Abstract
The paper presents key findings of research on the media coverage of foreign policy in Czech news programs, dailies, and magazines between 2008 and 2011. The research aims were twofold: to describe the state of the art of media coverage of foreign-policy issues and to identify prevailing frames and major narratives attached to these issues in the media agenda.
Using the triangulation of quantitative and qualitative content analysis, the authors had two objectives: first, to identify the composition of main issues and key actors presented in the news programs of three Czech nationwide TV stations, and, second, to reveal the major narratives and prevailing frames of the news agenda. When referring to events related to Czech foreign policy, the media showed a high level of personalization.
What is also remarkable is the strongly negative, polarised character of the media foreign-policy discourse: the researched media present foreign policy as a battleground for the competing interests and influences of particular political subjects; alternatively, it is explicitly described as a victim or hostage of domestic political conflicts. The general adversarial setting of news on Czech foreign policy is often enhanced by war metaphors.