The elections 2012: analysis of the media aspectof the election campaign of KDU-ČSL

The atmosphere of the election campaign before the elections in October 2012 was not such fierce as during the last campaign. It was mainly due to absence of a major topic that would polarise the society, like the health fees in 2008. The ČSSD tried to find a similar controversial topic that might have been the church restitutions for a moment. The purpose of the negative campaign was to discourage people from voting the governmental parties ODS and TOP 09, but it also could weaken the KDU-ČSL that was and still is closely connected with churches, especially the catholic church. The representatives of the KDU-ČSL themselves didn't publish any opinions concerning this matter, with only few exceptions. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse and evaluate the media output of the KDU-ČSL during the election campaign that was run before the elections to the regional governments and the Senate. In the first part, the main leaders of the KDU-ČSL are introduced, following by a detailed description of the campaigns in the respective regions and the senate circuits. The next part is devoted to a quantitative content analysis that examines the influence of the election forecasting models presented in the media on the decision of the voters, or the outcomes of the KDU-ČSL. The following qualitative analysis...