The paper proposes a research design of the forms of communication of the far right parties and the way how press shapes perception of these parties in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Austria. It is argued that the way how far right parties are treated by the newspapers has affected the perception of these parties by public and has thus influenced their political opportunities and affected their capacity to make political and electoral advances. McCombs and Shaw (1972) concluded that when media emphasize a topic, public receiving the message will consider this topic to be important. Far right parties and their leaders are dependent upon media for public image, which is the key for electoral success. Even though party's image among public is important for all political parties, it is particularly important for the far right – these parties are new and need media to provide them with a platform to bring across their message. In order to be electorally successful, they need to be regarded as effective and legitimate and need voters to have a positive perception of them. The paper resumes the existing work on far right politics and research in the political communication with emphasis on distinctions between extreme right parties in the Western and Central Eastern Europe and continues with research questions, methods and data of the analysis. The paper proposes analytical framework for studying influence of the media on public's perception of the far right parties in CEE.
