„From window cleaner to cardinal”: The story of an extraordinary media image

Abstract

The aim of this study is to present the story behind the media image recounting the final months in the life of the former primate of the Czech Republic, cardinal Miloslav Vlk. The analyses presented in this study are grounded in a corpus of texts consisting of 63 press articles published by Czech national dailies between 23 January and 26 March 2017. The image recreated on their basis has become extraordinary not only due to the fact of its very existence within the perception of the world promoted by Czech media, but also because of the way it was constructed and presented to the audience. One must not underestimate the role of the main protagonist of the analyzed image, who became one of its authors himself.