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Photojournalism after Digitalization: State of Photojournalism in the Czech Republic
Lábová, Sandra ; Silverio, Robert (advisor) ; Nilsson, Maria Elisabeth (referee) ; Allan, Stuart (referee)
This dissertation undertakes ethnographic research to examine photojournalism in the Czech Republic comprehensively. It builds on the importance of news images in the media representation of reality while considering the authenticity of photography. It stresses photojournalists' role in gatekeeping decision-making and discusses the challenges they face in the evolving media market and developing technology. The research employs qualitative and quantitative methods to examine four dimensions of current photojournalist practice in the Czech Republic: professional identity, production process, ethical standards, and working conditions in light of rising competition. Key findings show passionate and dedicated professionals facing challenges in digitalization and limited resources. Respondents prioritize authenticity and autonomy but highlight the concerns about the underrepresentation of photo departments and the impact of competition in photojournalism. Nevertheless, they express high job satisfaction, viewing their profession as prestigious and rewarding. This research sets a foundation for future longitudinal studies of Czech photojournalists by providing arguments for several concerns, such as gender disparity, technological advancements, and audience perception of visual narratives.
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Visual framing of the war in Ukraine
Zítko, Tomáš ; Lábová, Sandra (advisor) ; Géla, František (referee)
The thesis "Visual Framing of the War in Ukraine" examines how Czech and foreign newspapers construct the media image of this conflict in published photographs. The theoretical focus of the thesis is mainly on framing theory and its visual dimension, agenda setting and peace journalism, using this normative direction as a starting point for the frames analysed in the practical part of the thesis. The analysis combines quantitative and qualitative approaches The aim of the quantitative part of the analysis was to fill in the previously missing data on the visual framing of the war in Ukraine by Czech and foreign media. Furthermore, it focused on the development of the frequency of photographic coverage of the analysed conflict and the identification of the roles of actors appearing in the images. The qualitative part attempted to explore the findings of the quantitative part in more depth by analysing a selected part of the images depicting the identified frames.
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Documentary photography: Climbing as a lifestyle
Dlesková, Veronika ; Géla, František (advisor) ; Lábová, Sandra (referee)
The bachelor thesis entitled Documentary photography: Climbing as a lifestyle is divided into two parts - theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with the historical connection between documentary photography and high-altitude mountaineering. Furthermore, I study the representation of climbing photography in media. The thesis presents the genre of documentary photography and explores the difference between documentary photography and reportage photography. I present the cameras used by climbers in the first half of the 20th century while climbing the highest peaks in the Himalayas. I briefly describe the methods used to document climbing on Mount Everest nowadays. In the practical part of my thesis, I document the current generation of Czech climbers, for which I use both the photos taken on the rocks and the pictures presenting an authentic insight into the lives of people who call climbing their lifestyle.
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The Taliban in a pedal boat: A visual framing analysis of Associated Press and Reuters news photographs of the fundamentalist regime after the end of the Afghanistan war
Gironès Martín, Cristina ; Lábová, Sandra (advisor) ; Turková, Kateřina (referee)
The early photographic coverage of the Afghanistan war in 2001 was part of the 'War on terror' discourse, arising from the 9/11 attacks. The information environment was shaped by the US administration's control (Cherkaoui, 2017), and frames were used to depict the enemy, the Taliban, in a way that justified the military intervention (Miller, 2004). Twenty years later, in 2021, US forces decided to leave the country definitively; thus, the war is considered over. This study compares the visual representation of the fundamentalists in Associated Press and Reuters news photographs in 2001 and 2021 through the lens of framing theory (Entman, 1993) with the peace journalism concept (Galtung, 1986). For this aim, a mixed methodology is employed. On one hand, the content analysis discovered that after 9/11 a polarized frame was used to portray the Taliban, something that strongly changed after the war ended. Even though peace is not completely established, the fighters are overall seen from a more humanizing point of view. On the other hand, the semiology analysis found that in 2021 Western coverage still reproduces the Us/Other rhetoric which is reinforced by a misperception of the Arab/Muslim world. Keywords Afghanistan war; framing; peace journalism; photojournalism; stereotypes; information dominance.
