The influence of soft power in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and its reflection in the media: Case study of Russia Today and Parlamentní listy

The work will focus on the influence of soft power, which will be operationalized mainly as Russian propaganda activities during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict at the time when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula. Its empirical core will be a comparison of the news coverage of the beginnings of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis by the international media network paid by the Russian government Russia Today and the Czech tabloid parliamentary website Parlamentní listy, which is often included in public debate as pro-Russian or "disinformation" media. In the theoretical part, the work will focus on the concept of "soft power" (especially in relation to Joseph Nye) and sharp power, and their usefulness for the analysis of Russian propaganda. The author will focus mainly on the extent to which the narratives used in the Russia Today broadcast are used in the contributions of Parlamentní listy and whether this Czech media can be considered as pro-Russian or not. Subsequently, after a brief description of the conflict and selected media, the work will focus on comparison the discourses of these media in two short periods of time. In this analysis, the author will focus on narrative constructions, the degree of legitimacy and, using a combination of qualitative quantitative analysis, will examine the difference..