Photography of political campaigns: compromise between reality and staged image

This bachelor's thesis focuses on photographs related to the first direct presidential election in the Czech Republic published in the dailies the Blesk and the Lidové noviny and in the weeklies Reflex and Respekt. By the means of image analysis and interviews with some media professionals, it examines to what extent the photographs were co-created by the PR departments of the individual candidates. The submitted thesis outlines a brief historical overview of how the staged image of the politician has been used in the United States of America and offers an overview of potentially manipulative tools defined in terms of visual literacy (associational juxtaposition, staged behaviour, Kuleshov effect, subjective view, camera angle, emphasising detail). These tools are reflected in the image analysis and together with some quantitative data and some photoreporters' testimonies characterize the visual quality level of the selected media. The aim of this thesis is to draw attention to the close collaboration of the domains of public relations and photojournalism, which might lead to the erosion of journalistic standards