cejc vol4 no2 piontek1

8/13/2019 CEJC Vol4 No2 Piontek1

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Dorota Piontek

276 CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION 2 (2011)

unctions. Part o the discourse o politics is covered by the mass media, which in u-ences the communication activities o politicians and has dual receivers: direct (e.g.other politicians) and the media public. Te existence o the second receiver createsa tendency to shape politicians behavior. Political discourseis de ned as a discourseo symbolic elites including journalists, publicists, writers, scientists, clergymen, in-tellectuals, experts, businessmen and politicians who are present in the media. Allthese groups and individuals exercise direct control over publicly available knowl-edge, publicly legitimated opinions and the shape and content o public discourse.Political discourse then is a discourse o symbolic elites about political issues, whichis strongly connected with the media. It plays a special role in shaping a hierarchyo moral and ethical values (Czyewski. Kowalski & Piotrowski, 1997, p. 1019). Innews programs we nd a combination o political discourse and a discourse o pol-itics: politicians appear in their political roles, while the comments made by expertsand reporters can be viewed as a part o political discourse.

TABLOIDIZATION

abloidization is understood not only as a speci c style o journalism, but alsoas a speci c way o thinking about politics. As Frank Esser wrote, tabloidization asa micro scale process can be viewed as a media phenomenon involving the revisiono traditional and other media ormats driven by reader pre erences and commer-cial requirements . At this level it means a change in the range o topics beingcovered (more entertainment, less in ormation), in the orm o presentation ( ewerlonger stories, more shorter ones with pictures and illustrations) and a change inthe mode o address (more street talk when addressing readers) (Esser, 1999,p. 293). abloidization can be also understood as a macro scale process. In thissense it can be seen as a social phenomenon both instigating and symbolizingmajor changes to the constitution o society (signs being, or example, attaching lessimportance to education and more political marketing, resulting in an increase inpolitical alienation) (ibid.).

Tis understanding o tabloidization has a lot to do with news and its produc-

tion. At both levels, tabloidization takes place not only in the tabloid media, but inthe media or their programs devoted to in ormation about the most importantevents in politics, the economy or social li e. elevision, and especially its newsprograms, is a principle actor in the process o the social education o well-in-

ormed, active, responsible citizens. Tere are several interesting connectionsamong various, but interdependent processes. Te mutual relationship between themedia and politicians has created a new type o politician oriented towards electiongoals, not to an ideologically stated process o solving social problems. Politicalprograms traditionally understood as being based on an ideology have been re-

placed by the personality o the politician and his/her ability to attract the attentiono the media and audience. Te media are used by politicians to impress voters, and


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The tabloidization of political discourse

CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION 2 (2011) 277

politicians are used by the media to attract readers or viewers. Commercializationo the media, both private and public, has meant they have to struggle or the atten-tion o people who are not really interested in serious discussion. abloidizationthus seems to be a quite natural consequence o that coincidence.

Te discussion on the tabloidization o both media and political discourse ap-plies to the quality media which traditionally have been seen as opposite to thetabloid press. In line with Howard Kurtzs opinion, it can be accepted that tabloidi-zation takes place when three tendencies occur in the quality media: an overalldecrease in journalistic standards; a decrease in hard news such as politics andeconomics and an increase in sof news such as sleaze, scandal, sensation and en-tertainment; a general change (or broadening) o the medias de nition o what theythink the voters need to know to evaluate a persons tness or public offi ce (Kurtz,1993, p. 143147).

According to Sparks and ulloch, studies on the tabloid press and broadcastinghave brought our important dimensions to discussion o their social importance.At rst, scholarly studies can assist in identi ying and de ning the problem atstake (Sparks & ulloch, 2000, p. 2). Tere is still a problem whether all mani esta-tions o privacy in the public sphere can be labeled by the term.

Secondly, the phenomenon is not uniquely American, so it can be better under-stood by comparing it with similar media in other countries (ibid.). Media land-scapes are different in different countries, obviously, and this may cause some prob-lems when comparing them. But on the other hand, tabloidization means global

ormats and local content (Conboy, 2006, p. 207). Tere is, then, a common plat-orm or making some comparisons.

Te third dimension indicated by Sparks and ulloch is the necessity o lookingat tabloidization rom a historical perspective. Te terms tabloid television andtabloidization do not mean the same. While it is not diffi cult to note the existenceo the ormer, the changes leading to the latter have to be investigated. And a ourthdimension to the discussion o the social meaning o a tabloid media is controversyabout their in uence on democracy. Most scholars see threats, although there aresome opposing voices who see no harm, and even much good in their activities.

