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Gender aspects in state-led water security discourses: A case study of the Syr Darya river basin countries
Mukhamejan, Nadira ; Parks, Louisa Rosemary (advisor) ; Anceschi, Luca (referee)
This postgraduate research project proposes to explore water security discourses in Central Asia, which is one of the global "climate hotspots" (Giorgi, 2006, p. 33). Recent increases in temperatures exceeding global historical averages are causing more frequent droughts and earlier snowmelt, which has a major influence on future water availability in an already water-stressed region (Bernauer and Siegfried, 2012; Sorg et al., 2013). These impacts affect individuals and segments of society differently and aggravate already existing gendered vulnerabilities and diverse capacities to face its consequences (Sultana, 2018, p. 19). There is a growing consensus that water relations in societies are affected by social relationships related to gender (Fröhlich et al., 2018). Several case studies have indeed highlighted that water (in)securities are rooted in gendered water-related labour division and associated social norms, and could be worsened by climate change (Rao et al., 2019, Adams et al., 2018, Bacon et al., 2022). However, the geography of this literature body is uneven: existing studies are focused on Southeast Asia, Africa, and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. While there is a growing research interest to gendered realities and insecurities in water sector, the academic literature in...
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Semiotic Specifics of Media Contents
Podzimek, Jan ; Bednařík, Petr (advisor) ; Dvořáčková, Věra (referee) ; Ducháček, Milan (referee)
This dissertation explores specifics of media semiotics as a method of media content analysis. The main research sample consists of mediasemiotic studies, in the second place of studies within other applied semiotics and methodological publications on the subject. The research method is a discourse analysis, done on all levels from micro- to macrostructures, specifically on levels of language, intertextuality, narrativity, discussions, discourse models and discourses. The analysis also took into account interdiscoursive relations between media semiotics and media studies, theoretic semiotics, and other related disciplines, as well as the question whether bringing concepts from these fields into media semiotics involves some transformations of these concepts, and how are these transformations related to the nature of the given discourses. The main contribution of this dissertation is introduction of the principle of modularity. It is a specific way of employing analytical functions into an analytical engine, which was present in all researched media semiotic studies, but also in the studies which belong to other applied semiotics (movie semiotics, anthropological semiotics, semiotics of law), and to discourse analysis as well. The modularity is an autonomous principle which must be, in case of the...
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Hunger games: Discourses of the G7 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa
Milerová Prášková, Dagmar ; Novotný, Josef (advisor) ; Daněk, Petr (referee) ; Profant, Tomáš (referee)
The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition was launched in 2012 as the main G7 initiative to combat hunger in Africa. Its proclaimed objective was to facilitate cooperation between selected African countries and private sector companies by promoting pro-market reforms and investments in African agriculture. However, it quietly disappeared from public space around 2015, seven years before the end of its programming period. The New Alliance can thus be considered and analysed as a case of failed policy, which has not achieved its declared goals. In this thesis, I examine the discourses of this initiative in official documents of selected G7 countries, focusing on how this initiative was constructed and framed in the wider context of their approaches to global food security and hunger. The selection of the analysed countries (USA, France, and the UK) reflects their distinct positions on the New Alliance. This analysis is supplemented by discourse analysis of western and African civil society actors who took an active role either in a New Alliance project or the anti-New Alliance campaign. I assumed that examination and confrontation of different positions of these countries with respect to the New Alliance may uncover different conceptualisations of food security and hunger in Africa associated...
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Discursive annihilation of negative implications as a method of defence of enhanced interrogation techniques
Janovec, Adam ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Ludvík, Jan (referee)
The thesis, entitled Discursive annihilation of negative implications as a method of defence of enhanced interrogation techniques, presents a qualitative content analysis of the public rhetorical output of U.S. government officials in order to identify the mechanics by which they attempted to advocate enhanced interrogation techniques. In addition to providing context for the conditions under which enhanced interrogation techniques were developed, the thesis provides insight into the nature of the controversy surrounding them, which made the entire issue one of the most critical topics of the George W. Bush administration. The extent of the negative public response toward the revelation of the deployment of interrogation techniques with incorporated elements of physical violence in questioning sessions conducted by U.S. security forces led to the need for an immediate response by senior government officials. In order to mitigate the potential impact on the legitimacy of state institutions, their leaders have resorted to transform the existing political discourse through the use of a variation of linguistic figures in their rhetoric. The most significant component of the thesis is represented by the analysis of a set of written outputs of selected representatives of the state and state security...
