1/2018 – Communication Today

Journalism Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Interview with Andrej Tušer

Zora Hudíková — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 20:49:32 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The interview presents Professor Andrej Tušer’s opinions on various topics related to journalistic genres and issues modern journalism has to face, with emphasis on the press. Particular attention is paid to addressing the opportunities for independent journalism and the freedom of expression in the current socio-political situation, as well as to the impact of journalism on politicians and their behaviour. His perspectives on the rapidly changing conditions within journalism, contemporary methods of media production, competences of journalists in the age of multi-platform journalism and the development of the Internet and online journalism are also included. Professor Tušer’s practical experience and theoretical expertise are reflected in a range of concepts concerning theoretical issues of journalistic production – including the meaning of genres in contemporary journalism and the position of regional and local print media. The given responses function as thorough, important and critical reflections of this patriarch of Slovak print journalism and journalism theory on the development and the current state of discursive journalism issues in connection with dynamic socio-political and technological transformations.

KEYWORDS:
journalism, journalistic genres, media independence, methods of media production, the press, regional and local periodicals

08_Tušer_Hudíková_CT-1-2018 Download

Motives for the Use of Twitter by Arab Youth

Rahima Aissani — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 20:46:41 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The study aims to identify the reasons why the Arab youth prefer to use Twitter and whether their age, gender, educational level and country of origin play a crucial role in their use of Twitter. In order to answer the aforementioned questions, a descriptive survey method was conducted using a digital survey, which was distributed via Twitter, Google+, Facebook and LinkedIn. The study presents a number of outcomes regarding the preferences of Twitter usage by Arab youth; the analysis and discussion related to the first research question shows that Arab youth prefer Twitter because it is easy to use and gives them more room to explain their opinions and thoughts freely. Regarding the variety of Twitter usage among the research sample, the analysis and discussion associated with the second research question claims that there are statistically significant differences in the usage of Twitter amongst the Arab youth that can be attributed to age, gender, educational level and their home country.

KEYWORDS:
Arab youth, the Internet, media preferences and usage motives, online social media, Twitter

07_Aissani_Dheyab-Abdullah_CT-1-2018 Download

Print Magazine Covers as Packaging

Anna Jupowicz-Ginalska — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 20:45:18 +0000

ABSTRACT:
Packaging and magazine covers share many common traits. Both these elements are very important in relation to marketing activities of media and non-media enterprises. And while there are quite a lot of studies on packaging itself, there are not as many in-depth analyses of magazine covers. This article is a part of a series of scholarly texts, in which the author analyses the phenomenon of magazines’ front-pages, aiming to fill a certain scientific void when it comes to research on magazine covers and e-covers. In this article, the author confirms the hypothesis that covers of contemporary magazines are, in fact, their ‘packaging’. The study also fulfils the following goals: 1) to define the term “packaging”; 2) to discuss the concept of media product packaging; 3) to present the phenomenon of magazine covers as packaging in various theoretical and empirical contexts. The empirical inquiry is based on quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative research was conducted by the survey method based on CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interview) technique between the 2nd and the 9th of September 2016, involving a nationwide research sample consisting of Poles. The qualitative research was based on analyses of scholarly sources related to the study of magazine covers, and then on comparison of data situated on magazine covers and data related to packaging when it comes to its function, composition and design.

KEY WORDS:
cover, front-page, magazines, media product, packaging, the press

06_Jupowicz-Ginalska_CT-1-2018 Download

Uncertain Geography of the Local News and Civic Participation in New Media Era

Nataliia Steblyna — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 20:43:41 +0000

ABSTRACT:
New technologies give local journalists the opportunity to extend their agenda, adding the international context; however, for community participation it is crucial to be informed about the closest environment. Several Ukrainian local news sites in the situation of political instability and military conflict increase the number of news items about international/national issues, whereas a majority of others covers predominantly city/ regional events. On the basis of content analysis, news geography of two leading news sites of two Ukrainian cities Lviv and Odesa are studied and two types of local sites are discovered: local (with a high priority given to the local news) and non-local (with a priority placed on the international and national news). A clear correlation between the number of texts and exclusivity of news sources can be seen. Exclusivity is higher on the sites which see the local news items as their priority; however, quality of news remains problematic for both types. Readers are provided with a lot of unchecked and unbalanced content. As a result, functions of community integration
and participation cannot be fulfilled properly by the local media, and defining other additional tools for civic engagement becomes a significant task.

