Articles by Alice Nemcova Tejkalova
MedieKultur, 2023
Based on a mixed method approach (content analysis and CDA), this article examines the media cove... more Based on a mixed method approach (content analysis and CDA), this article examines the media coverage of a football game between AC Sparta Praha and Rangers FC, played in Prague in the autumn of 2021, that was followed by heavily mediated discussion regarding the controversial booing of Rangers FC player Glen Kamara, who was sent off from the game after having been given a red card due to a pair of fouls. The audience in attendance was accused of Kamara's racist abuse, but the UEFA later decided that there was insufficient evidence of racism at the match. This case study focuses on the media coverage in Scottish, Czech, and UK nationwide media, as well as related discussions on Twitter. We revealed competing constructions of reality depending on diverse interpretations of the facts and lack of intercultural understanding.
Journalism Practice, 2023
Understanding the expectations, needs, and wants of youngaudiences, as well as inviting them to i... more Understanding the expectations, needs, and wants of youngaudiences, as well as inviting them to incorporate their experiencesand perspectives into media production, are crucial tasks fortoday’s media producers. Drawing upon qualitative research inwhich more than seventy children eight to thirteen years oldparticipated, this paper illuminates children’s experiences withradio broadcasts and the suggestions they make for improvingthem. To explore children’s media preferences and experiences, inthe spring of 2019 we conducted thirteen focus groups thatincorporated creative techniques and stimuli at four elementaryschools located in geographically and demographically differentareas of the Czech Republic. The research discovered that the radiowas a part of children’s complex media experience. In some casesthe children linked listening to it with the time they spent withtheir parents and grandparents. Even though they did not considerthe radio their favourite medium, when they were invited to createtheir own radio programmes and content the children made anumber of valuable suggestions for making radio more accessibleand relevant to them. We argue that children should beconsidered as partners and invited to participate in a creativedialogue with media content creators.
Communication & Sport, 2019
The claim that “anything is possible in women’s sports” frequently employed by both sports journa... more The claim that “anything is possible in women’s sports” frequently employed by both sports journalists and general audiences highlights the widespread perception of a seemingly uncontested truth about female athletes and their (in)ability to perform consistently at peak levels in comparison to male athletes. We focus on this treatment of female athletes in the world of women’s tennis and contest the “common sense” and “experience” justifications of the unpredictability in women’s sports with actual data to reveal clear media bias. Utilising a database of the Association of Tennis Professionals and Women’s Tennis Association tournaments dating back to the late 1960s and covering approximately 225,000 fully described matches, we examine the “anything can happen in women’s tennis” assumption through logistic regression, focusing on the effect of rank differential on the winning probability in the match while controlling for other factors (tournament type and stage, court surface, age differential, and elite players). The results are rather shocking. The women’s matches do not show higher instability or lower predictability at all, but rather the contrary—the men’s matches show lower dependence on the rank difference. The results are robust as checked for data sets of the year 2000 onwards and those including only special events such as Grand Slams.
Journalism, 2019
The idea of freedom plays a strong and important role among journalists in countries that have re... more The idea of freedom plays a strong and important role among journalists in countries that have recently moved to democracy. In this article, we explore the relational nature of freedom and put forward an argument for more clarity in defining its meaning. We examine the values and experiences inscribed in journalistic discourses of freedom assuming that the ways of articulating freedom hold a key for understanding journalism practice. The article revises the question of freedom by focusing on the intersection between political and journalistic fields in two countries that moved from a one-party political system to political pluralism: the Czech Republic and Serbia. It seeks to give a perspective on understanding how concepts of freedom and autonomy work in Czech and Serbian journalistic discourse. The Worlds of Journalism Study’s data on journalists’ perception of political influences were used as a starting point, then a case study analysis of significant clashes between journalistic and political fields in recent years in both countries was applied. In 2014, both Czech and Serbian journalists declared that political factors had small influence on their daily work, but the situation has changed. Our case studies of recent developments in Serbia and the Czech Republic, show a striking discrepancy between what journalists perceive and what they know.
Medien Journal, 2019
In February 1998, the entire Czech Republic was in jubilation over the gold medal victory of its ... more In February 1998, the entire Czech Republic was in jubilation over the gold medal victory of its ice-hockey team at the Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. The players were spectacularly welcomed home by tens of thousands of fans, including ordinary citizens and political figures. Goalkeeper Dominik Hašek, the famous NHL star Jaro-mír Jágr, and team captain Vladimír Růžička, were heavily covered by the media. The three athletes went on to have successful careers after Nagano. Czech media coverage played a significant role in the "Naganomania" of the time and was later also to assist in the social fall of some of those heroes. Based on the theory of myths in sports journalism , the concept of fallen heroes, and the media frame analysis, this paper presents the development within the media coverage of the four above-mentioned athletes in selected Czech dailies. The media portrayals of these athletes so similarly celebrated in 1998 are shown to have diversely evolved over a twenty year span.