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War Photojournalism and Violence in Worldwide Photojournalism Contests
Patzner, Dominik ; Lábová, Sandra (advisor) ; Silverio, Robert (referee)
This master's thesis researches how often and how worldwide photojournalism competitions award photographs that capture phenomena such as war conflicts, violence, and their consequences. The basis of this research is a hypothesis that shots capturing described phenomena dominate some of the contest categories. The theoretical part contains fundamental information related to the topic of the research - negativity as a news value and the concept of war frame in the journalism field. Peace journalism and solutions journalism have developed to answer to the high rate of negative content in the news, as they do not focus on the negative aspects of events, which presents a different approach to journalistic work. The relation between those two approaches and photojournalism is described in more detail, so is a brief overview of worldwide contests and their influence on the photojournalism field. The research part of the thesis combines content analysis with semiotic analysis and delves into the frequency of awarding described photographs and the content of the photographs, as well as the development in awarding such pictures in time. The research also includes the analysis of several photographs that can be considered a part of peace or solutions journalism. The semiotic analysis then explores such pictures in...
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Changes of the form and content of photography due to growth of mobile photography and social media
Shupikova, Alina ; Láb, Filip (advisor) ; Štefaniková, Sandra (referee)
This thesis attempts to answer the question whether there has been a change in photography due to the growth of mobile photography and social media. The initial assumption is that the growth has influenced changes within photography's form, function and perception. In an aim to narrow this relatively broad topic, the thesis is focused on professional photojournalism and the usage of the social network Instagram as a platform for the publication of photographic reportage. The practical part of the work is a case study of a photoreportage by TIME magazine on Instagram which captured hurricane Sandy in 2012. This innovative photojournalistic method is compared with reportages done on similar events in 2005 and 2011.
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Photography in media and its impact on perception of objective reality
Šeflová, Tereza ; Láb, Filip (advisor) ; Dvořák, Tomáš (referee)
This diploma thesis describes the way by which can photojournalism operate with the audience and how it is possible to influence a view of recipients about the world around us by photography. The thesis is devided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part is based on accessibility of the Czech and foreign literature and in its beginning that represents what photojournalism is and what is its role in media. A part of the opening chapter is also a discussion of ethics in the photojournalism. Furthermore, there is explanation of the process of how a recipient perceives visual communication. One of the key components of this work is a summary of how experts from the fields of photography and media see the possibility of influencing the audience with photos in the media. There are explained the concepts of the terms visual agenda setting and visual gatekeeping. The ways by which media most often manipulate a recipient are described and there is outlined also the question of objectivity in photojournalism. The end of the theoretical part is devoted to a relatively popular topic of digital photo editing in the media. The practical part of this thesis involves a qualitative research carried through in-depth interviews, which explores ways in which the photos, that are included in printed...
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nemá v tezích anglický název
Nosková, Anna ; Lábová, Alena (advisor) ; Trampota, Tomáš (referee)
This study presents research of role of title photographs in selected czech and foreign daylies. Theoretical part introduces visual culture concepts and role of photographic images in journalism, specificity of photojournalism, photographic genres and title photographs. Next part is dedicated to concept of new values, going from original Galtung / Ruge's taxonomy to contemporary revisited version of Harcup / O'Neill's. The last theoretical chapter introduces concept of gatekeeping and picture editor as visual gatekeeper. The practical part of this study is examining title photographs of 8 czech as well as foreign journals in 4 week long period. I am using method of content analysis, based on paper The content analysis of visual images and Gillian Rose's book Visual analysis. In my study I had applied news values to photographic materials. I chose combination of original Galtung / Ruge's concept together with Harcup / O'Neills contemporary revision, putting attention to entertaining aspects of media contents. The other paramteres I was following in my study were origin, size, topic, theme, negativity, orientation, gender content, etc. As a result I did find that there is very common way how dailyes handle with title photographs, which are having special status among other visual materials. There is...
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The Role of Smartphone cameras in Czech Photojournalism
Sýsová, Kateřina ; Lábová, Alena (advisor) ; Teplá, Jana (referee)
In my bachelor thesis The Role of Smartphone cameras in Czech Photojournalism I am going to analyze how Czech photojournalism was influenced by modern mobile phones or so-called smartphones. This topic was examined by several graduates abroad. Anyway I did not succeed in finding any piece of work in which someone examined the influence of smartphones on the work of Czech photojournalists in detail. This reason combined with my interest into modern technologies and its influence on journalism meant for me the clear choice of this topic. In the first theoretical part I am going to describe the development of modern mobile phones and their penetration in everyday life as well as I am going to focus on applications which can make taking, editing or spreading pictures for photojournalist easier. In the next part I am going to focus on the phenomena of convergence. I am going to describe the process of photographical evolution as well as the democratization of photography in the last part of the theoretical section. I am going to complete the practical unit with help of compiling a case study in which I describe Czech professional photojournalists who use their phones for taking photographs. The last part will be complete by an interview with the launcher of the web iPhonefoto.cz and photographer Tomáš Tesař, who...
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