Agnieszka Stępińska

Celem artykułu jest zaprezentowanie podstaw teoretycznych badań nad komunikowaniem politycznym, które w centrum swojego zainteresowania stawiają odbiorcę mediów informacyjnych. Punktem wyjścia rozważań są normatywne ujęcia postaw i zachowań obywateli w demokracji oraz koncepcja środowiska informacji politycznej. Ich połączenie pozwala na dwuwymiarowe ujęcie obywateli jako uczestników komunikowania politycznego: z jednej strony bowiem uwaga skierowana jest na oczekiwania wobec obywateli (użytkowników mediów), z drugiej zaś na ich potrzeby i oczekiwania wobec mediów jako źródeł informacji politycznej. Zestawienie tych dwóch perspektyw stanowić może także podstawy teoretyczne badań nad zjawiskami związanymi z korzystaniem z mediów przez obywateli, takimi jak unikanie informacji politycznej oraz selektywny dobór źródeł informacji politycznej

Citizens in Political Information Environment: Areas of Study and Methodological

The aim of this paper is to offer a theoretical background for studies on political communication that focus on the role of the audience in the flow of political messages. We start with normative models of democracy and their demands upon citizens and the concept of political information environment. By employing these two concepts, we are able to focus on two dimensions of citizens’ roles in political communication, that is expectations towards media users who are perceived here as citizens, as well as citizens’ expectations towards news media disseminating political information. A combination of the aforementioned concepts provides us with a theoretical background for studies on actual news media consumption and related phenomena, such as news avoidance and selective media exposure.

The aim of this paper is to recognize the factors limiting journalists’ sense of autonomy and affecting the level of their self-censorship during the last three decades of the post-transformation period. The issue will be addressed two-fold. First, we will analyze changes in the journalists’ perception on their professional autonomy. Second, we will examine trends in relations between the political system and media system in Poland since the 1990s. The findings show that in the 1990s journalists were still much more concerned about the political factors which could affect their work than about the economic ones. A decade later they had become much more aware of the economic pressures on their profession, such as owners’ expectations and market-driven journalism. In the last few years, however, the constant pressure of ongoing government reforms aimed at bringing the press under tighter political control, as well as the emphasis on ‘national’ content, has already led to some degree of self-censorship on the part of journalists.

The aim of this paper is to present and discuss theoretical background for media events studies that have been conducted since the 1980s. The paper collects all major perspectives and studies in order to provide a complete picture of a theoretical approach to research on the media events. First, the paper reviews concepts developed by E. Durkheim and so called neodurkheimists, including E. Rothenbuhler and W. Shils. These concepts provided the background and led to a deeper understanding and an explanation of symbolic dimensions of social relations, contemporary ceremonies, rituals (including political ones), and the role of the media in creating the social and political reality. One of Durkheim’s fundamental concepts distinguishing sacrum and profanum provided the background for a concept of media events developed by E. Katz and D. Dayan. While the classic version of this concept included just three main types of the media events (conquest, coronation, and contest), the more recent one is extended and includes six types. Based on the empirical studies conducted by T. Liebes, E. Rothenbuhler, and G. Weimann (to name just some of the scholars), three more types have been added, namely: coercion, disaster, and war. They share a disruptive character (instead if integrative one) and they describe relations between the organizers of an event, media organizations, and the audience in a different manner than the classic version of the concept. For this reason, the idea of including them into a classic concept seems to be criticized by some scholars, including E. Rothenbuhler. Instead, he proposes that a concept of ritual  communication as a broader frame for studies on media events should be used.

Professional values and attitudes of the Polish working and aspiring journalists

The aim of this paper is to present the conclusions drawn from a meta-analysis of the findings collected with surveys that have been conducted among Polish journalists since the 1970s. The paper focuses on the trends and shifts in the journalitists’ motivations and roles perception that have been occurring in the last four decades. The findings show that since the transformation period in the late 1989s and early 1990s, Polish journalists seem to be more individualistic and professional-oriented than social and altruist-oriented. The contemporary model of the Polish journalism built upon journalists’ declarations on the media roles is a combination of the news-provider and a forum of a broad spectrum of the political opinion presentation – oriented model, with a watchdog – style journalism. Traditional roles of the Polish journalists, such as education and motivation of the citizens, seem to be of the secondary importance for the media people today.