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EU CSDP as discourse and identity: towards a security actor in the neighbourhood
Freitag, Vojtěch ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Hynek, Nikola (referee)
This diploma thesis explores the European Union's identity as a security actor in its neighbourhood. More specifically, it aims to find persistent discursive elements that contribute to form its actorness identity. To this end, the thesis analyses the EU official discourse of two 'opposite' CSDP missions in its neighbourhood - Operation Concordia in FYROM and Operation Sophia in the Mediterranean Sea. It develops a theoretical approach which highlights internal functions of external actions. As a consequence, the CSDP is regarded as identity- building exercise and the discourse surrounding the military missions is viewed as directed to strengthen the EU actorness identity. The discursive fields of Concordia and Sophia are examined through three dimensions or 'lenses' named as 'distinctiveness', 'normative justifications', and 'part of a bigger picture'. With their help, the analysis reveals that in spite of the notable development of CSDP in the past two decades, there are long standing discursive tools the EU uses to build its identity as a security actor and enhance its standing both at home and on the world stage.
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Discoursive analysis of Czech government communication about COVID-19 in 2020
Rys, Filip ; Hanzal, Jaromír (advisor) ; Křeček, Jan (referee)
Many people criticised the communication of the Czech Government during a pandemic in 2020. This thesis analyses government communication and its interpretation in agenda-setting, securitisation and narrativisation. The thesis also contains an analysis of politicians' interviews in media. The diploma thesis consists of a discursive analysis of the government's press conferences in 2020. On the results of the analysis were conducted, discoursive models. Models are used to define how the government communicated the problem of covid-19. The thesis continues with the analysis of agenda-setting, in which it was clear that the government successfully set its agenda in media. On results of the agenda-setting analysis was conducted securitisation analysis. The analysis shows at least one significant correlation between the government's specific securitisation speech act and how people perceived pandemic threats. The study of politicians' interviews in media showed that politicians hold a consistent communication style even if they were not at official press conferences. Connecting line of government's communication was to minimalise every doubt using a phrase that they did maximum. In every circumstance, they tried to present to the public, that was done everything possible.
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Slovakia's accession to the EU: A return to the west or a seized opportunity?
Salíni, Michal ; Földes, Kristián (advisor) ; Kubátová, Hana (referee)
This year, 18 years have passed since the moment Slovakia became a member of the European Union. Currently, Slovakia is a long-time member of the Union, however, this status has not always been self-evident. At the turn of millennia, Slovakia was in the middle of an accession process, which was marked with success, as well as problems. This bachelor thesis focuses on the accession process of Slovakia to the European Union in the years 1994-2004. Using theoretical principles of constructivism and post-structuralism, the author is analysing nominalisation and predicalisation of the European Union in Slovak public discourse based on two logical principles - logic of expected consequences and logic of appropriateness. Furthermore, this thesis focuses on which of these logical approaches was prevalent in the public discourse. Author works with materials from political and media sphere from a given period. The first part of the thesis focuses on the theoretical and methodological background necessary for the analysis. In the following part, author describes historical context of the period. In the empirical chapter, author analyses chosen relevant materials. In the last part of the thesis, author provides answers to research questions.
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The Media Discourse Analysis of the Normalization of Relations Between Israel and Arab States
Berková, Kristýna ; Volný, Vít (advisor) ; Lochovský, Jan (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with the normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab states (with an emphasis on the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain) during 2020. By means of a suitable theoretical framework it aims to shed light on the reasons for establishing official diplomatic relations and, using critical discourse analysis, to compare media images of the countries and identify the form of the fifth geopolitical code. An analysis of 60 news articles subsequently shows that Bahraini, Emirati and Israeli reports portray the agreement as a path to peace and stability and highlight new economic opportunities. On the other hand, the articles differ primarily in their interpretation of the question of Palestine and the Iranian nuclear threat. Key words: Israel, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, normalization, critical discourse analysis
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