We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
The article describes the process of so called „Soviet nation” building. Using the contemporary western theories (multiculturalism, invention of tradition, constructivist approach to the nation-building process), the author discusses this process as a trial of political nation building but – at the same time – neglecting of the policy of recognition. The catalogue of common “soviet people’s” values promoted by the Communist Party (common communism building, victory over the fascism) and the specific characteristics of “socialist nations” are also presented.
More...
The subject of the article is Lucien Lévy-Bruhl’s concept of mystical participation, which was used by him to explain “strange” non-European cultural phenomena from the perspective of the European scientific rationality. This approach, modified by Stanley Tambiah, was used in the article to explain a natural disaster, here – floods, which took place in southern Poland in 2010. The empirical material are the discussions on the Internet, which perceive the cause of flooding in the interference of various external forces, which are ascribed the extraordinary characteristics (the government of one of the neighboring countries, the divine punishment, etc.). This mode of thought is similar to the structures of magical thinking present in non-European societies described by Levy-Bruhl. The above leads to the conclusion that the idea of mystical participation is not characteristic only for primitive pre-logic, but is present in the minds and practice of contemporary Westerners.
More...
In paper ‘Monitors of the Czechoslovak News Agency or What Interested the Communist Regime in the Radio Free Europe Broadcasting Station’ analyses the so-called ‘monitors’, i.e., the daily transcripts of radio broadcasts given by the Western radio stations. The authors of these monitors were employees of a special department of the Czechoslovak News Agency, and the recipients were a narrow circle of people, mainly from the political and media environment of communist Czechoslovakia. Using more than 200 monitors, broadcasted in three historical periods, we have analysed the form and, above all, the contents of these monitors and we have described, analysed and interpreted what the communist regime and its representatives were so interested in regarding the broadcasting of the Radio Free Europe station.
More...
Jakub Macek: Poznámky ke studiu nových médií. Brno: Masarykova univerzita 2013. 199 stran. ISBN 978-80-210-6477- 5 (online: pdf). Jan Křeček: Politická komunikace. Od res publica po public relations. Praha: Grada Publishing 2013. 176 stran. ISBN 978-80-247-3536-8 Jan Tomandl: Public relations a zpravodajství: Vliv hluboké proměny žurnalistiky na teorii a praxi vztahů s médii. Zlín: VeRBuM 2012. 153 s.
More...
The research paper deals with media representation of apocalyptic predictions. It aims at describing how the apocalypse is represented/constructed in media discourse and what functions the apocalyptic predictions may perform. The theoretical background is highly interdisciplinary: the research is formed and inspired by the concepts of Carl Gustav Jung´s analytical psychology and by the historical context of the apocalyptic visions, including contemporary theories of collapse. Moreover, the paper associates classic anthropological conceptualisations of ritual, as well as the psychoanalytical/sociological notion of ontological security, with the media- apocalyptic seriality. The research paper employs a discourse analytical approach suggested by James Paul Gee, enhanced by selected Jungian categories, for in-depth comparative analysis of printed and online media texts dealing with the return of Halley´s comet in 1910 and the end of Mayan calendar in 2012. The paper suggests that – by various forms of ritualizing the apocalyptic events´ prediction – the media have the potential to symbolically revitalize the society and strengthen ontological security of its members. The objects of prediction (the comet and the calendar in this case) can actually serve as objects of projection of collectively unconscious anxieties, activated by social-political context. However, the research suggests that the media discourse on apocalypse articulates a historically invariable cause of the apocalypse – the self-destructive tendencies of the human race.
More...
This article explores how the Czech female and male audiences of television soap opera The Surgery in the Rose Garden construct their gender identities in relation to their interpretations of the show’s characters. It takes the paradigm of interpretative sociology for its starting point and uses the methods of ethnographic approach to gender. Its theoretical background comprises gender theories of audience of the “women’s genres”. The research was conducted from 2006 to 2011 targeting the male and female viewers of The Surgery in the Rose Garden in the city of Šumperk. The methods used were in-depth interviews, group interviews and participant observation. The research also concerned part of the production of this soap opera, particularly its creative team. The article shows how members of the audience work with gender categories and how they “do” and “display” gender in their own lives.
More...
The present contribution represents a partial research probe into the problems of the theory of codified language and linguistic culture of the contemporary Slovak language applied to the practice of mass media communication. On the basis of the analysed language material, we relativize the frequently cited argument of unflattering or even disrepair status of use of the Slovak language in public journalistic sphere. On the contrary, by means of linguistic-stylistic interpretation of the four editions of main news programme of RTVS/Slovak Television, we prove that language culture of particular assessed presenters/anchors and editors is at the relatively good level, as their public utterances do not significantly violate the current valid codification standard.
