Ekonomika krajů České republiky: realita a celostátní televizní zpravodajství

Abstract

The role of mass media is not sufficiently accentuated in regional development theories. It is relevant also for their institutional branch. Mass media represents one of the primary information sources for the society, forming subjective images about characteristics of the complex environment. They provide also information about economic phenomena and processes across regions. Mass media creates virtual portrayals of individual regions that may or may not correspond to the real characteristics of the regions. Thus, the resulting regional image may not be consistent with reality. Image represent soft or non-economic factor yet affecting economic development across space. The image influences, both contemporary and future spatial behavior of the population. The attempt to quantify soft factor is a major contribution of the dissertation. The objective of the dissertation is to identify, compare and evaluate, how the selected economic attributes of real life in the regions (NUTS III) of the Czech Republic are reflected in the national broadcasting of Czech Television, TV Nova and TV Prima. Based on the results, we can claim, that it depends on which TV news programs audience are watching. Thematic discrepancies are seen primarily between commercial organizations and public service organization. Regional distribution of the intensity of news coverage from the economic domain roughly corresponds to the regional distribution of the population within individual regions. The regional patterns of economic coverage are different among TV stations. The resulting virtual portrayals of the regions are distinct. There are significant differences among virtual and real characteristics. In the context of selection and assignment of events into TV news reporting, we can observe certain elements of gatekeeping, such as negativity, unexpectedness, surprise or clarity.