Use of user-generated content in Czech media: the case of Metro daily

This thesis is a case study examining a user-generated content delivered to a newsroom of Metro daily and its subsequent evaluation, selection and utilization in printed edition of the newspaper. Their bold attempt of participatory journalism - online gallery of readers' photographs - remains one of the few successful examples of this type of alternative journalism in Czech media even after five years since its foundation. The first chapter provides necessary field context related to the demonopolization and deprofessionalization of journalism as well as to the transformation of the communication framework and the roles of the producer (journalist) and the user (recipient) of media content, furthermore some types of alternative journalism are listed and distinctively characterized. Secondly, a phenomenon of user-generated content (UGC) is described in detail, focusing on its specifics in relation to journalism and on selected examples of the UGC occurring in Czech media. Lastly, I present a research of readers' photos from May, August, November 2016 and February 2017. The content analysis is applied twice - to define a nature of the photographs, their purpose, topic and information quality; to detect which of those gets actually used and printed. The work also focuses directly on the authors of..