More...
The advent of rock music in sixties has fundamentally changed the entire field of popular music all over the world including Czechoslovakia. Rock music played an irreplaceable social role, especially in relation to young generations who were using it as a significant voice of their feelings. The evolving area of rock music did not correspond to its professional reflection in official mass media. Serious rock music journalism significantly developed only at the end of the sixties. In the period of normalization, the Czechoslovak communist government restarted to hold rigidly to Marxist- Leninist ideology in its political and cultural practise. This turn also resulted in a new official approach to rock music characterised by differentiated forms of media regimentation including prescriptive media coverage the rock music or massive reduction of popular music periodicals. The article is focuses on the description of music journalism training based on university studies as well as on less formal ways of further training provided by interest groups or illegal platforms in the period of normalisation. This article also attempts to give deeper thought into how the area of rock music can become ideologically an unwanted way of making a living.
More...
Staronový prostor pro utváření mediální kritiky Pod názvem Rozpravy o českých médiích se diskuse o tématech z mediální oblasti konají už několik let. Od ledna 2012 do roku 2013 je pořádal Institut komunikačních studií a žurnalistiky (Fakulta sociálních věd Univerzity Karlovy) ve spolupráci s Českým rozhlasem Plus (dříve ČRo 6) a portálem Česká média. Od října 2013 je již organizuje pouze Institut komunikačních studií a žurnalistiky FSV UK, jehož mediálním partnerem se stal Médiář.cz. Původní projekt prodělal za poslední rok řadu změn.
More...
This article argues that an important feature of contemporary EU foreign policy is the problem of legitimization. The article develops an account of EU foreign policy, from EPC in the 1970s to CFSP and the ESDP today, focusing on its function as a source of “damage limitation”. The article then goes on to look at the emergence of pan-European legitimizing strategies for EU foreign policy, concentrating on the EU‘s “performance legitimacy”. The article identifies a disjuncture between the emphasis on the external effectiveness of EU foreign policy found in this legitimizing strategy and the internal functionality of EU foreign policy encapsulated in “damage limitation”. The article finds that relations between EU member states continue to trump their collective endeavour to act in the world. The article concludes that the limit of what the EU is able to achieve in international affairs should be located in the political sociology of the EU itself. Legitimacy provides a useful conceptual prism through which these internal limits and external actions can be connected.
More...
Haizam Amirah Fernández and Richard Youngs (eds.): The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: Assessing the First Decade. Madrid: Real Instituto Elcano, FRIDE, 2005, 164 pages. (Ina Lehmann) Jan Hallenberg and Håkan Karlsson (eds.): Changing Transatlantic Security Relations Do the US, the EU and Russia Form a New Strategic Triangle? New York: Routledge, 2006, xii + 249 pages, ISBN: 0-415-39116-4. (Sebastian Kruse) Eric O. Hanson: Religion and Politics in the International System Today. Cambridge et al: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 358 pages, ISBN: 0-521-61781-2. (Nina Westermann) Barbara Lippert and Gaby Umbach: The Pressure of Europeanisation: From Post-Communist State Administrations to Normal Players in the EU Systém. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2005, 203 pages, ISBN: 3-8329-1230-4. (Marcela Jindrová) Miroslav Nožina, Jirí Šitler and Karel Kucera: Royal Ties: King Norodom Sihamoni and the History of Czech-Cambodian Relations Prague: Euromedia Group – Knižní klub, 2006, 188 pages, ISBN: 80-86938-75-1. (Stanley Moody)
More...
The Estonian writer Karl Ristikivi (1912–1977) is famous for his historical novels. In several of them the scene is laid near the Mediterranean. For example Mõrsjalinik ("The Bridal Veil", 1965) tells about Caterina Benincasa, who lived in the 14th-century Siena and was later declared a saint. Õilsad südamed ehk Kaks sõpra Firenzes ("Noble Hearts, or Two Friends in Florence", 1970) describes the 15th-century Florence under Savonarola's rule. Rooma päevik ("A Roman Diary", 1976) portrays Rome in the 18th century. This article is a survey of his travelogue Itaalia capriccio ("Italian Capriccio", 1958). The methodological basis for the article is imagology (or image studies), dealing with research of national stereotypes and their manifestation in literature. Imagologists distinguish between auto-images and hetero-images, i.e. the attitude towards one's own culture and the attitude towards the other, while one's auto-image (self-image) affects one's perception of other cultures. For example the representation of Germany by a Russian or by an Estonian author may as well differ because of the nationality of the authors. K. Ristikivi was an Estonian who lived in Sweden. He describes Italy as a northerner. There are oppositions like North vs. South, cold vs. hot (both in terms of climate and temperament), Protestant vs. Roman Catholic, etc. Describing Italy in a versatile way K. Ristikivi disproves many stereotypes about the country.
