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This master's thesis focuses on the credibility of social media as news sources in journalistic practices in the Czech Republic. The paper is based on the sociological conceptualization of trust put forward by Niklas Luhmann and Piotr Sztompka and its modern adaptation by media scholars, e.g. Thorsten Quandt. The aim of this work has been to find out through thirteen substantive, one- on-one interviews with readers of the print and online media editions of Krkonošský deník how the credibility of news stories depend on the information sources used. The thesis includes the theoretical part that is based on the theoretical conceptualization of trust: from the main concepts and conflict topics to the journalistic practices that should ensure trustworthiness and audiences' perceptions of trustworthiness. The Methodology section describes the area of qualitative research and related procedures, which include a detailed description of the data collection method, which is a semi-structured, in-depth interview, and the characteristics of the research sample. In findings the results of the research from the data obtained through interviews conducted with respondents are interpreted. The conclusion of the thesis is dedicated to summarizing the research results.

This diploma thesis combines the method of monitoring the social impact with the phenomenon of the credibility of non-profit organizations. According to the results of public opinion polls in the Czech Republic, confidence in non-profit organizations has been low for a long time. Lack of transparency and low awareness of the activities and principles of non- profit organizations can be reasons for distrust in non-profit organizations. This thesis aims to present a method of monitoring the impact of those who do not yet know it using a manual based on the results of action research and thus contribute to greater transparency and better presentation of results and later greater credibility of organizations. The theoretical part of the thesis deals with trust and credibility, the method of monitoring the impact and the introduction of the non-profit sector of the Czech Republic. Emphasis is placed on a multi-sided view, practical examples, and data support. The empirical part of this work uses action research and human-centerd design to connect trust and credibility with the method of monitoring the impact in the sphere of non-profit organizations. The result of action research is that the implementation of the impact monitoring method brings with it many changes, which can be distinguished into...

The diploma thesis deals with the role of a television news anchorman/woman. It focuses on the origin of the anchorman, the main and characteristic professional prerequisites, and the differences between the anchormen of public and commercial television. The primary role of the moderator is to inform about current events. But in the same time be objective, neutral, and trustworthy, and leave a way expressing one's own emotions. However, these values may differ as to the television broadcasting system. As part of his role in television, they can be a suitable element in media self-presentation. The thesis focuses on work with commercial and public television, analyses the emotional and professional aspects of his work and his contribution to the creation of news programs. The research is also carried out among the public, which enables the main characteristics and functions of moderators.

V oblasti automatického rozpoznávání obličejů (AFR) byla vyvinuta celá řada metod, které dosahují vynikající úspěšnosti v případě kontrolovaných podmínek. Pokud podmínky nejsou kontrolované nebo jsou kontrolované jen v omezené míře, je úspěšnost významně snížena. Poskytnutí informace indikující pravděpodobnost, jestli je výsledek rozpoznání správný, je tedy velmi žádoucí. Tato práce se zabývá použitím konformního prediktoru (CP), který umožní k výstupu AFR metod přidat dobře kalibrované míry důvěry. CP je kombinován s klasifikátory založenými na deskriptorech POEM a SIFT. Dále je použita vážená kombinace obou klasifikátorů. Porovnáváme úspěšnost pěti způsobů výpočtu míry nonkonformity. Many Automatic face recognition (AFR) methods achieve a high recognition accuracy when the environment is well-controlled. In the case of moderately controlled or fully uncontrolled environments however, the performance of most techniques is dramatically reduced. As a result, the provision of some kind of indication of the likelihood of a recognition being correct is a desirable property of AFR techniques. This work investigates the application of the conformal prediction (CP) framework for extending the output of AFR techniques with well-calibrated measures of confidence. In particular we combine CP with one classifier based on POEM descriptors, one classifier based on SIFT descriptors, and a weighted combination of the similarities computed by the two. We examine and compare the performance of five nonconformity measures.

