Jana Radošinská – Communication Today

CHALLENGING GENDER CONVENTIONS, BLENDING GENRES, UNITING BODIES AND SOULS: INTIMACY, LOYALTY, AND FEMALE AGENCY IN TELEVISION PERIOD DRAMA OUTLANDER

Jana Radošinská — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 10:24:36 +0000

ABSTRACT:

Current scholarly debates on period drama acknowledge that the term has always carried a variety of problematic gendered associations. Although the genre is widely popular (not only) in the Western cultural framework, on the silver screen and small(er) screens alike, it has long been delegitimised as inherently feminine. This is why many period dramas, even the most popular ones and especially those offered by internet-distributed television, have struggled to achieve critical acclaim which would allow them to assume the status of quality (or rather prestige, high-end) TV, except for HBO’s male-centric productions such as Deadwood (Milch, 2004 – 2006) and Boardwalk Empire (Winter, 2010 – 2014). The aim of this study is to explore how the period drama Outlander (Moore, 2014 – ongoing) incorporates a variety of narrative and discourse elements typical for high-end television, offering a complex transhistorical portrayal of characters born in different centuries and driven by diverse needs and motivations. This objective is fulfilled by contributing to the wider academic dispute on the formal and content-related differences between period dramas, costume dramas, and historical dramas, as well as on the presumed appeal of contemporary period dramas to female audiences expecting to experience complex displays of femininity and masculinity. The study also utilises narrative and discourse analysis to discuss Outlander’s apparent ability to function as a genre hybrid merging fantasy, romance, and period drama with transhistorical storytelling, and also as a visually appealing and detailed portrayal of intimacy, emotional vulnerability, and female agency, particularly through the characters of Claire and Jamie Fraser.

KEY WORDS:

costume drama, female agency, female gaze, femininity, genre blending, intimacy, masculinity, objectification, Outlander, period drama, romance

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34135/communicationtoday.2025.Vol.16.No.2.4

The Blockbuster Biopic Bohemian Rhapsody as an Expression of Cinema/Music Synergy

Jana Radošinská — Sun, 23 Apr 2023 11:01:54 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The study focuses on Bohemian Rhapsody (2018, directed by Bryan Singer, later Dexter Fletcher), the biographical drama that reflects on the extraordinary lives and career patterns of the four members of the rock band Queen, predominantly the band’s frontman, Freddie Mercury. Given the fact that this feature film has changed the way we perceive the economic potential of biopics entirely, we offer an overview of some of the reasons why it was so successful in terms of the globalised film industry. The main objective of the study is to outline the biographical drama’s synergistic tendency in relation to the movie industry and the music business. Acknowledging Bohemian Rhapsody’s unprecedented global success, we work with the assumption that certain biographical dramas can, in fact, become globally popular, partly thanks to the fact that they utilise music as a nostalgia-driven narrative tool making portrayals of musicians deeper and more complex. The assumption is addressed via a theoretical reflection on the given topic and through a qualitative content analysis of the biographical drama Bohemian Rhapsody.

KEY WORDS:
biographical drama, Bohemian Rhapsody, diegesis, film industry, film music, movie narrative, music industry, soundtrack

01. RADOSINSKA et al. – CT 1-2023 Download

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34135/communicationtoday.2023.Vol.14.No.1.1

To Thrive Means to Entertain: The Nature of Today’s Media Industries

Jana Radošinská — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 12:47:21 +0000

ABSTRACT:
Understanding the ‘industrial’ nature of media production and its individual segments is an essential part of any systematic scholarly reﬂection on the cultural, economic or political aspects of media communication. The media industries produce information, entertainment, narratives and cultural phenomena, i.e. materialised items able to disseminate (and promote) a plethora of ideas, experience, emotions, lifestyles, value-based opinions or even spiritual stimuli. However, despite all of their unique traits and production principles, media industries may be seen as ‘common’ industrial segments that are subject to speciﬁc technological, economic and commercial imperatives. The production ‘phase’ of media communication certainly involves a wide spectrum of rather complex production mechanisms. The study thus aims to explore and discuss the current scholarly opinions on the media industries and their social, cultural, economic and technological frameworks. Firstly, the authors offer an overview of existing deﬁnitions of the media industries and their typologies. The basic terminological outlines are followed by a closer look at transformations of the media industries in the digital era, especially in relation to late modern media audiences and their volatile preferences. The authors also introduce, discuss and compare various paradigmatic outlines related to studying the economic aspects of media production, placing emphasis on the political economy of media and its problematic relationship to media studies and cultural studies.

