Journal Articles by Michal Bočák
Jazyk a kultúra, 2017
Media texts are widely theoretically characterised by concepts of polysemy and the excess of mean... more Media texts are widely theoretically characterised by concepts of polysemy and the excess of meaning. In postmodernity, these two features are significantly strengthened by “obligatory” presence of various intertextual references. However, those references often play the role of mere complements, irrelevant for the preferred reading of the text. It seems that many intertextual bonds are created just “for effect”, or even unconsciously, under the pressure of the postmodern discourse. Moreover, the intertextual references frequently are (or have to be) semantically emptied and they act merely as means of the formal evoking of an atmosphere, emotion, etc. of the original text. The consistent reading of such allusions could even undermine the preferred interpretation of a text. Therefore, such linkages of texts could be labelled as the “purposeless intertextuality”. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the cultivation of theoretical and methodological reflection on the issue.
Two new culinary magazines, masooo! (meeeat!) and Apetit veggie!, have been established in the Cz... more Two new culinary magazines, masooo! (meeeat!) and Apetit veggie!, have been established in the Czech Republic recently, both published by Burda Praha, the Czech division of global media house Burda International. Firstly, masooo! targeted to male audience, has appeared in 2015 as a special edition of men’s lifestyle magazine Maxim, followed in 2016 by Apetit veggie!, a special edition of Apetit, the leading Czech lifestyle culinary magazine published since 2004. This paper presents the qualitative analysis of selected issues of the new titles. The author examines the differences in content and form of both periodicals, relating it to the current trends in the Czech print media market (notably fragmentation and segmentation) and several significant cultural trends (transformation of diverse diets into lifestyles, shifts in masculinity, etc.). Comparing the semiotic and discursive aspects of the magazines, the author attempts to determine whether some gendering, typical of the meat-oriented masooo!, could be identified in its vegan/vegetarian counterpart. However, the prospective feminine shaping of Apetit veggie! seems to be rather implicit. Moreover, some differences in the discursive framing of food have been identified, e.g. the ironic references to veganism in masooo! and the need for self-defence of a plant-based diet in Apetit veggie!
This paper presents the qualitative analysis of the discourses of responsibility in contemporary ... more This paper presents the qualitative analysis of the discourses of responsibility in contemporary Czech culinary magazines Apetit, F.O.O.D. and Gurmet. A general responsibility frame is further specified as the social and environmental responsibility. Social responsibility is manifested in strengthening of various social and economic relations (e.g. fair trade, local farmers’ markets) and the overall sense of community (interconnecting of culinary media and national/local foodscape). Environmental responsibility focuses on the environmental aspects of food and eating, mainly by promotion of organic and/or local food production. Culinary audiences are called for participation in both discursive and social practice of responsibility.
This paper interprets selected semiotic phenomena related to tabloidisation of television news. T... more This paper interprets selected semiotic phenomena related to tabloidisation of television news. The analysis focuses on the shifts in relations of visual and verbal mode: 1. iconisation of information presented in verbal mode, usually leading to destabilisation of the metaphorical principle, and 2. hypertrophisation of literal verbal description of images, leading to more significant indexicality of news messages (e. g. by use of deictic words). The authors also characterise the reconstruction and dramatisation in tabloid journalism and the associated explicit presentation of production practices that contribute to defamiliarisation and therefore to ongoing destabilisation of traditional news discourse.
This study presents the analysis of traditionalist discourse in contemporary Czech culinary magaz... more This study presents the analysis of traditionalist discourse in contemporary Czech culinary magazines Apetit, Gurmet and F.O.O.D. The author proceeds from the premise that the tradition itself and its attributes are constructed discursively, and always with particular intentions (e.g. legitimation of national history through mythologisation of national cuisine, glorification of dishes tasting like “being cooked by your granny”, constituting one’s culinary genealogy by referring to one’s ancestors’ culinary skills, critique of artificiality of mass food production, consumerism, manifesting resistance to globalisation, etc.). Culinary magazines often communicate in nostalgic mode, referring to “golden age” of “conscientious” cooking from “honest” foodstuffs.
Keywords: culinary magazines – food – cooking – discourse – tradition – nostalgia
In media studies, the phrase “media discourse” has been used frequently in recent years. However,... more In media studies, the phrase “media discourse” has been used frequently in recent years. However, despite the numerous (predominantly successful) attempts to define the discourse in Czech and Slovak media studies, the meaning of media discourse remains unreflected. Contemporary media are evolving so dramatically, that referring to the media discourse as a conceptually neutral entity, as a base for consistent media theory, can be found problematic. Despite the power of media organizations, compared to individualised nature of audiences, is indisputable (so media has power to promote “its” discourse effectively), working with the concept of homogeneous media discourse can be considered to naturalise the perspective of media as the only originator of its discourse, thus masking the fact, that media are rather specific mediators of discourses articulated across culture. In this article, author considers the current options of the definition of media discourse (mainly by confronting it with related terms, briefly discussing the interdiscursive relations and explaining the mediation/mediatization difference) and he argues for the preferring the terms mediated/mediatized discourse instead in a contexts specified.