The dissertation deals with the evolution and current state of literary reportage in the Czech Republic, Poland and France. It puts literary reportage in media context with emphasis on history of the genre and its main representatives, it maps the current state of literary reportage in selected countries, authors, and themes of their texts. It analyzes the factors that affect the work of literary reporters.This thesis in its theoretical part relies on academic publications about the genre of reportage in each state in relation to Polish School of Reportage and its attributes. It also examines the usage of fictional components that affects trustworthiness of literary reportage. The practical part of the thesis is then dedicated to analysis of the reportage Spánek do oběda a zábava do rána by polish reporter Lidia Ostałowska in order to show what kind of impact literary techniques can have on form and content of reportage. To do so, it uses the method of narratological analysis and the concept of narrative gaps. In the end, the findings from the field of the genre are applied in my own authorial reportage called Nantes. Voda, plyn a oheň.

Past studies, that studied facial attractiveness, focus mainly on fluctuating asymmetry, averageness, masculinity, femininity, and skin coloration influences on attractiveness assessment. Their findings have been used by intercultural studies. They have revealed that people from diverse areas prefer differential development of sexually dimorphic cues, according to, e.g. local health and economic situation. We have done an online questionnaire survey. We included Czech (N = 100), Iranian (N = 87) and Turkish (N = 185) facial stimuli and raters of both sexes. We have studied whether members of all the populations would utilize the facial colouration and sexual dimorphism cues in a similar way. We have also tested whether there were differences in the facial width to height ratio (fWHR) between the sexes in all the populations. We have also wondered if the populations differed in the variance of facial skin colouration. Raters from all the populations saw feminine women as attractive. Turks and Czechs found masculine men as attractive, while Iranian women found more average Iranian men as attractive. Averageness positively predicted the attractiveness of the Czech and Turkish faces of both sexes. Older and more average Czech men were considered more masculine by Czech women. More average and younger Czech...

Estimating others characteristics from facial cues plays an important role in our everyday lives. People usually agree in these estimates well and many of these estimates correlate. Majority studies consider one or few character- istics only and their respondents usually are in narrow ranges of ages. This study is partly based on rating of 13 characteristics of 80 men's and women's faces by respondents of various ages. These data were originally collected within yet unpublished study of Jaroslav Flegr, Amy E. Blum and Šebastian Kroupa. In this study I most strikingly found out that: i) older respondents of both genders rates photos of women as more attractive, ii) respondents spend more time by rating faces considered by themselves as more attractive or nice, iii) men rate people with different eye color as more attractive and women rate others with the same eye color as nicer, iv) preferences computed by two methods do not differ much. 1

