Abstract
The chapter describes, based on a content analysis of news content in 2012, the tendency of Czech media in dealing with foreign policy topics using a combination of quantitative content analysis and qualitative case studies of selected foreign policy events. Both quantitative and qualitative analysis prove that the coverage of political events in the media is highly personified, viewed through the prism of personal or political interests of Czech political elites and their mutual disputes.
The print media tend to present major political events as power-based conflicts between individuals or groups, rather than negotiations on public affairs supported by arguments. In practice, Habermas's classical tradition, which promotes rational discussion as a desirable form of public debate, is thus replaced with the generally criticized persuasion through the agency of emotional appeal, which, however, some theoretical traditions regard as a less restrictive form of public discourse.