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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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Media image of the most widespread new religious movements in czech republic
Vopatová, Helena ; Šoltys, Otakar (advisor) ; Provecho López, Juan Ignacio (referee)
The main purpose of this thesis is to describe how the respectable Czech newspapers and news websites access to three major new religious movements in our country. Thus the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Grail Movement. In the theoretical part, I generally define the term "new religious movement", then I describe in detail the three above-mentioned movements. The following chapter deals with the relationship between media and new religious movements. The theoretical part is closed by describing the used methodologies. In the analytical part of this thesis I make discourse analysis of the chosen media messages. I mark out specific characteristics and roles that media attribute to the members of the examined new religious movements. I cite concrete passages from which these characteristics result. Simultaneously I refer to texts that relate to these characteristics. The results of the analysis I summarize and describe in the last chapter of the analytical part, in which I also present an overview of all the characteristics and roles that appeared in the media. The summary sums up the results of the analysis and evaluate whether the target of this work was filled.
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Being an Older Mother: Metamorphoses of Late Motherhood from the Foundation of Czechoslovakia up to the Present
Šimečková, Michaela ; Fialová, Ludmila (advisor) ; Kocourková, Jiřina (referee) ; Hašková, Hana (referee)
Being an Older Mother: Metamorphoses of Late Motherhood from the Foundation of Czechoslovakia up to the Present Abstract The doctoral thesis gives a macro-structural view of the metamorphoses of late motherhood, here defined as motherhood of women aged over 35, as they have occurred in the Czech lands between 1920 and 2015. The study examines to which extent the reflection of late motherhood in selected professional and feminine / lifestyle periodicals converges with the findings derived from demographic data analysis. For this purpose, a mixed methods research has been conducted to link the conclusions from quantitative analysis of demographic data (demographic analysis and binary logistic regression) to those from qualitative and quantitative media analyses (discourse and content analyses). As the study shows, the development of late motherhood in the Czech lands varies across a range of possible perceptions in the media, levels and fertility rates. The thesis shows a strong coherence between the perception of late motherhood in the media and conclusions drawn from the demographic data analysis, which are consistent for most of the observed years. According to the results of the analysis, with some simplification, five different types of late motherhood are determined. The first type, the "Experienced...
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Interpretation of American History in the Context of Contemporary U.S. Society: From Bradley Commission to 21st Century History Curriculum
Vondrová, Petra ; Kozák, Kryštof (advisor) ; Kýrová, Lucie (referee)
The thesis aims to analyze the relationship of the collective memory of an individual and his/her inclusion with the society and eventual ability to generate social capital. This paper evaluates the American federal education system and its interpretation of the historical narrative to the students. The focus of this thesis is the interpretation of historical events in the context of American society, whose structure has changed fundamentally over the past 30 years. Not only society has suffered a significant change, the federal system of student testing and the federal education institutions' funding have been revised too. American society can benefit from it through internal intercourse or, on the contrary, it can become more fragmented if it fails to bring the individual into a contemporary social setting. The work has been defined in time since the Bradley Commission has issued general recommendations to change approach to historical curricula, and then continues to explore the development until 2014. The political changes with the end of the Cold War led to a constant reinterpretation of American history and the secondary the collective identity. In the new millennium and after the year 2014 it has concluded in a discussion about historical education on academic, social and political fields....
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Reception of Strategic Economic Narratives: Case Study of the Kenyan News Discourse.
Řehák, Vilém ; Kučerová, Irah (advisor) ; Horáková, Hana (referee) ; Záhořík, Jan (referee)
Strategic narrative is a communicative tool for political elites to construct a shared meaning to the international politics, to articulate state's interests, to change the discursive environment, and to shape the behaviour of other actors. It has three different dynamics, which proceed simultaneously and reinforce each other: formation of the narrative within the given state, its projection in the international arena, and its reception in other states. Theory of strategic narratives fits well into the framework of new regionalism, which tries to analyse relations between the processes of globalization, globalism, regionalization, and regionalism. Until recently, such analyses were conducted from state-level and positivist perspective. As a result, the dimension of reception remained understudied. The presented thesis is an attempt to fill this gap. It analyses global political economy from the interpretivist constructivist perspective: it uses the leading local newspaper as a data sources and analyses media (news) discourse as one form of a broad societal discourse. Such an analysis can help us to analyse how local society assesses and reacts to strategic narratives and their internalization or rejection by local elites. In my thesis, I focus on narratives of the three superpowers (the US, the EU,...
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Normality of the exception? Crisis Governance in reforming the Asylum and Migration Policy of the European Union
Kaleta, Ondřej ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Braun, Mats Rickard (referee) ; Lupták, Ľubomír (referee)
This doctoral thesis examines the issue of crisis governance of the European Union in the context of migration developments after 2015. The author investigates how relevant EU institutions (European Commission, Council of the EU, and European Council) construct exceptionality within the common asylum and migration policy and what might be its impacts on the functionality of this policy. Theoretically, the research is based on the concept of "state of exception" originally introduced in the works of Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben. The main objective of the thesis is to analyze and interpret the extraordinary migration measures from 2015 to 2018, which were proposed and implemented by the EU political actors to address the migration situation. The institutional level is further broadened and contextualized by including three EU Member State governments - Hungary, Austria, and Germany - and their involvement in the interactive shaping of emergency policies. The author studies how the exception is constructed in the EU official discourse, the relationship between exception and normality, and the exercise of power to create a state of exception at supranational/intergovernmental level of the EU as an international organization. The thesis approaches the topic using critical discourse analysis. It...
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