KEY WORDS:
civic participation, democracy, globalisation, the Internet, journalism, local news media, news flow, Ukraine

05_Steblyna_CT-1-2018 Download

Populism 2.0, Digital Democracy and the New ‘Enemies of the People’

Antonio Momoc — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 20:40:26 +0000

ABSTRACT:
Like in many other Central and Eastern European countries, in 2016, Romanian populist parties were voted by the ‘silent’ citizens, by those feeling deprived and not represented properly. Shortly before that, in 2015, the tragic Colectiv nightclub fire had given birth to a new party: Save Romania Union (USR) that promotes a populist discourse on the ‘corrupt elite’ versus the ‘pure people’. At the beginning, however, the new party did not disseminate messages specific to then ationalist or radical right-wing populists. Another party, endorsed by a news television channel Romania TV, almost succeeded at overpassing the electoral threshold in the 2016 parliamentary election: United Romania Party (PRU) used xenophobic and anti-EU messages during the 2016 general election campaign. My hypothesis is that the extremist electoral messages, the expressions of hatred towards foreigners and Western businessmen or the EU institutions were spread through social networks. Using a content analysis, I shall verify the extent to which the official Facebook pages of the Social Democratic Party (PSD, the direct successor of the Romanian Communist Party), the United Romania Party (PRU) and the Save Romania Union (USR) reflected the antagonism of the ‘pure’ people versus the ‘corrupt’ elite and I shall reveal who these parties identified as the so-called ‘people’s enemies’.

KEY WORDS:
democratic theory, digital democracy, etymological democracy, new media, online political communication, people’s enemies, political marketing, populism 2.0, populist discourse

04_Momoc_CT-1-2018 Download

Media Competence as a Cross-curricular Competence

Viera KAČINOVÁ — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 20:35:29 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The aim of the study is to demonstrate the cross-curricular character of media competence developed in the process of media education that is integrated into the content of school education in accordance with the prevailing current international curriculum trends and with emphasis on the Slovak curriculum. In terms of comparing the conditions during the period of incorporation of media education as a compulsory part of the content of Slovak education system with the contemporary innovated form of the curriculum, the study mainly presents which school subjects are instrumental in developing the dimensions of media competence of students, especially within complete secondary general education, and how they participate in the development. The key aim is to investigate the problem on the basis of a qualitative content analysis of innovated learning standards of compulsory subjects, specifically for the level of upper secondary education (grammar schools), with the intention of identifying the required quality of media competence within the specified educational objectives. Minding the determined categories of the content analysis, a theoretical activity-based media-competency model is applied with the main dimensions as follows: getting to know media and their products; critical evaluation and taking a value stand on media products; media products creation and dissemination, and the derived main educational objectives. The model includes the current key framework activity categories stimulating the required development of media competence or literacy in the context of Slovak educational policy.

KEY WORDS:
complete secondary general education, cross-curricular competence, integrated media education, learning standards, media competence, media education, National Educational Programme, school education, Slovakia

03_Kačinová_CT-1-2018 Download

Towards a Stakeholder Model of Government Communication: A Case Study of the Czech Republic

Štěpán Soukeník — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 20:34:04 +0000

ABSTRACT:
The study focuses on organisation and perception of government communication by government agents and stakeholder representatives in the Czech Republic. At the same time, it presents an original methodological approach to researching government communication. The research evidence suggests that government communication process in the Czech Republic conceals tensions on internal, interdepartmental and external levels of governance. Performing in-depth semi-structured interviews with former Czech government officials and top executives from the corporate and non-commercial sector, it was observed that phenomena such as democratic disenchantment and low confidence in executive bodies can be associated with the state-of-things and modus operandi of the government communication process. Finally, the aim of the study is to encourage government communication research in emerging or recently institutionalised democracies including post-communist countries in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, since it is necessary to understand the complexity of political and communication systems long associated with asymmetric power relations and democratic deficit.

KEY WORDS:
Central and Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic, governance, government communication, stakeholder analysis, stakeholder model, strategic communication

02_Soukeník_CT-1-2018 Download

Considering Historical (Dis) Continuities of Media (Literacy) Education in the Czech Republic for the Future Approach

Zdeněk Sloboda — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 20:31:06 +0000

ABSTRACT:
Nowadays mediatised society, with significant grow of popularity of so-called new media, calls for a new or at least innovated media (literacy) education. In this study I challenge this assumption and critically approach the current state. In my text, I review the current discussion in the Czech Republic, as well as historical mediaeducational moments, which I consider crucial and exemplary in order to showcase the fragmentation of the whole field. I point out the elementary educational principles and their more or less explicit inclusion of media, as already formulated by Comenius in the 17th century. Further in the text I focus on the didactical use of film at schools and the aesthetically framed film education of both the 1960s and 2010 (when it was introduced to the school curricula). This leads me to a critical analysis of the curricular Media Education as it has been introduced to the whole Czech system of formal education since 2006. By discussing these three fragments, I create a momentum of continuity within the field; a continuity that provides a rich body of theoretical framing(s), terminological and practical experience and tools. This enables me to advocate for an integrated, historically rooted approach to media (literacy) education which will be not only suitable for the current situation of traditional and new media, but will also be capable to adjust educational actions with less effort and less fragmentation to the future development of media.

KEY WORDS:
Comenius, the Czech Republic, development of media education, film education, Media Education, media literacy education

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