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The bachelor thesis entitled "The depiction of Czechoslovakia in the years 1989 - 1990 through the eyes of viewers in the television series Vyprávěj" deals with the question of how the perception of the portrayal of a particular stage of contemporary history (the November Revolution of 1989 and the social events of the early 1990s) in the series differs between two different groups of viewers, the memorials and the non-memorials. The thesis consists of pilot research conducted with two respondents, each representing one of the two audience groups. Their experience of watching and perceiving the series is explored through a semi-structured interview method with predetermined thematic headings. On a theoretical level, the thesis explores how the format of the series: the memory medium, utilizes concepts of nostalgia along with cultural and communicative memory, while considering account the specificities of post-television audiences. Furthermore it describes the relation between memory and history, as well as presenting the specific importance of the period 1989-1990 in modern Czechoslovak and Czech history. The thesis contributes to the understanding of how cultural memory is shaped in the series Vyprávěj, and its further aim is to develop interview scenarios for more extensive research with more...

The master's thesis The Influence of RuPaul's Drag Race on the Drag Subculture in the Czech Republic is concerned with the relationship between the American reality TV show RuPaul's Drag Race and the current state of the Czech drag and travesti scene. The main chosen research method is an ethnographic analysis of a series of interviews with drag and travesti performers. The theoretical part aims to provide the sociocultural context to the theme of this thesis; specifically the introduction to queer theory and an a summary of representation of drag and travesti in the popular culture of 20th and 21st century. Furthermore, it introduces RuPaul's Drag Race as a cultural phenomenon along with its brief history, an outline of its international sociocultural influence and current critiques. Finally, it describes the Czech travesti and drag scene including its historical development, current status and the relations between both scenes. The practical part presents the results of the ethnographic analysis of the 14 interviews conducted with Czech drag and travesti performers, focusing on specific phenomena relating to RuPaul's Drag Race, that are subsequently interpreted within the overarching thematic units. The final chapter applies the findings on the theoretical aparatus presented in the first part of...

This Master's thesis deals with the phenomenon of so-called guilty pleasures within the consumption of popular culture. The theoretical basis of this work consists of three thematic pillars. Specifically: concepts related to the consumption of popular culture by authors such as Fiske and Ang; a distinction based on taste and cultural consumption, in particular by Bourdieu, Peterson and Holt; and a set of theoretical-critical views on the very concept of guilty pleasure. However, this complex combination of (not only) pleasure and guilt is still just gaining more academic attention. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of this phenomenon, through individual interviews with consumers characterized by both high cultural capital and a wide range of preferences, known as cultural omnivory. Within those consumers, the contrast of low and high taste, the presumed clash of acceptance of legitimized aesthetic rules and their violation, are present. The research question "How do cultural omnivores with a high cultural capital perceive the consumption of products of popular culture - especially those which they consider their guilty pleasures?" is answered through thematic analysis of coded interviews.

In this diploma thesis I study the meaning-making discourse practices of the media in the post- modern time. Current social transformations, influenced by the questioning of the categorical certainty of the modern way capturing the world, inevitably raise questions about the effect of emerging forms of reality's representation on the formation of mediated public space. Whereas, the critical perspective, developed in the context of scientific research, considers the enhancement of the entertainment component in communication space as a failure of media institutions to fulfill the ideal of the public sphere, the second stream of thinking evaluates current transformations quite optimistically, because it regards television formats overflowing with emotional expressions as an emancipatory space that is open to marginal voices in society. Exactly the media genre of talk shows, as a very controversial format, necessarily attracts much attention in the outlined debate. However, it is developed primarily by liberal democratic societies, while the focus of the research is the analysis of the talk show from a Russian society based on authoritarian tradition. The post-Soviet transformation in the 1990s caused a loss of the previous foundations for the self-concept of the individual, which is why I am trying...

The basis of the agenda-setting theory is the fact that the topics that are emphasized in the media are becoming important for their audience as well. The widespread notion is that those who set the agenda are the media. However, this is not entirely true. The media only allow news to spread quickly, they are not the authors of the topics. Pavel Novotný, a Czech celebrity and politician, formerly a tabloid journalist, currently the mayor of the City District - Prague Řeporyje, is considered to be the cause of many media cases in the Czech environment. The bachelor's thesis examines the activity of Pavel Novotný on the social network Facebook during selected media cases using a summarizing software tool. It also examines media activity using a media database. Its aim is to apply the theory of agenda- setting to the person of Pavel Novotný. In the theoretical part of this work, the author deals with the topics of celebrities in the political field, micro-celebrities on social networks and the transformation of political communication. Furthermore, the person of Pavel Novotný is described here and the theory of agenda-setting is introduced. In the practical part of the bachelor's thesis, an analysis of Pavel Novotný's activity on the social network Facebook is performed during selected media cases...

This thesis investigates the motivation, engagement and experiences of men as they interact with the selected television shows, which are presented or conceived as shows for women. The purpose of this thesis is to examine, identify and evaluate the motivation of men as a perceived non-target audience for watching the shows. Using gender theories and the audience in media theories as the background of this thesis, it then presents full- scale research on the TV shows "Sex and the City", "Desperate Housewives", "2 Broke Girls" through fifteen in-depth interviews, discovering narrators' viewing experience and reactions. The empirical analysis of this thesis is conducted in light of perceived and reported demographic groups, keeping in mind the sociocultural context of each series. This thesis examines both socio-economic and gender topics, which are represented in the shows by product placement on the first hand, and emancipatory themes on the other.

This thesis defines wide phenomenon of popular culture and follows the way it is represented in current Czech press. The initial part of the thesis defines popular culture based on the main theoretical grounds. After that popular culture is put in context of the mass society media audiences and emphasize the delimitation of pop culture versus high culture. The theoretical part of the thesis is closed by chapter concerning the role of the press in the process of defining the popular culture in current society. The main focus of the empirical part lies on frame analysis across the spectrum of Czech dailies (Blesk, Lidové noviny, Mladá fronta Dnes) and weeklies (Instinkt, Kulturní týdeník A2, Reflex) that examines how the popular culture is presented to the current readership. The analysed articles were published at the time of broadcasting of the first series of the examined pop cultural event represented by a TV show "StarDance…Když hvězdy tančí". The discovered framework is interpreted in context of the theoretical concepts and subsequently it is confronted with a point of view of the current journalists (by means of semi-structured interviews), who write about popular culture on everyday basis and who in a sense represent a cultural elite themselves. The main goal is to find out (in connection...

This thesis deals with the study of popular culture for example, television series like a typical product of this culture and of research of their consumers. It deals with the shift in the understanding of the importance of the concept of popular culture for example, female audience pursuing series called series "for the whole family. With this selected audience watching the series at the time of normalization, and at the same time pursuing current series I am trying to trace the development, as well as the changes in understanding of pop culture. The aim of this thesis is to determine the movement, changes in the understanding of the concept / importance of popular culture occurred during the period of normalization to the present days. At work I deal with social and political context, defining of popular culture, everydayness and watching TV serials. This is a qualitative research on female audience through in-depth interviews.