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U.S.-Japan Relations from the Perspective of American Cinema
Toman, David ; Záhora, Jakub (advisor) ; Kotvalová, Anna (referee)
This Master's thesis provides an analysis of the contemporary depiction of significant historical moments in U.S.-Japan relations in American cinematography, specifically in the films: The Last Samurai, Pearl Harbor, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Emperor. The analysis elaborates on theoretical stream of popular culture and world politics and most particularly on the popular geopolitics discipline. A discourse analysis is used as the research method, through which the three main aspects of popular geopolitics in the selected movies are followed - representational logics, affect, and intertextuality. The research goal is to tackle the question, how the historical milestones in U.S.-Japan relations are portrayed in the present and how their portrayal is linked to the current geopolitical context. The research shows that filmmakers usually try to offer a balanced view of both sides, which means there are positive and negative portrayals of both Japanese and American characters. Japanese villains are usually militarists, which is in line with the postwar narrative of the American Occupation administration. The trend of negative portrayal of Americans has been strengthened only recently due to controversies related to the War on Terror. The main finding, however, is the fact that although Japan is...
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Reception of media strategies used to promote Japanese culture in the Czech Republic
Grynyuková, Irena ; Miessler, Jan (advisor) ; Soukup, Martin (referee)
This master's thesis examines how powerful and determining Japanese cultural influence is and how it impacts today's globalized world. It primarily focuses on the Czech audience and its relationship to Japan. The aim of this research is to assess the current efforts made by the Japanese government to export its culture, and compare them with the image that Czech society has on Japan. The primary source of this research is quantitative data collected from Czech and Slovak respondents. . Data was collected by a semi-structured questionnaire that consisted of both open and closed questions and that was spread in electronic form. The first section of the thesis empirical. The main theoretical, historical, and socio-cultural concepts of Japan. are defined and explained in the context of modern convergence culture and the Japanese media mix theory. Japanese cultural diplomacy and the application of soft power as the primary bearer of influence over the West are explained through the critical analysis of specific campaigns. Then, the methodological section analyzes the answers of 1,609 respondents across three predefined samples. Analysis shows that Japan's cultural promotion efforts in the Czech Republic are limited, and that take place primarily through official agencies or directly through the fans of...
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The Reflection of Changing Social Values in the Egyptian TV Series
Černá, Barbora ; Oliverius, Jaroslav (advisor)
The TV series represent a specific phenomenon in Egypt and other Arab countries. Albeit generally regarded as an uninteresting part of popular culture rather than a sort of art, the TV dramas should be seriously taken into consideration by all of social, history, and art scientists. Firstly, because of the extreme popularity among the large majority of the Egyptians, the series are often used by authorities for spreading certain ideological and political messages. The questions of national unity and the rise of militant Islam were chosen as examples to prove this in the thesis. Secondly, the Egyptian TV series reflect the social changes in Egyptian society and promote modernisation. This is shown in the thesis on the cases of marriage and the woman status. The production of TV series in Egypt is enormous and watching them is very widespread. Therefore, the TV dramas represent a powerful means to influence Egyptian society. Keywords: TV series, television, Egypt, popular culture, film, television drama, Egyptian society, social changes, satellite broadcasting, media.
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Portrayal of Journalists in Netflix' Series "House of Cards"
Linhart, Tomáš ; Sehnálková, Jana (advisor) ; Szobi, Pavel (referee)
This thesis examined the contemporary U.S. popular culture, specifically the Netflix series House of Cards, and the analysis was focused on the representation of the media reality portrayed in the first two seasons of the series. The credibility of given model situations or their exaggeration is examined based on thirteen research interviews with Czech and American journalists in March, April, and May 2020. The public trust in media, the influence of popular culture on mass society, specifics and ethics of investigative journalism, and broadly the representation of media in cinematography were presented in the first part. The analysis of the portrayal of journalists and media in the series and research interviews with experts followed. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the credibility of the portrayal of journalists. The secondary research question was focused on the public trust in media and the potential harm that the depiction in culture might cause. The views of Czech and American journalists on the portrayal of media in popular culture and the discussion about their diverse opinions are the primary asset of this thesis. The results prove that the perception of ethics and journalistic behaviour in given specific situations differ individually. Therefore, aspects such as...
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The role of media in the diffusion of Japanese culture
Paták, David ; Soukup, Martin (advisor) ; Köpplová, Barbara (referee)
The focus of this master's thesis is on the role of specific media in the diffusion of Japanese culture. Even though Japan is both geographically distant and culturally distinct from the rest of the world, it has become popular among fans globally. One of the main factors contributing to this fascination is a so-called media mix including Japan-specific media ranging from manga and anime to videogames. The aim of this master's thesis is to find out, based on a quantitative research conducted in both Czech and English-speaking environments, how various media outlets in Japan contribute to its popularity world-wide, identify the most important medium and scrutinize it through a descriptive analysis based on the theories of globalisation and cultural hybridisation to see what makes this medium so distinct. The author discovered that the most significant medium contributing to the diffusion of Japanese culture is anime. One of the main reasons behind its success is a commercial strategy of Japanese producers who intentionally remove cultural boundaries out of anime to make it globally acceptable. Another contributing factor connected to that, is the hybrid look of anime characters that do not have the physical features of Japanese people, which is why audiences tend to link the characters to their own...
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The Analysis of Representation of Suicide and Self-Mutilation in Popular Culture in Years 1999-2019
Nainová, Victoria ; Vochocová, Lenka (advisor) ; Bednařík, Petr (referee)
The master thesis is focusing on the representation of suicides and self-mutilation in American production movies and television in the year 1999-2019. The thesis aims to find out, how are these phenomena shown and with whom popular culture connects them. The theoretical part is dealing with social and media construction of reality, stereotype, stigmatization, and clearing the concepts and definitions of phenomena. For better understanding this part also includes a short presentation of socially deviant behavior since examined phenomena are part of it. The analysis was made based on qualitative content analysis and completed with short quantitative analysis for sociodemographic comparison with available real data. The sample contains 23 motion pictures as are films and series. Based on them and with processes of grounded theory the coding was done, typology was made and pointed out findings with whom American production connects these phenomena and how they represent them in popular culture. Those findings are important for their relations to media construction of reality as non-experts can perceive the way it is represented for their own.
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Agenda setting by Pavel Novotny in the Czech media environment
Bílá, Anja ; Reifová, Irena (advisor) ; Jansa, Petra (referee)
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...
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Healthy Lifestyle Presentation Online on the Coffee Drinking Example
Košťálová, Monika ; Zábrodská, Kristina (advisor) ; Soukup, Martin (referee)
The aim of the diploma thesis Healthy Lifestyle Presentation Online on the Coffee Drinking Examples to demonstrate the presentation of the healthy lifestyle on the example of the coffee consumption and show the media perception. The coffee consumption is considered as a part of the popular culture which makes it an ideal universal research item. The thesis provided the basic theoretical frame for the research compound of two parts which are trying to answer two research questions - how does the online platform present the coffee consumption - whether coffee has a positive or negative impact on health. The second research question was to investigate, whether this media presentation has the impact on its final consumers. For the first research part, the quantitative content analysis was used. It was revealed that 62 % of analyzed articles was in favor of health benefits of the coffee, so the majority opinion presented on the internet is that coffee has got a beneficial impact on human health. The second part of the research was realized as the two-steps qualitative experiment compound of two parts of demi-structured survey. Based on the search, the respondents were observed for a potential opinion change. It was found, that 52 % of the respondent changed their mind in favor of positive coffee impact...
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