czech media and politics today

-          Journalists have a high professional status and high self – confidence

o   Strong position vs their publisher (if they dont like their bossses, they collectively leave for anouther outlet)

o   Strong position vs politicians and other information sources (they have monopoly on making the information public)

o   Strong positions vs. audiences (mass media = one way communication, very little feedback)

-  Limited number of newspaper pages or broadcasting time in limited number of outlets

• journalists are gatekeepers, deciding what/who will appear in the media

• setting agenda (and attention) for the whole nation (low number of outlets with high audience)

• “unification” of national thinking space

-          Concept of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu

-          Journalists are not a class or a part of a class -> rather members of a profession inhabiting a semi autonomous social space – field

-          The field of Czech journalism in the 1990s

o   High degree of autonomy (legacy of 1989)

o   Dependence on economic field mostly indirect (laissez faire foreign owners)

o   High influence on political field (politicians dependent on journalists à be nice, to be covered in a nice way – or at all)

-          Structurally: journalists = key decision makers, sometimes even “king-unmakers” (a campaign can lead to a resignation of prime misiter etc.)

• new media undermined the “mass” character of the old media and the strategic position of journalists

• BUT: their ascent was slow, and the journalists too slow to notic

• the “technology” will weaken the big guys and empower the small guys

• BUT: the big guys will have better starting position

• how to avoid serious online competition —> start dumping content on the internet for free

• 
  

•   Death spiral

o   Readers migrate online to read content for free

o   Less money -> less quality -> less reason to pay for paper

• Journalists lose their professional status and self-confidence

o   Weak position vs their publisher (can get fired or replaced by cheaper intern)

o   Weak position vs politicians and other information sources (easy to access the audience directly online on social platforms etc)

o   Weak positions vs audiences (journalists can easily be critizised)

-          Unlimited space, unlimited access

• articles, videos etc can be as long as needed

• everyone has access to the tools to create online content

-          Basically: why pay for something if you can get it for free

-          Everyone can do a podcast/blog etc

some quality nmedia raised paywalls, others try fundraising

turning journalists into personalities

still, willingness to pay is limited given availability of free alternatives

• audience create bubbles around their favourite media outlets

• writing to make the audience “feel good”

• quantity over quality

• clickbaits

• fake news

• agressive ads, blocking adblockers, forcing consent with sharing data

• too many information without following the standard steps (verification…)

• sources: not the real world, but elsewhere on the net

journalistic field is expanding while its rules are crumbling:

• weaker news media, direct contact between poltiicans and citizens

• disappearing division between produers and consumers, professionals and amateurs

• more entertainment, less distinction between objective facts and subjective opinions

  • function of journalism: from public service to servicing communication technologies

  • crisis of the journalistic identity

• currently about 1300-3500 journalists in CR (depends on definition)

1) pre transformation generation (people starting careers in the 70s/80s)

2) transformation generation (winners of the velvet revolution, 90s)

3) “young” generation (2000s-2020s, graduates)

• numbers are changing: drop in late 1990s and 2000s with consolidation media conglomerates and driving down costs

-          Problem: media and journalism study programs churn out dozens of graduates every year, but not enough journalism jobs à they go into PR, marketing etc..

• After 1989: anti communism, capitalism, western orientation, right wing politics (foreign investments, integration to the western structures etc), people collaborating with old regime had to go

• End of 2000s: economic crisis -> Either bankruptcs or dependence on oligarch internet -> the journalistic field looses its exclusivity

• 2008 (SHIFT!): rise of the oligarchs, rise of internet, new generation; anti communism no longer fashionable; (internet -> more plurality; more fake news)

• 2015: refugee crisis -> end of the dominance of the western orientation in the media ; rise of populism

• Covid 19: some magazines interrupted or stopped, some new projekts (public services), internet went up (especially streaming, but normally not field of journalists)

-          No influetial trade unions or professional organizations à they are individuals

-          Liberal values (1/2 rightwing, 1/3 centrist, 1/6 leftwing)

• “gangs of journalists” which leave / change jobs together not that easy anymore, loose a lot of influence

- Being rank and file journalist not lucrative, but demanding so (stick with it; become spokesperson, burn out, try to climb career ladder)

- Pressure not to be too critical to your sources, you may need their goodwill after

- Many media and journalism graduates go straight to PR, marketing etc (more jobs, better salary)

• CR is small everyone in prague knows everyone in the journalistic field

• Most journalists still right wing (but decreasing)

• Media owners likely to be right-wing (protecting their business)

o   Being right wing compatible with post journalism career in most institutions covered by the journalists

o   Prague café (distinction between “elite” of the capital and the rest of the country)

• Governments pursuing left wing policies linked to Social Democracy (or ANO)

• Populist president Milos Zeman -> real break through against the prague café

• 2015: discursive rupture during the immigration crisis -> media populism

• Right wing discourse and anti communism lost its hegemony

-          Journalist in mlada fronta , communist party member

-          1989 joined the protests, participated in MF Dnes privatization

-          1990-2000s right wing columnist for the daily

-          2013 joined ANO

-          2017 withdraws from ANO, writes columns again

-          2019 columnist for Denik chain

-          Representative of 1989 generation (anti-communism)

-          Ideologically flexible

-          Both writing about politics and doing politics

-          Never problems for his past

• czech tv council (RCT) fires general manager

• CT employees and friends launch lobby group demanding

  • resignation of RCT

  • cancellation of selection process for the new general manager

• instead: RCT appoints Jiri Hodac (ex BBC guy), who had some links to the civic democrats

• CT employees call for resignation of Hodac and RCT, accusing them of serving political interest

• Hodac than appoints jana bobosikova to help him put down rebellion

• rebel employees refuse to respect bothe of them as their superiors

• Christmas: rebels inside the studios barricade themselves to broadcast their version of the story from the CT building whilde hodac and bobiskova form a new small team to broadcast their version of the story from the TV NOVA studios —> 2 versions of broadcasting (rebels -> satellite and cable, hodac bia terrestrial signal - major part)

• bobosikova tries to fire rebels —> hodac cuts tv signal for 27-28 december -> black screen economic losses for CT

• opposition politicans supported rebels & international support

  -Protests on wencelslavs quare supporting the relbels (100k people)

  -          Hodac collapsed after Christmas-crisis

  o   RCT fired by parliament, new RCT appoints Jiri Balvin as new general manager

  o   Jiri calls for a reform, but RCT still appointed by the parliament based on political criteria

• general manager: Jan Soucek -> seems to listen to polticans more than his predecessor Petr Dvorak

-          RCT still packed with political appointees, some of them critical about the concept of public itself

-          Still strongest media institution in CR, relatively independently from political pressures & and completely economically independent (ad fees)

-          But: autonomy limited in general

• channels: CT1, CT2, Ct3, CT24, CT Sport, CT Art; CT:D

• Czech journalists lost much of their previous status

• Internet undermined exclusivity of their field, opened it up, less profitable

• Journalists under public scrutiny, populist pressure against “prague café”

• Built in right wing bias, circulation between journalistic, political and other fields

• Mainstream: oligarchs or public service broadcasting

• Public service broadcasting most important, but always under pressure from political field -> still, somewhat precarious but strong autonomy

• Mainstream private media owned by the richest Czechs -> implicit limits on the journalistic autonomy

• Other non- mainstream media comparatively small -> autonomy, but limited resources to do a lot of journalism