A Watchdog’s Burial
A Watchdog’s Burial

A Contribution to Cynological Media Theory

Summary/Abstract: Terms like lapdog, watchdog (of democracy), or mad-dog are often used – even by media theorists – to describe various types of political journalism, or even for a general description of the media’s role in democratic societies. The proposed article is based on a strong belief in the metaphors‘ role in the(potentially ideological) construction of meaning. It therefore goes further - elements of qualitative analysis are used to categorize the large amount of pre-collected ‘dog proverbs‘. As a result, other metaphorical descriptions of the relationship between media and society (especially the role of traditional, mainstream media in contemporary political communication) are offered, including graphic expression of mutual positions of these relationships. This analysis is placed in the specific framework of the past quarter century in the Czech Republic (i.e. all the‘post-communist‘ countries of Central and Eastern Europe) and results in some modest normative recommendations.

• Details
• Contents