|
|
A resilient democracy? The German political parties' stance on disinformation in the context of the federal elections between 2017 and 2021
Nusková, Nikola ; Lizcová, Zuzana (advisor) ; Handl, Vladimír (referee)
The submitted diploma thesis examines the activities of German political parties in combating disinformation leading up to the elections to the German Bundestag from 2017 to 2021. In light of past experiences, where foreign interference in democratic decision-making proceses has been repeatedly observed abroad, questions regarding the security of elections have also arisen in Germany. Therefore, the goal of this diploma thesis is to map the attitudes, measures and discussions of German political parties on the topic of disinformation and fake news in relation to Bundestag elections, utilizing a single-case study approach. Considering concerns about whether the adopted legislation might restrict freedom of speech, the concept of resilient democracy is also taken into account in the thesis. As stated in the introduction of the thesis, in ordinary communication, the terms disinformation and fake news are often conflated or overlapped, with the main assumption being that both terms refer to deliberately spread falsehoods with hostile intensions. Nevertheless, a more detailed definition of these and other related terms is provided in the first chapter. The second chapter of the thesis focuses on the German environment, addresing perceived threats to Bundestag elections and presenting the active leading...
|
|
|
The Relationship of the Grand Old Party to the Equal Rights Amendment and the Influence of Disinformation on Its Failed Ratification
Ryšavá, Aneta ; Sehnálková, Jana (advisor) ; Kýrová, Lucie (referee)
The Relationship of the Grand Old Party to the Equal Rights Amendment and the Infuence of Disinformation on Its Failed Ratification Aneta Ryšavá Abstract This bachelor thesis, titled "The Relationship of the Grand Old Party to the Equal Rights Amendment and the Influence of Disinformation on Its Failed Ratification," deals with the Equal Rights Amendment and opposition against the amendment. The thesis aims to answer the question of whether arguments against the opposition can be called disinformation. The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter explores the definition of "disinformation." The second chapter introduces the Equal Rights Amendment and outlines its history. The third chapter focuses on Phyllis Schlafly and the opposition she formed against the amendment. The fourth chapter is the longest, examining the most common arguments against the amendment and assessing whether they can be classified as disinformation. The fifth and final chapter discusses the Republican Party and its changing opinion on the amendment. The aim of the thesis is to determine whether the arguments against the amendment can be considered disinformation and how they influenced the Republican Party's opinion on the amendment. After analyzing the party's stance on the amendment, I conclude that the Republican...
|
|
|
Interconnection between the Republican party in the USA and the disinformation movement QAnon
Janoušek, Hynek ; Charvát, Jan (advisor) ; Dopieralla, Jakub (referee)
This master's thesis focuses on the disinformation movement QAnon and its connection to the Republican Party in the United States. In the theoretical part, the definition of disinformation movements and related terms, theories of polarization and radicalization are introduced, the Republican Party is introduced, and finally the QAnon disinformation movement is presented. QAnon is a disinformation movement that has emerged as a supportive conspiracy theory for former GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. QAnon supported politicians from the right-wing populist wing of the Republican Party, led by Donald Trump, and actively attacked politicians and celebrities who spoke out against right-wing populists in any way. The thesis describes how QAnon was popular in the United States at the time, and how this popularity varied by party affiliation. The practical section also examines the way in which QAnon targeted supporters of the Republican Party. The thesis also examines how Republican politicians and the direction of the party as a whole are influenced by QAnon.
|
|
|
Shaping IR discourse: the case of Telegram in Slovakia in the light of Russia-Ukraine war
Salíni, Michal ; Földes, Kristián (advisor) ; Martinková, Viera (referee)
Social media, such as Telegram, have been playing an increasingly important role in shaping the public discourse in Slovakia and abroad, including the issue of the perception of the main actors and practice of International Relations. This thesis explores the process of construction of identities of such actors in the most popular Telegram channels in Slovakia, which have been labelled as spreading disinformation or misinformation narratives, in the light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Theoretical approaches entailing post-structuralist perception of IR, Mental Models, Social Identity Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism are employed to understand the role of the examined narratives in shaping the foreign policy perception in Slovak society. When it comes to methodology, Qualitative Content Analysis is employed to identify the narratives portraying individual actors and their occurrence. Secondly, features of the Discourse-Historical Approach, complemented by van Dijk's classification of analytical categories of discourse structures, are used to examine the discursive strategies the posts used to convey the message to the audience. The outcomes of the analysis show a rather high degree of occurrence of the war in Ukraine as a topic and pinpoint Russia and Ukraine as the most frequently...