Kewords: media discourse – mediated discourse – mediatized discourse – interdiscursivity – mediatization – terminology
In this study I interpret the interaction of gay/queer culture and straight masculinities, especi... more In this study I interpret the interaction of gay/queer culture and straight masculinities, especially the hegemonic masculinity. I concentrate on gay porn, observing the ways it handles the category of heterosexuality: on the one hand, gay porn fetishises it as an ultimate masculinity (in so-called straight gay porn), on the other hand, it endeavour to dominate it, at least symbolically (e.g. in genre “broke straight boys”). I also analyse the “gay-for-pay” phenomenon and so-called “bisexual porn”. Furthermore, I analyse the possible onset of a post-identity, indicated by several authors, according to which “fix” identities yield to the current positioning of subjects on the basis of performed sexual practices (e.g. gay identity is being replaced by the “men who have sex with men” label). A new visual discourses of consumer culture, connected to masculinity, are metrosexuality and sporno. Metrosexuality represents a new type of masculinity of urban origin fetishising the male body, sporno a new iconography inspired by gay porn, putting up (straight) men into admiration of men of any sexuality. On the basis of these examples I conclude that despite the seeming democratization of identities, evoking the success of the queer theory or a postmodern „pomosexuality“ concept, all identities still remain controlled by the hegemonic masculinity, moreover, at present they are being noticeably subjected to the consumerist logic.
Keywords: gay – queer – masculinity – hegemonic masculinity – heterosexuality – gay culture – gay identity – gay porn – “straight gay porn” – “gay-for-pay” – bisexual porn – “straight gay” – “straight-acting gay” – post-identity – metrosexuality – sporno – gaze – consumerism
This study interprets and confronts both the social science and linguistic conceptualisation of d... more This study interprets and confronts both the social science and linguistic conceptualisation of discourse. In a significant part of linguistics, discourse is still seen simply as an unit crossing the borders of a sentence, while even in its direction to higher units, linguistics generally keeps the perspective of structuralist grammars. In social sciences, on the contrary, the discourse is seen especially under the influence of Michel Foucault as a reality-constituting articulation of particular knowledge going beyond both the subject and the particular communication situation. While linguistics focuses on a natural language, contemporary transdisciplinary discourse studies understand language only as one of the codes. Therefore, in the text presented the representation is construed as a complex entity related to reality. From a semiotic point of view, both of the approaches analysed are characterised by its unilaterality: linguistics tends to interpret the discourse as signifier (i.e. a formal vehicle of the meaning), while Foucaultian scholars concentrate themselves primarily on signified (i.e. meanings itself). However, transcending the differences in the paradigms of discourse analysis is an analyst’s expression of his/her understanding of the cornerstones of discourse studies as a political practice struggling for the deconstruction of power. After overcoming the limits of natural language, it is desirable to head the discourse studies—drawing on the dispositive analysis—towards the interconnection of discursive practices, non-discursive practices and materialisations, which jointly reflect the complex knowledge in a particular area.
Keywords: discourse – linguistics – social sciences – dialogue – code – mode – Foucault – power – sign – representation – reality – narrative – subject – dispositive – Jäger
Keywords: porn – porn studies – pornographication – sex – sexuality – identity – body – web – por... more Keywords: porn – porn studies – pornographication – sex – sexuality – identity – body – web – porn 2.0
Straight men’ performing in gay porn (called gay-for-pay) is not a new phenomenon. However, while... more Straight men’ performing in gay porn (called gay-for-pay) is not a new phenomenon. However, while actors formerly tried hard to imitate/perform the "ideal" gay sex, since about 2000 a new trend of highlighting the heterosexuality of "models" appears. In this article, I summarise the generic and narrative specifics of straight gay porn and discuss the causes and (political) consequences of the heterosexualisation of gay pornography.
