Social Media and Gender in Political Campaigns: The Role of Candidate's Spouses in the Czech Republic

This bachelor thesis titled 'Social Media and Gender in Political Campaigns: The Role of Candidate's Spouses in the Czech Republic' is an exploratory work which analyses how potential first ladies were portrayed on Facebook whilst their husbands, candidates in the 2018 Czech presidential election, ran their official campaigns. The objective was to uncover the role assigned to female spouses during the campaigns, how the women were constrained by traditionally feminine roles and to whom is their presence affecting. This thesis utilises the method of content analysis, which is employed not only as a mere data gathering tool to detect the textual side of posts, but also applied visually. A coding instrument which used Goffman's (1979) Gender displays was employed to detect the visual frames of the First lady. The textual portion of Facebook communication was sorted based on the mentioning of a spouse and then further examined using a coding sheet consisting of a total of 13 variables. By analysing Facebook posts published by each candidate during the official campaign, the thesis aims to depict how potential first ladies were depicted in traditional female roles, constrained by norms, and with no further role in the political process. The practical assessment of the paper crucially demonstrates the..