„They Constantly Violate Laws, Violate Rules, and They Disrupt Lives of All Decent Citizens“: Czech Media, Squatting, and Villa Milada Eviction Cover Image

„Neustále porušují zákony, porušují pravidla,narušují život všem slušným občanům“: česká média, squatting a vystěhování vily Milady
„They Constantly Violate Laws, Violate Rules, and They Disrupt Lives of All Decent Citizens“: Czech Media, Squatting, and Villa Milada Eviction

Author(s): Jiří Mertl
Subject(s): Media studies, Sociology
Published by: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Fakulta sociálních věd
Keywords: CAQDAS;frame analysis;media representation;metaphor analysis;Milada eviction;qualitative content analysis;sociology of deviance;squatting;

Summary/Abstract: The case of the villa Milada eviction in 2009 received a lot of attention in media because it raised controversy with regard to the process of the eviction itself and with regard to the inhabitants of Milada – squatters. Media representation of the eviction was biased towards the institutions as media personnel reported about the event from the perspective of a private security agency, which performed the eviction, and the police that had been called to deal with a conflict that took place. Squatters were condemned as social deviants who represent a threath for the society because of their lifestyle, consisting of violating the public order, neglecting hygiene and other moral norms, and vandalism. The main goal of the text is to analyse the bias in more detail and to refer that the representation was unnecessarily too negative, effectively disqualifying any more positive discussions about squatters (and social deviants in general) as people who are giving incentives to the society by their way of living. The created corpus was analysed using the CAQDAS approach, consisting of qualitative content analysis (corpus was coded with regard to specific themes), metaphor analysis, chains of equivalence, and frame analysis. Explanatory theories consist of sociology of news, labelling theory, and moral panic.

  • Issue Year: 9/2015
  • Issue No: 01
  • Page Range: 29-53
  • Page Count: 25
  • Language: Czech