In Frank Essers opinion, the process o tabloidization is not internationally uni-orm and takes place under speci c cultural and historical conditions (Esser, 1999,p. 293). Te interesting thing, though, would be to observe whether the process isnot uni orm in identical cultural and historical conditions, and that was the reasonto compare at a very basic level two news programs offered by broadcasters odifferent status: public and commercial.

CONTENT ANALYSIS OFFAKTY TVN ANDWIADOMO CI TVP1

Te rst examples o the tabloidization o news in Poland were seen in a tabloidnewspaper that appeared in 2003. Based on the German Bild , Fakt has inaugurated


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changes in journalistic standards o newspapers and weeklies. Some changes intelevision news were introduced by Fakty VN, which started in 1997. But the realimpact on standards o news was exercised by the rst 24 hour commercial newschannel VN24 (2001). Te issue o the tabloidization o news, which has beenobserved since the beginning o the 21st century, has not been studied in Polandyet, although an outset has been made (Piontek, 2009).

o observe the phenomenon o tabloidization o news programs o the com-mercial broadcaster, VN, and o the public broadcaster, VP1, 14 editions o eachnews program were analyzed and compared. Te material was collected over twoperiods in order to determine whether one can actually speak about a long-termtendency. Te programs under analysis were broadcast between February 915,2009 and February 1925, 2010. Te weeks chosen to collect research material wererandomly selected so it can be assumed that the programs presented were typical othe everyday practice o both editorial teams. Te only event that could signi -cantly affect the content o the news releases in 2010 was the Winter Olympic Gamestaking place at that time.

McLachlan and Golding (2000) proposed to examine tabloidization using ourlevels o analysis: range, orm, mode o address, and market structure.Range isoperationalized by various areas o coverage, in terms o topics and actors. Formmeans elements o ormats that can be calibrated, like easily understood illustra-tions, schemes, pictures, simple vocabulary, syntax, and presentation. Mode o ad-dressapplies to the way a journalist addresses both the audience and actors o cover-age. Te more in ormal and quasi-personal the style is, the more tabloid-like thenews program is. Finally, market structure as a result o some systemic changes,especially political and economic, has much to do with phenomena taking place innews outlets. All these suggestions were taken into account while preparing theresearch. According to the commonly accepted de nitions and perspectives o tab-loidization presented above, it has been assumed that the ollowing criteria willtesti y whether the news programs have undergone tabloidization: less hard newsand more sof news (Kurtz, 1993; Patterson, 2000), more average people and lesswell known personalities in coverage (Sparks, 2000), more domestic events and

less oreign ones (McLachlan & Golding, 2000; Conboy, 2006), more time or sofnews and less time or hard news (Kurtz, 1993; Esser, 1999; Patterson, 2000; Sparks,2000), and orm more important than the content (McLachlan & Golding, 2000).

Each edition o Fakty and Wiadomoci was divided into separate items (Piontek,2009, p. 351366). Each item was a single story and was categorized using ve di -

erent variables: theme, type o in ormation, actor, location and duration.Fakty VN is the only news program on commercial station VN, and has been

broadcast since 1997 at 7.00 pm. It was created on the patterns o American televi-sion news and has very quickly become the most innovative, both in terms o tech-

nological and journalistic standards, program o its kind in Poland. Its journalistshave requently received awards rom both industry pro essionals and viewers.


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Wiadomoci is the main news program o the main public television channel. It hasthe longest tradition, because it has been broadcast since 1956 (under different ti-tles) at the same time: 7.30 pm. It is still the most popular news program in theevening slot, although it seldom happens that Fakty takes rst position. Te actualrates o AMR (average minute rating) and (SHR) shares o Polish news programsare shown in able 1.

able 1. AMR and SHR o Fakty and Wiadomoci in a given period

AMR [mln]February 2010

SHR [%]February 2010

Fakty VN 4,522,441 32%

Wiadomoci VP1 4,469,610 29.6%

Source: SMG/KRC, February 2010, at: www.wirtualnemedia.pl. Retrieved 15 April 2010.

VARIABLES OF TABLOIDIZATION

Te theme o an item was de ned as the main topic/subject o the reported story.Temes were listed in the ollowing order: politics, economy, social issues, humaninterest, sensation (accidents and crime), popular culture and entertainment, andsport. Te social issues category related to stories which were interesting and im-

portant to the general public, and human interest stories ocused on the stories,deeds and problems o ordinary individuals with little attachment to the public.