More...
The "Noor-Eesti" ("Young Estonian") cultural movement of 1905–1915, embracing literary almanacs, art exhibitions, the beginning of a linguistic reform, and a theatre reform, all with Gustav Suits, Friedebert Tuglas and Johannes Aavik as the main ideologues, laid the foundation to the whole cultural discourse of the 20th-century Estonia. This was also an "explosion" – if we may borrow the term from Juri Lotman – in the reception of world culture, incl. world literature. Owing to the activities of the Young Estonians, the Estonian literary culture, that had previously been based mainly on adaptations from German, first acquired the European perspective taken for granted today. The "Noor-Eesti" motto "More of European culture!" could as well be interpreted as a challenge presented by periphery to centre. Indeed, the early 20th-century Estonian culture represented even double periphery, as the Baltic German culture of Estonia was still trying to find its identity, while the vernacular culture had stagnated in national romanticist clichés. At the same time, there was a positive touch to the periphery: here, local semiosis could develop much more intensely than was characteristic of bigger European centres, while it was free from many a suppressive norm. It is truly remarkable how quickly (explosively!) the Estonian literature found its way in world literary movements and tendencies. Besides intensive translation of literature from Russian, the Scandinavian languages, and English, the early 20th century was important for metaliterary loans from Europe (literary and art theoretical, as well as philosophical discussions) reaching Estonia. All this can be followed, e.g. in the works of Anton Hansen Tammsaare, which make an intensive progress from impressionist over symbolist and expressionist phases, only to culminate in his synthetical pentalogy Tõde ja õigus ("Truth and Justice", 1926–1933), a symbolic work for Estonians throughout the 20th century. In addition, the explosion set off by the Young Estonians in the reception of world literature, lay the foundation to a new generation of writers, translators and critics (A. Annist, A. Oras, A. Aspel, J. Semper) who matured in the 1920s and 1930s. Owing to their systematic translation of literature as well as research done for writing afterwords and monographs, world literature became a natural part of the Estonian literary culture. As a result, the Estonian literary culture, too, became conscious of itself as a part of world literature.
More...
In Estonian telemarketing calls the particles jah, jaa and jajaa make up a separate turn of an adjacency pair, occurring as its second part used in answer to asking confirmation or affirmation, to accept an offer or proposal, and to accept an end signal. The particle jah is a type-conforming answer to a question offering answer and to an offer. It is also the main agent of repair in a repair sequence. The marketeer will initiate a repair sequence by clarification or reformulation and in most cases the client will confirm their version by using the particle jah. In telemarketing calls the type-conforming answer to effect repair is thus jah, not jajaa, which was used not even once. In our material repairs were accomplished only by affirmations or confirmations on the part of clients, which means that repairs were initiated exclusively by the marketeers. Why no client ever initiated a repair is a subject beyond this paper. The hypothesis that jaa could perhaps be a phonetic or pragmatic variant of jah was not proved by our material. On the contrary, there is reason to believe that the particle jaa has a usage environment of its own. The use of jaa in answer to a statement is relatively frequent as compared to reactions to other first parts of the adjacency pair, which indicates that for the particle jaa reaction to a statement may be a homeplace.
More...
Although the South Estonian New Testament (Wastne Testament, 1686) was published in the 17th century and the North Estonian Bible (Piibli Ramat, 1739) saw light in the 18th century, it was not until the 19th century that the Book aquired an essential position in the life of the Estonian people. From 1822–1847 altogether 22,000 Bibles were published in Estonia, while 135,000 copies of the New Testament (calculated jointly for both North-Estonian and South-Estonian versions) were issued from 1815–1850. As the North American Bible Society wished to help Estonians in the procurement of the Holy Writ a census was organized in 1845 to get an idea of its presence and demand. Answers of 29 South Estonian pastors to the presented questionnaire have survived. These reveal that 54.4 percent of the families owned a copy of the New Testament, while the Bible had been acquired by 9.5 percent. In total, 27,665 Bibles and New Testaments (South and North Estonian all told) were counted in Southern Estonia. Most of the copies (77,6%) were concentrated in the counties of Tartumaa and Viljandimaa. In the early 19th century many parishes still had very few Bibles, because – according to the pastors – the Book was expensive and the people were poor. The most active dealers in the Holy Writ were local departments of the Russian Bible Society and its support societies in different parishes.
More...