Trust is a societal value that is difficult to gain and easy to lose. This article deals with the... more Trust is a societal value that is difficult to gain and easy to lose. This article deals with the levels of trust that journalists working in eight post-authoritarian and post-totalitarian countries (Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Latvia, South Africa and Tanzania) have in various social institutions using data from the present Worlds of Journalism Study. In each country, results showed the level of trust in journalists’ own institution—the media—is higher than the level of trust in both political and regulative institutions. The expression of low trust, particularly in regulative institutions, in the sampled countries represents significantly different results from previous studies about journalists’ trust in countries with longer democratic traditions.
The paper presents results of discourse analysis focusing on the representation of racism in the ... more The paper presents results of discourse analysis focusing on the representation of racism in the news and online discussions dedicated to the case of the football team SU Junior Roma. This team was boycotted by other teams in the league. They did not want to play with them, referring to the alleged aggressiveness of players with Roma ethnicity. After analysing related articles and reader’s posts, the paper reveals a discrepancy between the representation of racism in sport by media and discussing readers. The findings support our hypothesis that discussions under articles allowed people to spread racist thoughts and build the resistance towards others. On the contrary, the journalists used hegemonic discourse, which the racism theme set aside or avoided it entirely (the article is on pp. 59-69 of the uploaded file).
Who are Czech journalists and what do they do? Based on data from 291 interviews with Czech journ... more Who are Czech journalists and what do they do? Based on data from 291 interviews with Czech journalists working in the news media at various levels between 2012 and 2014, for the Worlds of Journalism Study (www.worldsofjournalism. org), the paper introduces for the first time an overview of the most important results of the Czech part of the study. We present an analysis of the data on journalists' working conditions, the most and least important perceived influences on their work, as well as their level of trust in various institutions, recent significant changes perceived in their profession and the professional roles they prefer. The basic demographic data of our sample is also given. The survey was done in two phases, between which significant media ownership changes took place, making the results highly up-to-date. We conclude that the position of journalists is changing. Journalists are required to write more stories than before, yet have less time to research them. Although they assert the importance of journalistic ethics, they have also perceived that ethical standards have somewhat weakened recently. Nevertheless, they express a high level of autonomy and freedom in their work.
In recent years, the Czech Republic has seen the largest changes in media ownership since the ear... more In recent years, the Czech Republic has seen the largest changes in media ownership since the early 1990s. Most strik-ing was the purchase of one of the largest publishing houses Mafra by the tycoon Andrej Babiš in June 2013, followed by the takeover of the Czech branch of Ringier by other Czech businessmen later that year. The first case in particular instigated immense discussion about the economic and ethical crisis facing Czech journalism since Babiš is also a power-ful political figure (currently the Minister of Finance). In response, a significant number of leading, well-known journal-ists left media owned by big business and launched projects of quality or “slow” journalism which had until that point been merely discussed theoretically. This paper—based on the results of the Czech part of the Worlds of Journalism Study project—addresses the shift in the ways journalists perceive their roles and ethical responsibilities before and af-ter the 2013 ownership changes. We also present the manner in which these changes are reflected in emerging media projects. It seems that those journalists not affected by the ownership change tend to view journalism ethics and the ability of journalism to exert power more seriously than before.
Our paper focuses on the issue of security and independence of modern day mass media. The majorit... more Our paper focuses on the issue of security and independence of modern day mass media. The majority of mass media is owned by large corporations and business companies and there has been noted a certain pressure on the quality and the content of media coverage that is happening with a varying degree of success in various countries. Our paper is based on the results of the Czech branch of the Worlds of Journalism Study project that took place between 2012 and 2014 and consisted of 291 interviews with journalists from all types of media, both at the regional level and nationwide. The results addressed changes in the way Czech journalists perceive their roles and ethical responsibilities and showed the altering manner in which these changes are reflected in emerging media projects. It appears that Czech journalists are now keener to accept the role of public “watchdogs” and the newly found role of journalism becomes a catchy marketing idea for the new projects.
Undressed Newsroom, Mar 18, 2014
Rapidly changing working conditions in recent years, along with the need to reduce the costs of n... more Rapidly changing working conditions in recent years, along with the need to reduce the costs of news production, require journalists to adapt. Our suggestion here is that many of the research methods for analysing journalists' work environments to date are no longer sufficient for capturing this ongoing change. In searching for new approaches to analysis of the journalistic environment, we decided to apply visual ethnography, a method not yet used in the Czech Republic and not much used in the world beyond. For our pilot study of Czech newsrooms, we worked with both photographs taken of the journalists involved in our project and photographs taken by our research team (photographs showed both journalists' working conditions and working processes). We then interviewed the journalists about the photographs and more widely about their working practices and conditions. This paper presents the results of the research but also considers the advantages and challenges of the visual ethnographic approach and its implementation in media environments.
