory nature of the Internet. Garland contends, in part through a reevaluation of a statement made by artist Nam June Paik concerning a radio performance by John Cage, that community online art projects exist as the newest example of new media art because of a utilization and implementation of established and functioning technology. Through the application of Internet technology, contemporary artists, along with their collaborators and spectators, have the potential to create, build, engage, and exhibit new works of art and form new concepts for the production and practice of art making. This dissertation maintains that Community online art projects serve as the most current example of new media art because they examine the shared uses of the Internet. Participation in The Digital Public: New Media Art as Online Community includes examples and critiques of new online artworks as well as historical analysis of the theories of new media, participation, interconnectivity, and remediation in art through the 20th century.

This dissertation takes the approach of a qualitative case study whose primary subject is Alhaji Papa Susso, a distinct and compelling representative of griot culture, who was born in The Gambia, but who now resides in the U.S., yet maintains his griot identity. The findings from this research provide evidence that the griot, in his quest to support himself abroad while honoring the traditions of his heritage, is actively participating in the purposeful dissemination of griot culture in the U.S. and beyond. Though he may be cultivating genuine interest in his skills and in the oral canon of histories and epic tales that he maintains, he cannot control reception and appropriation of his culture. Further, the findings suggest there is a crosscutting backlash where the influence of technology is concerned, in that, while it provides a means for recording and preserving the griot’s performative art, it also distracts West African youth and diminishes their interest in acquiring and maintaining the tools and instrumentation of their caste-born heritage. The main conclusions drawn from this study suggest the griot feels compelled in many ways to spread his culture beyond the limits of his original, regional seat in order to preserve and promote it, but in doing so, he is changing his culture, and exposing it to audiences who are not sufficiently encultured to apprehend fully its depth and meaning. Furthermore, technology may be a useful tool in preserving the griot’s art in West Africa and abroad, but the static nature of recording robs the griot’s performance of its dynamic, flexible and culturally reflective power. Ultimately, it is the goal of this dissertation to actualize Stake’s (1995) assertion that “the function of research is not necessarily to map and conquer the world but to sophisticate the beholding of it” (p. 43); it is the goal of this dissertation to illuminate and understand, to bear careful witness to a facet of cultural expansion, to a contemporary phenomenon, to a particular, unique and valuable human experience.

In this dissertation I propose the use of a new media composition of narrative hypertext, performances in a virtual world, and a dialogic process of writing to provide a continuum of learning opportunities in social work education. I suggest that the structure of the hypertext narrative, embedded with hypermedia, mirrors the dissociative aspects of traumatic memory. I argue that work with the multivocality and multisequentiality of narrative hypertext emulates the process of discovery in the clinical interview. The immersive component of work in a virtual world deepens the realism and affective impact of simulations and creates opportunities to practice and demonstrate engagement, assessment, and intervention skills. The writing component of the new media composition actively engages students in a dialogic process that hones the development of self-reflexive practice and a professional social work identity. In developing the project, I enlisted the input of two groups of key informants. Content experts provided background that informed the narrative and scripts. A second group of faculty, students, and practitioners provided input on project design and identified potential barriers to success and anticipated outcomes. Informants suggest that the continuum of media engages students with a variety of learning styles, offers safe ways to practice skills as a precursor to interviews with actual clients, and allows for exploration of diverse identities as an avatar. Potential barriers include the time and resources required to learn new technologies and the potential for students to be triggered by trauma content. Informants offered recommendations to address the barriers. Three changes were immediately incorporated into the structure and content of the project to address these concerns.

Work focuses on representation of opponents in first-person shooter video games. It aims to discover tools, which developers of video games use to choose specific enemies for their games and in which way they present them. First-person shooters are used for this purposes because players have closest visual contact with opponents in this genre. The aim of this work is to describe most typical opponents in video games and to find out why this exact enemies are usualyy the most portrayed. Special attention is paid to video games which used original attitude for creating enemies. Work than focuses on most frequent stereotypes in opponents presentation, mostly racial and national, which are used by developers and what function they have. Than it gives room for critics of such stereotypes and tries to estimate if these critics can result in some changes in the future. Video games which created controversy by representation of specific enemies are subject of next topic. These games often put players in position of moral dilemma. On the base of research from literature and analysis of video games this work focuses on main reasons of representation of concrete enemies and what emotional impact it can have on players.

"Monetization of the internet content and its effect to the blogs reception" diploma thesis deals with journalism on the verge of the second decade of 21st century. Thesis describes changes, which are happening right now. It focuses on problems faced by traditional media and possibilites which are being opened for more agile on-line media. With the help of public opinion surveys, it shows views of the media consumers as well as those of media producers representatives. It also maps possible ways to monetize content as is advertising model, micropayments model, freemium or paywall and expounds advantages and disadvantages of each of them. In the next part it shows, how the monetization is used on different case studies, such as web server Motejlek.com, Slovakian media content subscription system Piano and successful American project The Huffington Post, which combines news aggregator with comments section and blogs. In its end the thesis is using the gathered knowledge and data to show strategies, which might be useful in today's fast changing world of media and on the other side shows weaknesses of some other concepts which author of the thesis doesn't accept as viable. Keywords Aggregator, blog, advertising, micropayments, monetization, Murdoch, new media, Piano, paywall

This work based on regression analysis and analysis using uses and gratification theory at the sample of 146 students opens the relationship between the use of online social networks and other media. Analysis comes up with results inconsistent with the theory of niche. The wider are the gratifications provided by online social networks and the wider are their gratification opportunities, the less they were used or not used more. It is also shown that there is a positive relationship between the number of dimension in which the internet social networks compete with other media and a usage of internet social networks. A major conclusion of this work is a negative relationship between the use of online social networks and all other media, including traditional media, with the exception of computer games. A negative relationship against expectations was found between online social networks and online news sites. In addition to these findings some interesting relationships between the use of online social networks and personal characteristics of their users were shown. There is no effect of age, gender or grade point average. Positive effect, however, was found for semester of studies and negative effect of having a job.

This diploma thesis is focusing on analyzing a possible influence of new media on politics with an emphasis on the three most popular social networks as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The main methods used in this thesis are analysis and subsequent comparison of acquired facts. This thesis has two subtopics. Firstly, it is the action and the access of Czech and world politicians on the social networks. Secondly, it analyses the events of the Arab Spring in the years 2010 and 2011. This thesis is based both on professional literature of Czech and foreign authors, that follows up mass media, mass communication and new media, as well as on studies analyzing social networks as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, on Czech and foreign newspapers, TV broadcasts and post electoral studies.

Title: Public relations AC Sparta Praha fotbal a.s. Objectives: The aim of this thesis is to evaluate public relations of AC Sparta Praha fotbal a.s. This thesis is manly focused on evaluating the work of department of communication a PR. The aim is to analyze and describe all the comunicaton channels of the club. Methods: This thesis uses an electronic questionnaire, which is filled by Sparta supporters. The other method is an interview with a employee of Sparta, who is a member of department of communication and PR. Another method is analysis of intern document of the club. Results: The supporters are satisfied with the work of the department of communication and PR. Sparta uses three basic communication channels, which includes social networks, magazine Sparta do toho! and an official web page. Sparta should improve its video materials and should begin to do more informal interviews with the players. Keywords: AC Sparta Praha fotbal a.s., football, public relations, corporate design, questionnaire, new media