Veronika Macková – Communication Today

EVOLUTION OF COMMERCIALS FEATURING PARA ATHLETES: FROM FRIEND NEXT DOOR TO EQUAL SPORTS STARS

Veronika Macková — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

ABSTRACT:
This article analyses how Para athletes were presented in audiovisual commercials by companies that supported the Olympic or Paralympic Games. We focused on the framing of (dis)ability in commercials available on YouTube (2008-2021). The evolution in Para athletes’ presentation can be tracked in identified frames. The traditional defensive and supercrip frames have persisted, though less noticeably than in the past. Defensive framing accentuates the hard work and tough training of Paralympians. Its subframe, supercrip or cyborg framing, challenges the notion of disability and highlights the courage of Paralympians. One newly identified frame was the equality frame, when advertisements present Paralympians as equals living ordinary lives as able-bodied people. The portrayal of Paralympians in advertisements has evolved and corresponds with the companies’ missions and campaigns’ claims.

KEY WORDS:
athletes with a disability, commercials, framing, para athletes, sports communication, social media

03_MACKOVA-et-al_CT-1-2024 Download

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34135/communicationtoday.2024.Vol.15.No.1.3

The Robotic Reporter in The Czech News Agency: Automated Journalism and Augmentation in the Newsroom

Veronika Macková — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 13:24:25 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The use of automated journalism, also known as robotic journalism or artiﬁcial intelligence journalism, became an established practice in English-speaking countries less than ten years ago. Narrative Science and Automated Insights developed creative software that automatically generates reports. Several media outlets, including The Associated Press (AP), have started to publish their reports. Media landscape barriers based on Slavic languages, such as Czech, have caused some delays in the introduction of automated journalism, or artiﬁcial intelligence journalism, in Central and Eastern Europe. This article is a case study of the application of algorithms that transform large data ﬁles into news texts in The Czech News Agency (ČTK). A research team led by Charles University provided algorithms generating reports on trading results on the Prague Stock Exchange without human intervention to The Czech News Agency in 2019. The study deals with the production of algorithms and compares the rate of generation of messages generated by humans against algorithms and examines their quality. In our research we also used observations and questionnaire surveys of selected journalists and editors who work with reports from the Prague Stock Exchange. The article also provides the opinions of journalists of The Czech News Agency on the application of automated journalism and artiﬁcial intelligence journalism in their newsrooms.

KEY WORDS:
algorithmic journalism, automated journalism, big data, Czech News Agency, journalistic ethics, natural language generation, natural language processing, news forms, Prague Stock Exchange, robotic journalism

03. MORAVEC et al. – CT 1-2020 Download

‘I Have Won, and I Want to Share It’: The Ways Female Skiers Use Facebook as a Communication Tool

Veronika Macková — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 09:39:50 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The study examines the presence of female skiers, with and without a disability, on the social media platform Facebook. It focuses on Czech and foreign athletes and discusses their posts, as well as promotional and commercial content published on their official Facebook pages. The study is based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the published content (i.e. texts, photos and videos, links, hashtags), taking into consideration fans’ reactions posted on the official Facebook pages of the selected athletes. Personal Facebook pages of four female athletes are reflected on. These athletes were successful at the World Championships in 2017. To provide consistency, all of the selected athletes are skiers (Tereza Kmochová – the Czech hearing impaired alpine skier, Šárka Strachová – the Czech alpine skier, Henrieta Farkašová – the Slovak visually impaired alpine skier and Mikaela Shiffrin – the American champion in alpine skiing). Three key research questions are posed: How the female skiers in question use their official Facebook pages for communication, promotional and commercial purposes? What are the similarities and differences present in Facebook communication of the female athletes with and without a disability? What are the similarities and differences in Facebook communication of these Czech and foreign skiers? The results prove, for example, that the ablebodied athletes post significantly more content on their official Facebook pages than the athletes with the aforementioned disabilities. Moreover, Tereza Kmochová who also participates in standard competitions tends to post more promotional content than Henrieta Farkašová who competes only in para alpine skiing.

KEY WORDS:
disabled athletes, disabled sport, impairment, Facebook, mediated sport, social media

06. MACKOVA & TURKOVA – CT 1-2019 Download

“You Don’t Have a Leg? Don’t Worry, You Can Still Be a Star!” Media Image of Cyclist Jiří Ježek

Veronika Macková — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 10:26:27 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The article provides a theoretical and analytical insight into the framework of celebritization in sports; it mainly deals with the world of athletes with physical disabilities. The authors focus on the media image of Jiří Ježek, the most successful cyclist in the history of Paralympic Games, created by Czech public television, Česká televize, and Czech private television, TV Nova. The content analyses of their main sports broadcasts (TV sports news) were the most important research item. The quantitative research (how often he has been presented by TV stations in question during the last fourteen years) was followed by the qualitative research methods (how they have presented him and his story). The authors also contacted the companies to find out why they chose him as a figure to present themselves. Using the research findings as well as other sources of information, the article presents the media image of Jiří Ježek and outlines in detail the process of celebritization of an athlete with a disability who has become really famous, a real star.

KEY WORDS:
athletes with physical disabilities, celebritization, cycling, Jiří Ježek, media, paralympic games, paralympic sport, sport

06_Macková_Truneček_CT-2-2015 Download