Framing National Indebtedness, 2013
The analysis of framing of the topic of national indebtedness in Mladá fronta DNES and Právo be... more The analysis of framing of the topic of national indebtedness in Mladá fronta DNES and Právo before the election to the Chamber of Deputies 2010 shows noticeable
differences between both Czech newspapers. Frames are well visible, especially in com- mentaries. The analysis confirms MF DNES is focused more on right-wing voters, Právo is focused more on the left-wing ones. According to MF DNES, the national indebtedness is a real problem and it is necessary to solve it. The left-wing parties are responsible for the growing national debt of the Czech Republic and the right-wing parties can fight against this problem. On the contrary, according to Právo, national indebtedness is not a big problem. The right-wing parties just use this topic to threaten the voters and they cannot solve this problem better than the left-wing parties, although they claim it. Právo also offers more various framing than MF DNES.
The Relationship between Journalism Studies and Media Professionals in the Czech Republic , 2011
There is an uneasy relationship between Czech schools of journalism and media professionals in th... more There is an uneasy relationship between Czech schools of journalism and media professionals in the Czech Republic for both historical and contemporary reasons. Most students decide to start working while studying in order to obtain further experience in their field. Some of these students leave their education to pursue full-time employment. Of those students who start work, some return to school with the attitude they know everything better than their colleagues and teachers, often because they are supported by their editors. On the other hand, both working students and media professionals with employment experience in foreign media more often tend to appreciate the benefits a journalism education offers. Based on interviews with both students of journalism and media professionals, our paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of gaining formal journalism education and tries to suggest ways in which the relationship between Czech journalism education and media professionals could be improved.
Papers by Alice Nemcova Tejkalova
Acta Universitatis Carolinae. Kinanthropologica, Dec 20, 2021
Journalism, 2019
The idea of freedom plays a strong and important role among journalists in countries that have re... more The idea of freedom plays a strong and important role among journalists in countries that have recently moved to democracy. In this article, we explore the relational nature of freedom and put forward an argument for more clarity in defining its meaning. We examine the values and experiences inscribed in journalistic discourses of freedom assuming that the ways of articulating freedom hold a key for understanding journalism practice. The article revises the question of freedom by focusing on the intersection between political and journalistic fields in two countries that moved from a one-party political system to political pluralism: the Czech Republic and Serbia. It seeks to give a perspective on understanding how concepts of freedom and autonomy work in Czech and Serbian journalistic discourse. The Worlds of Journalism Study’s data on journalists’ perception of political influences were used as a starting point, then a case study analysis of significant clashes between journalisti...
Media and Communication, 2015
In recent years, the Czech Republic has seen the largest changes in media ownership since the ear... more In recent years, the Czech Republic has seen the largest changes in media ownership since the early 1990s. Most striking was the purchase of one of the largest publishing houses Mafra by the tycoon Andrej Babiš in June 2013, followed by the takeover of the Czech branch of Ringier by other Czech businessmen later that year. The first case in particular instigated immense discussion about the economic and ethical crisis facing Czech journalism since Babiš is also a powerful political figure (currently the Minister of Finance). In response, a significant number of leading, well-known journalists left media owned by big business and launched projects of quality or “slow” journalism which had until that point been merely discussed theoretically. This paper—based on the results of the Czech part of the Worlds of Journalism Study project—addresses the shift in the ways journalists perceive their roles and ethical responsibilities before and after the 2013 ownership changes. We also present...
The chapter deals with the importance of the concept of digital literacy in media education. Unde... more The chapter deals with the importance of the concept of digital literacy in media education. Under digital literacy we understand a skill necessary for survival in the digital era, cognitive skills needed for solving problems connected with digital media production and existence in the online environment. The digital era has brought a wide spectrum of potentially problematic areas for media consumers as well as media producers. Our text illustrates these topics on a wide range of examples from current media, visual and social landscape. We address the issues connected with digital media, topics related to usage of social networks, alternative and counter-culture practices, etc. We try to illustrate potentially problematic issues of digital environment on the side of media producers, such as copyright and authorship protection, sources of information, its gathering, etc. The aim of this chapter is to show how the things surrounding us have radically changed in the last two decades and why this issue of digital literacy is important for the ability to orientate oneself in everyday life and why it should become the integral part of (not only journalistic and media) education.