Te themes de ned as above, determined the type o news. A distinction wasmade between hard news and sof news, which is common practice. Te rst othese related to events o systemic signi cance, mainly rom the political and eco-nomic areas. Te second type o news consists o entertainment, accidents, sport,popular culture and problems o human interest. One should still note that notevery piece o in ormation rom the political or economic realm was de ned ashard; there were several cases when the two types o news appeared, joined up or

twinned, in one item covering politics. Te assumption was made that a dominanceo sof over hard news would indicate tabloidization.Actors appearing in an item, i.e. the participants in the reported events were

taken as a second dimension o tabloidization. Tey were grouped in the ollowingcategories: politicians (o different levels), experts, offi cials (individuals acting inthe name o organs o administration, social organizations; lawyers, police offi cers,civil servants, teachers), journalists working or media organizations other than

VN and VP (basically acting as experts), ordinary people and celebrities ( gureswell known because o their media presence: actors, sportsmen, others). Te more

requent appearance o actors o lesser importance than so called serious actors(politicians, experts) would suggest tabloidization.


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Te third dimension was attached to location, understood as the place wherea reported event occurred. A distinction was made between national and interna-tional (outside the country) locations depending on the main ocus o the story.Dominance o domestic events would be a determinant o tabloidization o news.

Te last dimension concerned the time spent on reporting an event. In the com-mon perception there is a correlation between the time devoted to a story and itssystemic importance (a longer time means greater seriousness). However, afer anexamination o the production techniques used in news programs this convictionseemed controversial. One needs to distinguish between, lets say, the objective orsystemic signi cance o a particular event and the signi cance given to it by themedia. In such a situation it is the length o time combined with the hard or sofcharacter o an event that decides on tabloidization and this dependence can beexpressed as the ollowing: the more time given to sof news the stronger the ten-dency to tabloidize the news program.

Te aim o the study presented in this article was to answer two research ques-tions and con rm one hypothesis:

RQ1. Is the process o tabloidization o news programs occurring irrespective othe status o the broadcaster?

RQ2. Does tabloidization o news programs in uence the discourse o politics?Te hypothesis arises as a result o an existence o connections between how

politics is covered and how the discourse is conducted. Political coverage is a veryimportant part o both political discourse and discourse o politics. Te term tab-loidization o political discourse is sometimes used, but is understood intuitively.I would argue that tabloidization o political discourse means its personalization,

ocus on current political affairs, raming politics as a con ict, overdramatizationand ragmentation o political events, and media use o politics as a tool o attract-ing audiences. Te general change in journalistic standards, which is at the core otabloidization, applies to all news, political included. Con rmation o the hypoth-esis will open a space or urther, more detailed analysis and the basis o a greaterempirical material research.

HP. abloidization o news programs affects tabloidization o political discourse.

RESULTS

Themes

Te structure o themes covered by the Fakty and Wiadomoci news editions wasessentially similar. Political news predominated, although it can be seen in bothcases that there was even more politics in 2009 (Fig. 1). Te most important newsprograms continue to be strongly politically oriented and to some extent also po-

litically committed.


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Figure 1. Te distribution o themes in Fakty and Wiadomoci 2009 and 2010Source: author.

While there was little interest in the economy, most materials were devoted to or-dinary people and social issues. Te number o the latter was signi cantly higher inWiadomoci in 2010 when compared to 2009. Te number o releases concerningsports events was signi cantly higher than in 2009, which ollowed rom the actthat the Olympic Games were being held in February 2010 and the Polish team wasrelatively success ul. Issues concerning pop culture were relatively sporadic in bothnews programs and tended to concern such signi cant events as an award beinggranted to a Polish director at an international lm estival, or the death o a prom-inent actor. Both editorial teams showed certain differentiation in their interestswhich was exempli ed by the sequence o pre erred topics as well as by the lengtho time devoted to different topics. Politics and social matters clearly dominated inFakty, whereas Wiadomoci tended to handle the problems o ordinary peopleslightly more requently, ollowed by politics and social issues. Neither programused accidents to shock the audience as each concentrated only on truly tragic

events (e.g. the afermath o the Haiti earthquake or the ood in Madeira in Febru-ary 2010).

