The Role of Propaganda in Online Discourse of Selected Blood Donation Campaigns in the Czech Republic

The voluntary blood donation issue is topical in the Czech Republic since the number of blood donors has not yet reached the number of donors existing in the neighboring countries. Because of this fact the Czech Blood Cross together with transfusion services centers in the Czech Republic and in cooperation with various organizations, e.g. Czech Radio, do their best to obtain new voluntary blood donors via blood donation campaigns. Language of these campaigns is mainly of persuasive character. As such, it is often viewed as a means of white propaganda which stems from factual information and whose aim is to persuade the consumer of the message about the legitimacy of its ideology. White propaganda also helps to build trust which is lately used. In other words, the consumer of the message becomes blood donor. The thesis analyzes persuasive linguistic means of propaganda present in online discourse of the selected campaigns. On the basis of learned facts, the thesis also tries to characterize this discourse type; moreover, it makes suggestions for designing a new blood donation campaign