Kniha představuje komparativní kvalitativní kritickou analýzu diskurzu zabývající se mediální ste... more Kniha představuje komparativní kvalitativní kritickou analýzu diskurzu zabývající se mediální stereotypizací a rámcováním vybraných událostí, v dobovém kontextu významných, ze sportu handicapovaných v letech 1948-2008. Události jsou v každém období sledovány ve čtyřech československých/českých denících. Odborné texty věnující se menšinovým tématům se obvykle zabývají mediálním zobrazením nerovností na základě genderu, etnika nebo sexuální orientace. Výzkum je pokusem rozšířit spektrum analyzovaných témat. Základními východisky mu k tomu jsou teorie zabývající se diskurzem, mediální reprezentací sociálních skupin a rámcováním.
MedienJournal, 2019
In February 1998, the entire Czech Republic was in jubilation over the gold medal victory of its ... more In February 1998, the entire Czech Republic was in jubilation over the gold medal victory of its ice-hockey team at the Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan. The players were spectacularly welcomed home by tens of thousands of fans, including ordinary citizens and political figures. Goal-keeper Dominik Hašek, the famous NHL star Jaromír Jágr, and team captain Vladimír Růžička, were heavily covered by the media. The three athletes went on to have successful careers after Nagano. Czech media coverage played a significant role in the „Naganomania“ of the time and was later also to assist in the social fall of some of those heroes. Based on the theory of myths in sports journalism, the concept of fallen heroes, and the media frame analysis, this paper presents the development within the media coverage of the four above-mentioned athletes in selected Czech dailies. The media portrayals of these athletes so similarly celebrated in 1998 are shown to have diversely evolved over a twenty year span.
Studia sportiva, 2016
The paper presents results of discourse analysis focusing on the representation of racism in the ... more The paper presents results of discourse analysis focusing on the representation of racism in the news and online discussions dedicated to the case of the football team SU Junior Roma. This team was boycotted by other teams in the league. They did not want to play with them, referring to the alleged aggressiveness of players with Roma ethnicity. After analysing related articles and reader’s posts, the paper reveals a discrepancy between the representation of racism in sport by media and discussing readers. The findings support our hypothesis that discussions under articles allowed people to spread racist thoughts and build the resistance towards others. On the contrary, the journalists used hegemonic discourse, which the racism theme set aside or avoided it entirely.
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Articles by Alice Nemcova Tejkalova
differences between both Czech newspapers. Frames are well visible, especially in com- mentaries. The analysis confirms MF DNES is focused more on right-wing voters, Právo is focused more on the left-wing ones. According to MF DNES, the national indebtedness is a real problem and it is necessary to solve it. The left-wing parties are responsible for the growing national debt of the Czech Republic and the right-wing parties can fight against this problem. On the contrary, according to Právo, national indebtedness is not a big problem. The right-wing parties just use this topic to threaten the voters and they cannot solve this problem better than the left-wing parties, although they claim it. Právo also offers more various framing than MF DNES.
Papers by Alice Nemcova Tejkalova
differences between both Czech newspapers. Frames are well visible, especially in com- mentaries. The analysis confirms MF DNES is focused more on right-wing voters, Právo is focused more on the left-wing ones. According to MF DNES, the national indebtedness is a real problem and it is necessary to solve it. The left-wing parties are responsible for the growing national debt of the Czech Republic and the right-wing parties can fight against this problem. On the contrary, according to Právo, national indebtedness is not a big problem. The right-wing parties just use this topic to threaten the voters and they cannot solve this problem better than the left-wing parties, although they claim it. Právo also offers more various framing than MF DNES.
The analysis of framing of the topic of national indebtedness in Mlada fronta DNES (MF DNES) and Pravo before the election to the Chamber of Deputies 2010 showed noticeable differences between both Czech newspapers. Frames are well visible, especially in commentaries. The analysis confirmed that this topic was the most mediated one in the both newspaper, they only differed in the approach to it. According to MF DNES, the national indebtedness was a real problem and it was necessary to solve it. The left-wing parties had been responsible for the growing national debt of the Czech Republic and the right-wing parties could fight against this problem. On the contrary, according to Pravo, national indebtedness was not a big problem. The right-wing parties were just using this topic to threaten the voters and they could not solve this problem better than the left-wing parties, although they claimed it. Pravo also offered more various framing than MF DNES.
The analysis also showed the development of the topic: how it started as quite unimportant at the beginning of the campaign, and grew to the most important one in the end, thanks to skilful political marketing framing by right-wing parties. They were able to made the topic significant even in the left-wing Pravo that, as it seemed from the analysis, unsuccessfully tried to spin it into the insignificant one."
A chapter deals with the topic of the Czech sports report, describes basic mechanisms of its writing and identifies weak sides (especially thematic) of the Czech sports journalism.