It is usually assumed that hard news concerns political and economic events.However, it sometimes turns out that the news rom these two realms are actuallysof when they do not concern a political or economic process but rather the hu-man nature o the participants in the events, which is o little signi cance rom thepoint o view o the political system. So it was not the area o social li e but ratherthe theme and the manner o its presentation that determined whether the newsitem was classi ed as hard or sof. able 2 demonstrates the proportions between

sof and hard news items in both programs.


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able 2. Te proportion o sof and hard news in Fakty and Wiadomoci in 2009 and 2010 [%]

Fakty 09 Fakty 10 Wiadomo ci 09 Wiadomo ci 10

Sof news 68 71,4 55 78,4

Hard news 32 28,6 45 21,6

Source: author.

Comparison o the gures demonstrates a striking change that occurred inWiadomoci. Te proportions o sof and hard news in public V were clearly morebalanced in 2009 than in 2010. One can observe that not only did public televisionadopt a balance which approximates that o its commercial competitor, but it alsowidened the gap between sof and hard news. Tis is surprising inasmuch as a pub-lic broadcaster is obliged to in orm about offi cial events, such as the meetings,speeches, or press con erences o prominent politicians, even i these events are notparticularly signi cant or interesting. One o the ways to explain this differencebetween 2010 and 2009 is the appointment o a new head o Wiadomoci, and hisconcept o the ormat o the program, which was to de end the editors rom accusa-tions o sympathy towards the political party then in opposition. Te upcomingpresidential elections are going to change this balance, however, the more so aspublic television is treated in Poland as a signi cant instrument in political struggle,and its managers are party nominees. Tere is, o course, a more general explana-

tion o diminishing differences between public and commercial broadcasters interms o proportion between hard and sof news. What McLachlan and Goldingwrote about the British case (2000, p. 88) is also true or the discussed case. It isrelated rather to a broader shif in the political economy o the communicationsand in ormation industry than to a transient loss o pro essional direction in one oits occupational spheres . Despite the status o broadcasters they all ght or thesame audience.

Actors

Figure 2 shows the actors in the events covered by the media. In both programs theyprimarily involve politicians, ordinary people, offi cials and experts. It can also benoted that signi cant changes pertained to the public broadcaster when comparing2009 and 2010. Over the period under analysis the number o politicians and ex-perts present in the news signi cantly decreased in avor o ordinary people. Ordi-nary people also tended to appear in Fakty more requently. Te more requentpresence o celebrities, mainly sports people, in 2010 primarily resulted rom theirsuccesses at the Olympic Games rather than rom a planned strategy. Tere were no

celebrities in the programs o either station on days when Polish sports people didnot take part in competition. Te insigni cant presence o celebrities among the


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overall number o actors is likely to result rom the act that their role is being as-sumed by politicians (Boorstin, 1964; Marshall, 1997; West & Orman, 2002; Street,2004), who thus ul l the viewers need to see amous aces. Additionally, the broad-casters try to maintain certain standards, which still differentiate news programs

rom gossip and sensation.

Figure 2. Te distribution o actors in Fakty and Wiadomoci 2009 and 2010Source: author.

Journalists rom programs other than those examined were in effect assumingthe role o experts. Politicians usually took part in news items concerning currentpolitical events, whereas offi cials appeared in the stories o ordinary people and initems concerning social issues. Te number o actors in the news items examined isso enormous because the reporters tend to quote very short and requently orth-right statements o the participants or witnesses to the events. In the case o politi-cians their statements are requently inserted as soundbites.

Location

Over the analyzed period, both Wiadomoci and Fakty ocused on domestic eventsscarcely paying attention to events abroad (Fig. 3). Te majority o oreign events werestrongly related to domestic matters anyway. In 2009 the news rom abroad wasdominated by the abduction o a Polish engineer in A ghanistan, and in 2010 by thewinter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Internal, local, more interesting and under-standable matters that were more important or the viewers clearly prevailed. How-ever, the events taking place abroad, particularly those potentially signi cant or

Poles (e.g. in A ghanistan where Polish troops are involved, or in the EuropeanUnion) were extensively and comprehensively presented.


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Figure 3. Te distribution of location of issues covered in Faktyand Wiadomoci 2009 and 2010Source: author.

Time

Whether in Fakty or Wiadomoci, the prevailing number o items was o 23 min-utes duration, although items in excess o 3 minutes were more requent in Fakty .Tey usually concerned social and political matters. In 2010 the category o longeritems (ranging rom two to three minutes) was clearly predominated by sof newsin both programs, whereas in 2009 the time devoted to sof news in Wiadomoci was only marginally longer. Tis allocation o time resulted in different numbers onews items being covered by both programs: the average item number or Fakty amounted to nine in the analyzed period, and eleven or Wiadomoci, covered overa comparable program length (twenty- ve minutes on average).