Apart from their informative and representative functions, annual reports of companies and institutions aim at enhancing the organisations’ image and credibility. According to the theory of communicative action formulated by Habermas (1984), credibility is based on meeting four validity claims, namely truth, sincerity, appropriateness and understandability. Credibility as such can be boosted by presenting or proving two major components, expertise and trust. A short genre incorporated in company annual reports, letters from executives (Letter from a CEO, Chairman´s statement, Chair´s Message, Letter to Shareholders, etc.) represent texts which attempt to persuade target readers about a competent management, strong visions, positive current situation and optimistic outlook. Combining the more subjective focus on trustworthiness and a more objectively based provision of credentials and achievements quoted to prove expertise, these letters in annual reports aim to persuade readers rather implicitly than explicitly, by establishing contact through direct address, personal endorsement, involvement and even cordiality. The paper analyses “executive letters” in the business documents subcorpus of the Corpus of English and Czech Specialised Discourses (CECSD 2017), with special emphasis on the selected verbs and nouns. The principal persuasive strategies identified in this genre contribute to a more public and interactive character of the otherwise relatively private and specialised discourse. The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the Czech Science Foundation, grant project 17-16195S “Persuasion Across Czech and English Specialised Discourses”. Kromě sdělné a reprezentační funkce mají výroční zprávy firem a institucí za cíl zlepšit obraz organizace a posílit její důvěryhodnost. Podle teorie komunikativní akce (Habermas 1984) je důvěryhodnost (kredibilita) založena na splnění čtyř validačních požadavků, jmenovitě pravdivosti, upřímnosti, přiměřenosti a srozumitelnosti. Credibility as such can be boosted by presenting or proving two major components, expertise and trust. A short genre incorporated in company annual reports, letters from executives (Letter from a CEO, Chairman´s statement, Chair´s Message, Letter to Shareholders, etc.) represent texts which attempt to persuade target readers about a competent management, strong visions, positive current situation and optimistic outlook. Combining the more subjective focus on trustworthiness and a more objectively based provision of credentials and achievements quoted to prove expertise, these letters in annual reports aim to persuade readers rather implicitly than explicitly, by establishing contact through direct address, personal endorsement, involvement and even cordiality. The paper analyses “executive letters” in the business documents subcorpus of the Corpus of English and Czech Specialised Discourses (CECSD 2017), with special emphasis on the selected verbs and nouns. The principal persuasive strategies identified in this genre contribute to a more public and interactive character of the otherwise relatively private and specialised discourse. The author wishes to acknowledge the support of the Czech Science Foundation, grant project 17-16195S “Persuasion Across Czech and English Specialised Discourses”. Apart from their informative and representative functions, annual reports of companies and institutions aim at enhancing the organisations’ image and credibility. According to the theory of communicative action formulated by Habermas (1984), credibility is based on meeting four validity claims, namely truth, sincerity, appropriateness and understandability. Credibility as such can be boosted by presenting or proving two major components, expertise and trust. A short genre incorporated in company annual reports, letters from executives (Letter from a CEO, Chairman´s statement, Chair´s Message, Letter to Shareholders, etc.) represent texts which attempt to persuade target readers about a competent management, strong visions, positive current situation and optimistic outlook. Combining the more subjective focus on trustworthiness and a more objectively based provision of credentials and achievements quoted to prove expertise, these letters in annual reports aim to persuade readers rather implicitly than explicitly, by establishing contact through direct address, personal endorsement, involvement and even cordiality. The paper analyses “executive letters” in the business documents subcorpus of the Corpus of English and Czech Specialised Discourses (CECSD 2017), with special emphasis on the selected verbs and nouns. The principal persuasive strategies identified in this genre contribute to a more public and interactive character of the otherwise relatively private and specialised discourse.

