Abstract
Transportation unions’ strike in June 2011 became one of the main protest against the government and its reforms and the Czech Television as a public service broadcaster paid a lot of attention to it. The decision to use semiotic analysis in this paper is based on the notion that media as institutions contribute to the reproduction of dominant ideology their use of language and various means verbal espression.
The image of the protest and its participants is strongly influenced by stereotypes and connected with a notion of rather passive Czech political culture and characteristics related to it. The political culture is personalized through the category of “common citizens“.
Common citizens are also constructed in opposition to union members. Common citizens’ point of view is projected to the image of the strike – it is presented as action with no real impact on the government’s policies and reforms.
The representation of the strike also implies that its main purpose is to upset as many people as possible.