Book Chapters by Michal Bočák
Globalized Eating Cultures: Mediatization and Mediation, 2019
"Porn as a popular discourse of sexuality, after adopting of significant status in Western cultur... more "Porn as a popular discourse of sexuality, after adopting of significant status in Western culture, has acquired the power to re-/define practices and identities of sex, gender, and desire to a considerable extent. In each video, there exist a variety of discursive elements and strategies, through which the meanings of represented sexual practices, performing subjects and their identities are being framed. Mainstream straight and gay porn, despite numerous shared discursive characteristics, are perceived as specific discourses in this study. Straight porn makes the male body symbolically invisible, while gay porn glorifies it. However, both types of pornography operate as noticeable articulations of masculinity, although with varying degree of explicitness. The analytic part of the study discusses selected analogies and differences in the construction of masculinities and male sexualities. As an example of analogies between the analysed pornographic discourses, the gangbang genre is examined thoroughly. In these videos, socially interlinked group of men shares a common sexual object and the collective celebration of masculinity and male homosocial bonds appears to be more important than the object itself (regardless of its sex/gender). As an example of differences, the representation of male anality is being interpreted. While in the gay porn the male anality is presented as a possible means of achieving pleasure, in the straight porn its potential is significantly repressed (e.g. visual tabooisation of male anus), or the anality is ostentatiously employed for representing a perverse pleasure and/or masculine dominance.
Keywords: gay porn – straight porn – masculinity – male desire – gangbang – homosociality – anality – pleasure – power"
Conference Papers by Michal Bočák
This paper focuses on present tendencies towards stabilisation and destabilisation of gay identit... more This paper focuses on present tendencies towards stabilisation and destabilisation of gay identity. For stabilising discourses (e.g. LGBTI activism or gay-targeted marketing), construction of uniform gay identity and creation of minority/community consciousness of subject is highly required to act effectively. On the contrary, gay identity is currently being destabilised relatively widely. The author considers the destabilisation to be caused both externally (e.g. re-pathologisation of homosexuality by homophobic discourses, delegitimisation of LGBTI politics) and internally (e.g. rejection to identify with the “gay” label by many men desiring men, actually expressing their rejection of plentiful cultural connotations of gayness).
Keywords: gay identity – stabilisation – destabilisation – LGBTI politics – identification
In this study, forms of narrativity on current pornographic websites (so-called tubes) is analyse... more In this study, forms of narrativity on current pornographic websites (so-called tubes) is analysed. While “offline” porn (1970s to 1980s) included some long narratives, in the beginnings of online porn (1990s) only short video sequences were distributed. Despite technological improvements, short videos with flat narrative structures remain to be the core elements of tubes. The de-narrativisation of porn indicates that the sequential nature of de-contextualised pleasure might be becoming a new cultural logic.
"This study deals with academic institutionalization of media studies in Slovakia, reflecting its... more "This study deals with academic institutionalization of media studies in Slovakia, reflecting its both domestic and foreign sources. When media studies as distinct academic field has been “imported” in the late 1990s, it became strongly interconnected with “theory of journalism” as its well-established predecessor. Nowadays, after several years of institutional alliance, these fields co-exist in Slovak academe, however, often competing for students with each other. In addition, Slovak media studies are searching noticeably for its own identity. Its still official label is gradually shifting from “mass media studies” to “media studies”, apparently following the global state of the field. As in many countries, media studies in Slovakia face the generally negative public reputation (as a scientific field), but, on the contrary, it is quite popular with its prospective students. The expectations of field’s practical orientation and the question of media studies’ relevance to students and the public are also discussed here.
Keywords: media studies – academic field – study programme – development – Slovakia"
This study presents results of the qualitative analysis of constructions of identities in heteros... more This study presents results of the qualitative analysis of constructions of identities in heterosexual pornographic videos’ titles on pornographic websites (tubes). Conceptualising porn as a contemporary Western androcentric discourse of sexuality, the author argues that if porn ought to appeal to socially determined desires of its consumers, it can’t be done only by shooting the bodies in detail: it has to represent identities as “ready-made”, widely shared social categories – these are what assign the status of imaginable social situation to (otherwise “mechanical”) sex act. Moreover, in a pornographised culture which is accepting a pornographic logic also beyond the pornosphere it can be reasoned that the porn partakes on re-/defining of identities (meaning not only genders and desires) significantly. The analysis of porn videos’ titles clearly confirms an introductory theoretical conceptualisation of the identity/subjectivity as an unstable, situational entity as well as it proves the multiplicity and intersectionality of identity, stated by its present theories. It appears notably in the systematic power structuring of the intersections of gender, racial/ethnic, age and other social categories, which actually are, according to the author of the study, naturalising the central gender asymetry and the androcentric order.
Keywords: pornography – porn – web – subject – identity – construction – video’s title – intersectionality – asymetry – androcentrism
Modes of a discursive construction of a subject in television news are explicated, in this study.... more Modes of a discursive construction of a subject in television news are explicated, in this study. Introduction presents the subject, which is defined in correspondence with post-structuralist conceptions of subjectivity as a point of intersection of discourses, framed by a requirement of cultural intelligibility. Since the substance of the subject’s constitution is its recognition by an ideology, the subject is understood as a political per se. Furthermore, based on an author’s research on television news formats, author analyses the role of the verbal and visual means in the construction of subjectivities in news. In a mediatized society, in which the politics (in compliance with trends of commodification and consumerism) is being transformed into a spectacle, television companies urge its viewers to participation in the production of news, but in doing so they restrict the viewers’ possibilities to tragedies and curiosities from the private sphere, thus strengthening the impression that the real politics is “out there”, outside the reach of citizens. In consequence the interactive television cannot be considered to be a more democratic institution.