One of the prime purposes of corporate and institutional annual reports is to persuade different classes of stakeholders of the organisation´s credibility, competence, efficiency and good management. Since credibility is boosted by the organisation´s ability to prove expertise and trust as its major components, annual reports focus in their text sections on appropriate interpretation of facts so that a positive image of the reporting company is enhanced. This paper analyses reviews of the previous year and outlooks for the future period, found typically in sections called Strategic report, Business review, Strategy and outlook, Management review etc. They aim at persuading readers of a company´s competent and efficient management, positive current economic situation and optimistic future. They focus rather on achievements and successful events, but the principle of objectivity and evidentiality (cf. Habermas 1984, who lists truth, sincerity, appropriateness and understandability as validity claims of credibility) makes them to mention also the failures and losses. However, appropriate selection of linguistic means and presentation strategies minimise the potential harm done to the image of a company and maximise its credibility. As Sperber (2010) claims, to achieve trustworthiness both the speaker and content must be assessed as competent. Linguistic means of (implicit rather than explicit) persuasion were analysed in a subcorpus of English and Czech business documents, included in the Corpus of English and Czech Specialised Discourses (CECSD 2017), with the main focus on choices of semantically positive verbs, nouns and adjectives. Jedním z hlavních cílů firemních a institucionálních výročních zpráv je přesvědčit různé typy zainteresovaných adresátů o důvěryhodnosti, kompetentnosti, efektivnosti a správném řízení dané organizace. Protože důvěryhodnost (kredibilitu) je možno zvýšit schopností organizace prokázat její odbornost a kompetenci jakožto hlavní složky kredibility, výroční zprávy se ve svých textových oddílech zaměřují na vhodnou interpretaci skutečnosti, tak aby byla posílena pozivní image reportující organizace. Tento článek analyzuje přehledy předchozího roku a výhledy do příštího období, jež se typicky nacházejí v sekcích zvaných Strategic report, Business review, Strategy and outlook, Management review atd. Tyto oddíly se snaží přesvědčit čtenáře o kompetentním a efektivním managementu firmy, kladné současné hospodářské situaci a optimistické budoucnosti. Spíše zdůrazňují dosažené úspěchy a úspěšné události, avšak zásada objektivity a průkaznosti (srov. Habermas 1984, který řadí pravdivost, upřímnost, přiměřenost a srozumitelnost k požadavkům na platnost (validity claims) důvěryhodnosti) je nutí zmínit se také o nezdarech a ztrátách. Nicméně, odpovídající výběr jazykových prostředků a prezentačních strategií minimalizují potenciální škody způsobené reputaci společnosti a maximalizují její důvěryhodnost. Jak tvrdí Sperber (2010), aby bylo dosaženo důvěryhodnosti, musí mluvčí a obsah být posouzeny jako kompetentní. Přesvědčovací jazykové prostředky (spíše implicitní než explicitní) byly analyzovány v subkorpusu anglických a českých ekonomických dokumentů, zahrnutého do Korpusu anglického a českého specializovaného diskurzu (CECSD 2017), s hlavním důrazem na volby sloves, substantiv a adjektiv s pozitivními konotacemi. One of the prime purposes of corporate and institutional annual reports is to persuade different classes of stakeholders of the organisation´s credibility, competence, efficiency and good management. Since credibility is boosted by the organisation´s ability to prove expertise and trust as its major components, annual reports focus in their text sections on appropriate interpretation of facts so that a positive image of the reporting company is enhanced. This paper analyses reviews of the previous year and outlooks for the future period, found typically in sections called Strategic report, Business review, Strategy and outlook, Management review etc. They aim at persuading readers of a company´s competent and efficient management, positive current economic situation and optimistic future. They focus rather on achievements and successful events, but the principle of objectivity and evidentiality (cf. Habermas 1984, who lists truth, sincerity, appropriateness and understandability as validity claims of credibility) makes them to mention also the failures and losses. However, appropriate selection of linguistic means and presentation strategies minimise the potential harm done to the image of a company and maximise its credibility. As Sperber (2010) claims, to achieve trustworthiness both the speaker and content must be assessed as competent. Linguistic means of (implicit rather than explicit) persuasion were analysed in a subcorpus of English and Czech business documents, included in the Corpus of English and Czech Specialised Discourses (CECSD 2017), with the main focus on choices of semantically positive verbs, nouns and adjectives.

Hlávková Barbora. User experience focused on credibility in e-commerce. Brno: Mendel University in Brno, 2017. The thesis deals with User experience focused on credibility in e-commerce survey of the Y generation. To determine the perception of the credibility on e-shops was used eye tracking (n = 30) with in-depth interviews (n = 30) and questionnaire survey (n = 155). The aim of the thesis is to suggest general recommendations for e-commerce in terms of consumer trust.

This thesis deals with fundraising of non-profit organisations. The scope of the thesis is to provide the reader with basic information about fundraising, and to apply this information in order to evaluate the fundraising of a selected non-profit organisation. First of all, this work defines the non-profit sector and its long-term sustainability, then the work deals with the fundraising itself. Issues connected with credibility of the organisation and its webpages are included in the part concerning fundraising.These factors establish a competitive advantage in activities that are focused on fundraising. These theoretical foundations are applied on a chosen non-profit organisation, and additionaly, the webpages of the organisation are also analysed, and an ASNO14 non-profit organisation reliability analysis is carried out. The data used in the practical part was collected through an analysis of annual reports of the organisation, webpage analysis and through a personal interview. The ending of this thesis includes an overall evaluation and improvement proposals.

This study reports on research stimulated by Lev-Ari and Keysar (2010) who showed that native listeners find statements delivered by foreign-accented speakers to be less true than those read by native speakers. Our objective was to replicate the study with non-native listeners to see whether this effect is also relevant in international communication contexts. The same set of statements from the original study was recorded by 6 native and 6 non-native speakers of English. 121 non-native listeners rated the truthfulness of the statements on a 7-point scale. The results of our study tentatively do confirm a negative bias against non-native speakers as perceived by non-native listeners, showing that subconscious attitudes to language varieties are also relevant in communication among non-native speakers.

