![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
Acknowledgements
This paper was created as part of the project Specificky vysokoskolsky vyzkum SVV 267 503 IKSZ UK FSV.
Notes
1. Preliminary research, using secondary quantitative data, has provided an outline for the evolution of the role of Czech celebrities in political communication. The data were collected from the two largest Czech broadsheet newspapers (the tabloid Blesk; and Mladá fronta Dnes, widely regarded as a newspaper of record) during the period between 1992 and 2006.
2. The most well-known case would be that of the famous singer Lucie Bílá, who supported the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) in the 1999 parliamentary elections.
3. The most significant examples of this were a project popularised by the singer and drummer David Koller and by the popular contemporary fine artist David Černý, with their initiative ‘Let’s disannul the Communists’ and a series of concerts called ‘We don’t talk to Communists’.
4. Martha Issová comes from a family of well-known actors (her mother and cousin, for instance, are also famous actresses) and has appeared in a variety of Czech films. Jiří Mádl achieved early fame with the teenage movie Snowboarďáci. Issová and Mádl also starred in the film Děti noci together.
5. Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLfFhdcXJhA [Accessed 19 April 2013].
6. Available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgHHX9R4Qtk&list=FLHrRp7JnTEUEdaEI7QRBt2A [Accessed 19 April 2013].
7. Mladá fronta Dnes and Právo (the most widely distributed Czech newspapers) and Blesk (the most widely distributed Czech tabloid).
8. Týden, Respekt and Reflex – the biggest weekly news magazines in the Czech Republic.
9. ‘How is it possible that [old people] vote for the left? I wonder if they have forgotten how it looked here for those forty years of Communist power’ (‘Convince your grandma’, 22 April 2010, available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLfFhdcXJhA). [Accessed 19 April 2013].
10. The problem with understanding hyperbole in the video can also be related to differences between the personalities present in the US and Czech videos. Sarah Silverman is known for her work as a comedian – sarcasm and other comedy devices consonant with her style of humour can be expected from her performances. On the other hand, Martha Issová and Jiří Mádl are considered to be serious actors, even if they do not limit themselves to serious films and TV roles only.
11. Interview with Martha Issová, June 2013. Martha Issová’s house, Prague, Czech Republic.
12. Petr Zelenka refused to be interviewed for the purposes of this research.
13. See http://www.dekomunizace.cz/ [Accessed 26 June 2013].
14. Eight of 21 articles were coded as negative towards the video.
15. The group of ‘dissent’ was actually a relatively small group of actors, writers, musicians and artists (see Bolton Citation2012). A large number of people, collectively known as the ‘grey zone’, were not engaged in any direct conflict with the Communist regime, although neither did they support it. The new ideology (which may be gathered from discussions that appeared during the recent presidential elections at the beginning of 2013) is used to criticise not only those who supported the Communist regime, but also those who belonged to the ‘grey zone’. The contemporary symbolic capital of celebrities is thus strongly linked to this prior context of the position of celebrities towards the regime before the ‘Velvet Revolution’.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Markéta Štechová
Markéta Štechová is a PhD candidate at Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. She is interested in the production ideology of TV series. In her dissertation, she focuses on celebrities in Czech political communication while using Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory.