„Cóż tam, panie, w polityce?”. Czyli o wzajemnym postrzeganiu dziennikarzy i polityków w mediach

Abstract

The following monograph constitutes the outcome of a research project entitled The relationship between the media and political elites in the context of the German experience, financed by the National Science Centre (OPUS 10, no. UMO -2015/19/B/HS5/00429). The authors present the findings of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the content of four newspapers: Newsweek Polska, Wprost, Polityka and Do Rzeczy. The articles were published in 2015, in the year of the presidential and parliamentary elections, and a time of a dynamic and multidimensional political discourse. The analysis is based on eleven thousand pieces published in the aforementioned newspapers. The main research aim of this study was to showcase the connections established between the media and the political elites on the pages of those four weekly newspapers. The assessment of the mutual relationships between the world of media and the world of politics constitutes, therefore, the core of the monograph. Other important elements include the debate regarding the sympathies and antipathies showcased in the research material as well as the search for an answer concerning the degree of bias present among the various editorial teams and the way that bias manifests itself. The authors attempt to indicate the trends present in Polish journalism as well as the characteristics of Polish opinion journalism. Moreover, they present opinions of politicians regarding the role of the mass media and their ultimate impact on the shape of the current political climate as well as the existing political processes. As a result, the authors arrive at a study which constitutes a diagnosis of Polish opinion journalism which aims to point out its specific characteristics, utilizing the already existing framework comprising of various theories of mass communication pertaining to the relationship between the world of politics and the world of media. The authors introduce a new concept of “biased silence,” characteristic of Polish opinion journalism. The research findings allow to present the general characteristics of the journalistic practice and showcase the differences between the analyzed newspapers in the way they present opinions on the world of politics and the way political bias manifests in their pieces, as well as demonstrate the formal and generic aspects of the given types of journalism they pursue. Moreover, content analysis of the research material can also serve as a starting point for further research on the state of Polish journalism, aimed towards the analysis of the attitudes of politicians and journalists themselves, as well as their relationships and the assessment of the quality of those relationships.