Trust between states and the principle of mutual trust in international law This thesis focuses on the role of trust in international law. The main objective is to assess the position and use of trust between states and in relevant areas and institutes of international law. Another key objective is to clarify the function of the principle of mutual trust. The thesis core is divided into three research areas. The first one aims to describe the use of principle of mutual trust and its application in international and European law. It addresses the question of who should carry the risk of trust. It concludes that the state which puts trust in another state should bear all the risks associated with it. The second area discusses confidence-building measures which are theoretically analyzed and further explored in the context of the current events of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict that started in the year 2014. The purpose of this section is to ascertain how trust is created between states, whether confidence-building measures are effective and what they bring into international law. The aim of this chapter is to ascertain how trust is created between states, whether confidence-building measures are effective and what they bring into international law. The author believes that trust between...

Author analyses three protracted conflicts of the 20th century (Cold War, Israeli-Arab Conflict and Indo-Pakistani Rivalry) in both qualitative and quantitative manner in order to find out an answer for the following research question: "Does a deterrence failure caused by a lack of credibility increase the likelihood of general deterrence failure in the next crisis?"

In this thesis I deal with three literary reportages from the collection Pánbůh zaplať by the Polish journalist and writer Wojciech Tochman who represents the Polish School of Reportage. These are the reportages Člověk, který vstal z kolejí, Vzteklý pes and Mojžíšův keř. I focus on what kind of narrative techniques Tochman uses in the process of writing reportages, what kind of function they have and if the usage of these narrative techniques influences the trustworthiness of a literary reportage. In the case studies I analyze every reportage with the help of a one chosen narrative technique. In the reportage Člověk, který vstal z kolejí I focus on the narrative gaps, in Vzteklý pes I deal with the usage of focalisation and in Mojžíšův keř is the main focus the storytelling through characters. Literary analyses show that the narrative techniques are used for better coherence and impresivness of Tochman's texts. These techniques help to express experiences of described characters and allow an independent interpretation to the reader. They are also used as references to important social phenomenona which enable to Tochman to bring universal testimony about the subjects of literary reportages. The thesis also deals with the problem of the trusthworthiness of literary reportages which leads to an...

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the influence of foreign accent on credibility of non- native speakers of English. The study was inspired by Lev-Ari and Keysar (2010), who observed that native speakers of English are less likely to believe non-native speakers. In our research we used the same set of statements and similar settings of the experiment to find out whether foreign accent will have the same negative effect on credibility of non- native speakers as perceived by non-native listeners. 6 native speakers from Britain and the USA, and 6 non-native speakers recorded the set of trivia statements for the test and 45 non-native listeners rated on a scale whether they thought the statement they hear is true or not. The results were analysed from multiple points of view such as the influence of accent on credibility, the influence of gender on credibility, and we have also analysed the individual speakers and items in the test to see if the results could be influenced by the behaviour of one individual speaker or an item. The results of the experiment revealed that foreign accent has a negative effect on the credibility of non-native speakers as perceived by non-native listeners. Czech respondents rated British accent of English to be the most credible, while people who spoke with a foreign...

The subject of my thesis is perception of crisis communication through social network. The aim of this work is to verify the connection and context between social network, interpretation and risk evaluation. The first theoretical part deals on the research of appropriate literature and defines key words like perception of information, communication, crisis communication, social medias and social networks. It also analyses the structure and communication process, types of communication, theoretical models of crisis communication, instruments of crisis communication and social networks themselves such as Twitter and Facebook. The theoretical part is the basis of the empirical part, which describes the realization of the research among college students. Stated hypotheses lead to the formulation of research questions and build the questionnaire. The questions in the questionnaire are built to verify that the high number of shared posts, sharing a particular user or a large number of controversial comments to that contribution may be related to the interpretation and evaluation of the crisis. It is emerging from the research that the high amount of sharing a post and the concrete person who shares this post has influence on the interpretation and evaluation of the risk. Benefit of this work is the fact that...