Students write their bachelor thesis over the course of two of their last semesters. They enroll in PMCb1014 Bachelor thesis I. (the 5th semester) and subsequently Bachelor thesis II. (the 6th semester), together granting 16ECTS.

Timetable and Major Steps

Detailed information about the topic selection and writing of the thesis:

Writing and defending the bachelor's thesis is part of receiving the degree. The thesis is written over the two last semesters under the supervision of a teacher (the supervisor within the framework of the two compulsory courses PMCb1014 Bachelor thesis I and PMCb1015 Bachelor thesis II). The thesis is graded by the supervisor and a reviewer and defended in front of the bachelor's degree committee.

In their penultimate semester (typically 5th), students enroll in PMCb1014 Bachelor Thesis I. (PMCb1014). Students seek out a supervisor based either on a lecturer’s supervisor fields, or students can contact a prospective supervisor and suggest their topic of thesis ((It can be any member of the Department of Media Studies and Journalism or the Department of Political Science). The supervisor must approve the topic before it can be entered into the Information System (IS) by the semester deadline (the deadline for the topics of bachelor theses). Students then proceed to consult the thesis with the supervisor and fulfill the requirements of PMCb1014 Bachelor Thesis I.. The outcome of the course Bachelor Thesis I is a detailed research design of the bachelor thesis (for more details see the course syllabus).

In their final semester (typically the 6th), students enroll in PMCb1015 Bachelor Thesis II. Based on the research design prepared as the outcome of PMCb1014 Bachelor thesis I, students work on the text of the thesis and consult it with the supervisor. The thesis shall consist of between 8,000 and 10,000 words, excluding the abstract, notes, and bibliography. The thesis must fulfill the requirements defined in the PMCb1015 Bachelor Thesis II syllabusand submitted by the deadlines set in the semester schedule. .

Bachelor theses shall meet the criteria and structure typical for empirical research papers (the supervisor must explicitly approve other genres, such as theoretical or methodological papers). The primary goal of the research paper is to expand our understanding of a particular phenomenon. The research paper is based on the definition of a specific research problem, organization and management of independently conducted research, analyzing and interpreting primary or secondary data, relating the data analysis to social science theory and composing an academic text while meeting the theoretical, methodological and formal standards in the field of political science, media studies, or political communication.

Final theses should primarily utilize reliable secondary data. The collection and analysis of original data is allowed (although not expected) and are subject to approval by the supervisor based on the student's capabilities. Theses may take the form of unique case studies, focusing on a specific phenomenon within one or multiple countries, or may emphasize comparison, studying multiple countries or trends over time. Students can employ available quantitative data, such as questionnaire surveys or aggregated statistics, and qualitative data, such as media system analyses, or combine both depending on the thesis objectives.

The suggested structure of the thesis is as follows:

Introduction: The introduction of the topic, justification of its relevance, the formulation of the main research question and brief introduction of the paper's main arguments. The Introduction may include a summary of the results

Theory/Literature review: Definition of the conceptual framework or theory, summarization and the critical review of the state of the art (the existing research, knowledge, gap). Explanation of the main (theoretical) arguments and research questions and – if needed – formulation of hypotheses.

Data and methods: Description of the data used in the analysis (including data collection description), operationalization, data processing method. The method and the data used in the analysis are derived from the type of the research question.

Results: Presentation of analysis, discussion of results, evaluation of hypotheses/answers to research questions.

Conclusion: After a summary of the goals of the thesis, the conclusion summarizes the results and discusses them in the context of the existing research. Limitations of the analysis and possible direction of future research may be part of the conclusion.

To avoid having to deal with most of the formatting parameters, we recommend using the MUNI template.