Keywords: television news – subject – construction – discursive means – political participation – political exclusion – citizenship
This study is based on author’s observation that the word format is becoming more and more freque... more This study is based on author’s observation that the word format is becoming more and more frequent in the media practice and theory. However, the terminology of the (domestic) media studies is still omitting it. There are three definitions of format presented: 1. targetted broadcast media programming, 2. commodified manual for programme production, and 3. routinised processing of specific themes. The presented meanings of the word are interpreted in broader theoretical and practical context. The second part deals with the attempt to differentiate between two frequently confused terms format and genre: format as a commodity is a pattern created by a certain organisation in a specific time, whereas genre is a pattern created by a discourse community over a period of time, thus it does not belong to a certain organisation or person. The structure of format is relatively strict and absolutely obligatory, preserving of format’s norms is carefully monitored.
Keywords: format – genre – programme – programming – commodification – broadcast media
This paper deals with the basic problems of production, function and reception of programme in br... more This paper deals with the basic problems of production, function and reception of programme in broadcast media. Authors focus themselves especially on the creation and functioning of programme formats, in both relevant senses of the term (1. targetted broadcast media programming and 2. commodified manual for programme production). The number of programming strategies in broadcast media are discussed and illustrated by examples from Slovak broadcast media and the concepts are applied in a comprehensive analysis of Slovak televisions’ access-prime and prime-time programming.
Keywords: broadcast media – programming – scheduling – programming strategies – programme format – television – prime-time
Keywords: television news – news formats – discourse analysis – methodology – preparatory phase –... more Keywords: television news – news formats – discourse analysis – methodology – preparatory phase – sampling – transcription
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Journal Articles by Michal Bočák
Keywords: culinary magazines – food – cooking – discourse – tradition – nostalgia
Kewords: media discourse – mediated discourse – mediatized discourse – interdiscursivity – mediatization – terminology
Keywords: gay – queer – masculinity – hegemonic masculinity – heterosexuality – gay culture – gay identity – gay porn – “straight gay porn” – “gay-for-pay” – bisexual porn – “straight gay” – “straight-acting gay” – post-identity – metrosexuality – sporno – gaze – consumerism
Keywords: discourse – linguistics – social sciences – dialogue – code – mode – Foucault – power – sign – representation – reality – narrative – subject – dispositive – Jäger
Book Chapters by Michal Bočák
Keywords: gay porn – straight porn – masculinity – male desire – gangbang – homosociality – anality – pleasure – power"
Conference Papers by Michal Bočák
Keywords: gay identity – stabilisation – destabilisation – LGBTI politics – identification
Keywords: media studies – academic field – study programme – development – Slovakia"
Keywords: pornography – porn – web – subject – identity – construction – video’s title – intersectionality – asymetry – androcentrism
Keywords: television news – subject – construction – discursive means – political participation – political exclusion – citizenship
Keywords: format – genre – programme – programming – commodification – broadcast media
Keywords: broadcast media – programming – scheduling – programming strategies – programme format – television – prime-time
Keywords: culinary magazines – food – cooking – discourse – tradition – nostalgia
Kewords: media discourse – mediated discourse – mediatized discourse – interdiscursivity – mediatization – terminology
Keywords: gay – queer – masculinity – hegemonic masculinity – heterosexuality – gay culture – gay identity – gay porn – “straight gay porn” – “gay-for-pay” – bisexual porn – “straight gay” – “straight-acting gay” – post-identity – metrosexuality – sporno – gaze – consumerism
Keywords: discourse – linguistics – social sciences – dialogue – code – mode – Foucault – power – sign – representation – reality – narrative – subject – dispositive – Jäger
Keywords: gay porn – straight porn – masculinity – male desire – gangbang – homosociality – anality – pleasure – power"
Keywords: gay identity – stabilisation – destabilisation – LGBTI politics – identification
Keywords: media studies – academic field – study programme – development – Slovakia"
Keywords: pornography – porn – web – subject – identity – construction – video’s title – intersectionality – asymetry – androcentrism
Keywords: television news – subject – construction – discursive means – political participation – political exclusion – citizenship
Keywords: format – genre – programme – programming – commodification – broadcast media
Keywords: broadcast media – programming – scheduling – programming strategies – programme format – television – prime-time
Entries in co-authorship with Juraj Rusnák: arbitrariness of the sign in the media text, celebrity, connotation in the media text, denotation in the media text, gender in electronic media, media, paradigm of the media text, programme format, web.