Panel Report: Visual Popular Culture

Chair: Pavel Zahrádka, Palacký University, Czech Republic

Speakers

Maria Zitmane, University of Latvia, Latvia
Juliána Laluhová, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Slovak Republic
Anca Velicu, Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy, Romania

© Jakub Plíhal

Maria Zitmane begun this part in "Riga Room" with presentation about gender representations in advertising. Her analysis of visual discourse was made from materials published from 2000 to 2004, more specificely she used latvian advertisements from men's lifestyle magazine Klubs. "I chose this time span because it was the time of Lithuanian proces towards EU and it definitely tells story about society, about its transformation." How was gender used in analyzed advertisements? Females are portrayed in connection with appearence (mostly fashion), however males are connected with power, politics and business.

Why is it always television? asks Juliána Laluhová in her presentation. "My students used to answer, that most important media platform fror them is television. Used to, few years ago. Now they name things as Internet, new media or smartphones." Lahulová states her opinion that television should be studied since it is still the most widespread media in the world, you can find it everywhere. "It is window to the world." Media shapes our perception - reality can be easily manipulated. Digitalisation of television brings us more interaction, it comes closer to Internet for example. Television brings us univeralism, Lahulová claimed. She also pointed out that ordinary viewer doesn't know the process behind the broadcasting, he only sees the content.

Anca Velicu made research which stated  the question when the film violence becomes intolerable for children. She performed online survey amongst 3800 youth from secondary high schools in December 2011. She presents the findings: "Chidren who read a lot and like the school are very senstitive to violence, unlike those who like video games. But I had metodological problem - those who like school are more likely to give the "right" answer," described Velicu. Many metodological questions about her research had arisen at the end of discussion.