Te above data clearly testi es to the tabloidization process occurring in bothexamined in ormation programs. Both Fakty and Wiadomoci mainly broadcastsof news, yet the change made by Wiadomoci in 2010 is enormous when com-

pared to 2009. It appears to indicate that the process o news program tabloidizationis progressing aster in public television. Further evidence or this is its decreasinginterest in politics and increased attention paid to the matters o ordinary people.Tis dynamic can however be accounted or by the requirements o competitive-ness. Wiadomoci, which used to be extremely popular and dominated the in orma-tion market, was based on the traditional orms o journalism that separated in or-mation rom entertainment. It could be said that it applied the ormula o the 1980suntil its commercial competitor emerged. Since its very beginning, Fakty was anelement o VNs marketing strategy, and it was expected to bring pro ts by attract-

ing a huge and commercially attractive audience. As Wiadomoci is losing its view-ers to a large extent to Fakty , it is trans orming its content and way o presentation


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o events and assuming the standards o popular journalism in doing so. Polishtelevision programs concentrate on domestic matters, which is yet another criteriono tabloidization, alongside the manner o narration.

Te language applied by the journalists in both programs examined was signi -cantly less ormal than in the past, which is con rmed by observation rather thandirect statistical analysis. 1 Journalists requently used words that were emotionallycharged and implied assessments o the events or their participants (e.g. atrociouscrime, surprising behavior, unnatural mother, victim o incompetence, etc.). Tey didnot re rain rom colloquial expressions which customarily are not a part o ormallanguage (e.g. be buddies, kick somebody outinstead o dismiss, not to handle some-body with kid gloves). Colloquial and emotionally charged language was usuallyemployed when the journalists passed judgments in con rontations between ordi-nary people and politicians or various offi cials. Te journalists were clearly on theside o the ordinary people, which is typical o a tabloid type o journalism. Te journalists rom Fakty were much more ironic in their comments on events thantheir counterparts rom Wiadomoci.2

In each program every news item bore a heading which was supposed to intro-duce the main theme o the item but also to intrigue the viewers and attract theirattention. It happened sometimes (more requently in Fakty ) that the content o thenews did not correspond to what its heading had suggested, thus a conclusion canbe drawn that the unction o the headings is more commercial. Te reporters con-cluded a majority (or nearly all o them, as was the case in Fakty ) o the items witha piece to camera which rounded the story up and also suggested an interpretationo the events. Tey tended to overdramatize the situations, events or decisions andto present them as more controversial than they actually were. Sometimes onecould get the impression that the orm o presentation was as important as the con-tent itsel , which was particularly true or the commercial station whose journalistsused jokes, plays on words or re erences to pop culture.

Te above results and observations allow us to answer the rst question posedand con rm that in ormation programs are undergoing tabloidization regardless othe broadcasters status.

Political discourse

abloidization o the in ormation media, which by their nature actively participatein political discourse, has to in uence the discourse itsel . Political items were ana-lyzed once more to see whether the tabloidization process o the media producedthe same tendency in the discourse o politics. A political item is understood as one

1 Research into the linguistic style present in in ormation programs based on a quantitative anal-ysis o their content is planned in the near uture.

2 Analiza dziennikw in ormacyjnych Wiadomoci, Panorama, Wydarzenia, Fakty . Grudzie

2009. Press Service, Monitoring mediw 2009.


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ocused on political issues, connected with the political process and involving poli-ticians. It is usually treated as hard news, although the division between hard andsof news is not necessarily connected with the issue, but with the way it is reported,or with the aspects which are discussed. o collect the data required to describe theelements o discourse the ollowing variables were used: political actors rulingand opposition politicians, actors position (leading vs. supportive), the object oa politicians statement (issue vs. personal), the themes o statements including pol-itics, economy, security or international issues, and non political actors: experts,ordinary people, journalists, offi cials.

Te tabloidization o political discourse in in ormation programs is assumedto be indicated by the ollowing criteria: an increasing number o politicians ap-pearing in journalistic materials, concentration on the leaders as persons (person-alization) rather than as leaders o an ideology or a political plat orm, prevalence opoliticians speaking about other politicians instead o addressing problems, anda decreasing number o experts in journalist materials.