|
|
|
System for Recognizing Disinformation in Web Environment
Večerka, Lukáš ; Žádník, Martin (referee) ; Strnadel, Josef (advisor)
This work deals with the design, implementation, and verification of a system for automatic recognition of disinformation on the web. It addresses the issue of disinformation spread in the online environment and its impact on society. It focuses on training several Czech transformer language models for disinformation recognition and further automatic extraction of content from Czech online newspapers and their analysis using text classification and natural language processing through deep learning methods. The results of these analyses are then presented in a web user interface with the aim of providing a platform for verifying articles, authors, and sources. The interface could be used for data annotation by experts for continuous improvement of language models.
|
|
|
Analysis of Topics and Spreading of Disinformation from Propagandist Web Pages
Kyjovský, Dalibor ; Fajčík, Martin (referee) ; Ondřej, Karel (advisor)
This thesis deals with the issue of disinformation on propaganda websites in the Czech Republic and the design of a system that should be used to analyze and recognize the disinformation character of the content of these websites. The proposed and implemented system is able to download and archive data from propaganda websites and then analyze their content. The system mainly uses knowledge-based and network analyses. The aim of the thesis is to use modern technologies for detecting disinformation in the media. The results may help in further research and in preventing the spread of disinformation.
|
|
|
Application for Detection of Fake News
Zádrapa, Jan ; Holop, Patrik (referee) ; Malinka, Kamil (advisor)
Problém Fake News je aktuálně jeden z největších problémů moderní společnosti. Miliony lidí denně konzumují zavádějící informace a ani o tom nemusí vědět. Tento problém způsobuje riziko po celém světě, protože přispívá k polarizaci společnosti a ovlivňuje volby pomocí propagandy. Bohužel, zatím není vytvořen dostatek spolehlivých automatizovaných nástrojů pro český jazyk, které by dokázaly tento problém řešit. Tato práce má za cíl takovýto nástroj vytvořit a tím pomoci lidem, kteří denně propadají Fake News.
|
|
|
Media Literacy of Older Adults with a Focus on Fake News and their Recognition
Švehláková, Žaneta ; Dostálová, Vladimíra (advisor) ; Vronský, Jiří (referee)
The thesis focuses on the area of media literacy of the older adults. Media literacy of older adults relates to the current issue of fake news and their identification. The aim of the thesis is to analyze the preferences and media use of a group of older adults and to identify the ability of older adults to recognize fake news. A secondary aim of the research findings is to establish recommendations for practice, particularly in education of older adults. The thesis focuses on the periodization of old age and the definition of the term older adult. Furthermore, it focuses on the area of media literacy of older adults especially in relation to fake news. Key factors affecting media literacy of older adults, such as changes in cognitive functions or social life in old age, are reflected. Emphasis is placed on identifying the targets of fake news and the reasons for its dissemination. The thesis presents a definition of fake news and then discusses selected types of fake news, namely misinformation, misinformation, hoaxes and conspiracy theories. The relationship of older adults to fake news, and their knowledge of the phenomenon, is presented. The thesis offers an overview of the key features or principles helping to identify fake news, serving as a basic orientation for their identification. It also...
|
|
|
Disinformation, conspiracy theories, media manipulation and social work in the Czech Republic
HOLÁTOVÁ, Marie
The study deals with the issue of misinformation, conspiracy theories and media manipulation in connection with the elderly, from the perspective of social workers who work with them. The theoretical part includes the definition of the terms disinformation, conspiracy theory, hoax, fake news, manipulation and propaganda. It also focuses on seniors, the media and media literacy. The practical part explores the resilience of seniors to media manipulation and how media literacy or illiteracy manifests itself in seniors, as well as whether social workers have received media literacy training and whether they themselves feel media literate.
|
|
|
Possibilities of implementing Competitive Intelligence in an agricultural company.
Hodovský, Michal ; Rompotl, Jaroslav (referee) ; Bartes, František (advisor)
The subject of this bachelor’s thesis is the application of a Competitive Intelli-gence in an agricultural company, which will enable the company’s manage-ment to find out information about the competitors and at the same time protect our own information from them. This gives our company a competi-tive advantage. In the first part of this thesis I will describe the situation of the company, after which I get to define the problem that will be solved. In the second part I deal with theoretical preparation necessary to create a Com-petitive Intelligence unit. The third part is devoted to creation of the possibili-ties that our company will have. The result of these possibilities is functioning Competitive Intelligence system. In the end, I will summarize the possible solutions and recommend one of them to the company.
|
guest ::
