Spread of journalistic hoaxes in Czech media: the case of Central European News agency

This bachelor's thesis frames concrete examples of hoaxes that are spreading into the wider scale of the contemporary functioning of newsrooms. Next, it examines the ethical standards of the media and the spreading of contents within an online environment. The thesis is focused mainly on the online media that makes proper verification more difficult. Furthermore, it examines the characteristics of hoaxes; how and why they spread. It further deals with possible solutions of how to avoid them. The spreading of hoaxes is illustrated mainly on the texts produced by the Central European News agency and its daughter media that are claimed to be untrustworthy. Approximately 355 texts have surfaced in the Czech media in between the years 2007 and 2016. Czech News Agency (ČTK) was cited as the author or the co-author in circa 141 cases