KEY WORDS:
critical political economy of media, late modern media audiences, media and cultural studies, media economics, media industries, media ownership, oligopolies

01. RADOSINSKA et al. – CT 1-2020 Download

On Cinderella Men and Peaceful Warriors: “Sportainment” in American Mainstream Cinema

Jana Radošinská — Thu, 01 Nov 2018 10:16:09 +0000

ABSTRACT:
Being one of the portmanteau words related to media entertainment, “sportainment” is a term that refers to the processes of merging sports and entertainment within the media sphere, predominantly for commercial purposes. Even though the concept is mostly discussed in terms of various forms of reality TV, live broadcasting of sports or globally successful spectacular sporting events such as the Olympic Games, there are many other forms of sportainment to consider. The author reflects on sportainment and its use in the present-day American mainstream film production. The aim of the article is to offer a set of theoretical outlines which are related to sport and its social, cultural and media frameworks, as well as knowledge on sports feature films produced in Hollywood and their thematic aspects. That is why the second part of the text addresses the ways various sports and athletes are portrayed in American mainstream films. The author works with the basic assumption that the current forms and variations of so-called sports dramas made in Hollywood apply multiple practices of genre hybridisation, and they thus tend to involve a wide variety of topics, ideas and heroes which may or may
not be primarily focused on sport.

KEY WORDS:
commercialised sports, global movie industry, mainstream, media entertainment, Hollywood, sports dramas, sportainment

02_Radošinská_CT-2-2018 Download

New Trends in Production and Distribution of Episodic Television Drama: Brand Marvel-Netflix in the Post-Television Era

Jana Radošinská — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 20:13:16 +0000

ABSTRACT:
Episodic television drama is currently one of the most popular, profitable and variable forms of audio-visual media production. The author of the study focuses on its ability to appeal to people preferring ‘traditional’ modes of reception as well as to media audiences that spend a lot of their free time in the virtual world. New trends in production of dramatic television series and serials refer to importance of multimedia distribution platforms and fully acknowledge social networks as communication and advertising channels that are capable of actively encouraging the emergence and evolution of so-called “institutionalised fandoms”. The text aims to offer a set of theoretical outlines related to post-television era, placing emphasis on “brandcasting”, a term that has been developed in order to thoroughly reflect on processes of television branding which often result in hybrid communication forms merging media content and promotional material. The author also focuses on specific modes of producing, distributing and consuming episodic television drama in the context of so-called “over-the-top” television (OTT TV) or rather “connected” television. The addressed development tendencies are explained through an analysis of successful cooperation between two popular entertainment brands (Marvel Television and Netflix) that is built upon the contemporary ‘boom’ of superheroes and their stories. A basic assumption here is that television drama serials produced by Marvel and exclusively distributed by Netflix can be seen as hybrids of content and promotion which significantly expand Marvel’s global popularity and Netflix’s increasing influence in the sphere of digital media production and distribution.

KEY WORDS:
brandcasting, broadcasting, episodic television drama, Internet-delivered television, Marvel’s Daredevil, Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Marvel’s Luke Cage, Marvel Entertainment, media culture, Netflix, superheroes

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Some Notes on the Translation as an Interpretative Art and Communication as well. Interview with Juraj Vojtek

Jana Radošinská — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 19:52:34 +0000

ABSTRACT:
This interview has been done at the occasion of The Grant Prize delivered by The Lewis Carroll Society of North America to the Slovak edition of Lewis Carroll’s books Alica v krajine zázrakov and Za zrkadlom a s čím sa tam Alica stretla, in English Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, which were published by Slovart, illustrated by Dušan Kállay, and co-translated by Viera Vojtková a Juraj Vojtek. It presents two main events organised by the Society at the 150th anniversary of publication of the book in England – the introduction of a three volume set (LINDSETH, J. A. (ed.): Alice In a World of Wonderlands. The Translations of Lewis Carroll´s Masterpiece. New Castle, Delaware : Oak Knoll Press and The Lewis Carroll Society of North America, 2015. 2656 p.), and the exhibition of Lewis Carroll’s masterpieces translated into more than 200 languages of the world. It serves to one of the awarded creators of the book, to Full Prof. Juraj Vojtek, as a starting point to give a thought on such questions as what is a translation, what are its limits and what is its place in communication, from the viewpoint of a practical translator.

KEY WORDS:

translation, translator, exoticism and domestication, intrapersonal communication of the translator

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Vývojové trendy americkej mainstreamovej filmovej produkcie

Jana Radošinská — Fri, 02 May 2014 07:10:37 +0000

The paper deals with the contemporary development trends in American mainstream movie production. Basic assumption of this text is examining mainstream movie production as one of the most commercially successful segments of the media industry, together with the business of culture and entertainment. The author reflects broader economic, historical and organizational aspects of Hollywood production aimed at the mainstream audiences, as well as the socio-cultural significance of the meanings perceived by movie-goers. Therefore, the paper examines the mainstream Hollywood production in all complexity, from the viewpoint of production and creative mechanisms, but also in the context of social meanings associated with given category of film works referring to favoured motives and thematization of everyday reality in contemporary globalized society. The author defines current mainstream movie production as part of media culture influenced by entertaining visuals, intertextuality, genre hybridization, tendencies to use seriality and parody.

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Trends In Development Of American Mainstream Film Production

Jana Radošinská — Fri, 02 May 2014 07:09:01 +0000

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