In the analyzed period o 2009 seven editions o Fakty and Wiadomoci eachbroadcast 23 and 19 political news items respectively, whereas in 2010 the respec-tive numbers were 19 and 17.

Political actors

Ruling politicians were understood as those who represented the government andthe parliamentary opposition as well as those outside Parliament. Te Polish Presi-dent was included among the latter. 3 Te numbers concerning non-parliamentaryopposition are thus related to the President, whose presence in the news, and con-sequently in the discourse, was not excessive. Te reasons or that were complex andgo ar beyond this paper.

Politicians positions depend on their ability to make or to signi cantly in uencethe decisions that are important or the political process. Prominent politiciansinclude the leaders o the main political parties and the President. Being a leader ishighly correlated with media presence. Backstage politicians involve prominent

members o the main political parties, or outsiders with personal authority butwithout a strong political background. Te ormer are usually not independent intheir opinions, and they express a view worked out by the leaders.

It can be seen in Figure 4 that with the exception o Wiadomoci in 2010, jour-nalist reports were dominated by politicians rom the governing coalition: the rep-resentatives o the government and parliamentary coalition. Whereas this preva-

3 Political positions were determined or Polish politicians. During the time o the survey, presi-dential offi ce was held by Lech Kaczyski, who died in a plane crash in April 2010. Despite constitu-tional provisions or the political neutrality o the presidential offi ce, Kaczyski clearly supported the

largest opposition party, whose leader happened to be the twin brother o the President. Te Presi-dents clear partisanship ormed the reason or classi ying him as an opposition politician.


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lence was quite signi cant in Fakty , Wiadomoci showed politicians rom theopposition in Parliament and outside Parliament much more requently than itscompetitor.

Figure 4. Te number o representatives o ruling, parliamentary opposition and oppositionin Fakty and Wiadomoci 2009 and 2010

Source: author.

Tis is a consequence o the previously mentioned reasons or the political in- volvement o public media. Tey are supervised by a management appointed withthe approval o opposition politicians who are closely related to the President, andare supposed to ul l certain political tasks in creating the news. It is both naturaland necessary that the media primarily present the politicians currently in pow-er and those opposition members who play a signi cant part in the political pro-cess. However, a certain imbalance in the presence o these two groups can be noted,which could suggest that the media have abandoned the principle o air representa-tion o both parties (ruling and opposition) involved in the political discourse,which is particularly the case o journalists in Fakty. Yet the more balanced presenceo politicians o either party inWiadomoci does not ollow rom the journalistsgreater diligence but rather rom using the in ormation program or propagandaand promotional purposes.

News items devoted to politics in both programs, particularly in Fakty , pre-sented numerous statements by politicians. Tese statements were not made exclu-sively or a given in ormation program, but were recorded by journalists in thecourse o the day. Te time devoted to political news is shortening, but the number


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o politicians who take part in these items is not alling, which means that the timeor individual statements is getting shorter. Te consequence is the ragmentation

and decontextualization o politicians statements and opinions. It is the journalistwho actually creates the way in which an event is presented as he/she selects andcollates the collected materials.

In the analyzed periods Fakty quoted a noticeably larger number o politiciansstatements. Te standard structure o a news item involved the anchors introduc-tion to the topic, passing it on to the reporter, who was requently a kind o a bro-ker o in ormation (Donsbach, Patterson, 2004, p. 261), or rather o politiciansopinions. In principle, the reporter collates the statements he/she has gathered andconcludes on them in the roundup made in ront o the camera. What is much more

requent in Wiadomoci is that the journalist collects and edits materials that involve politicians and relates the event off-screen presenting it in a certain manner.Tere ore the number o politicians quoted is smaller. It should also be noted thatall these quoted opinions are actually delivered by the twenty to thirty most prom-inent politicians. Tese are the political leaders or individuals appointed by theparties (not to be con used with press spokesmen) to present the standpoints devel-oped by the leaders or the tight circles that run a partys everyday activities. First-rank politicians were quoted less requently than in 2009 (Fig. 5). Tis is the conse-quence o a communication strategy adopted by political parties to protect leadersimages in diffi cult times (economic crisis) and not to assign too much importanceto everyday political events by providing them with commentaries rom the leaders.Polish politics is highly con icted, politicians are oriented to ght rather than co-operate when solving social problems, and they also ll public debate with per-

Figure 5. Te number o quotations o leading and backstages politicians in Fakty and Wia-domoci 2009 and 2010

Source: author.


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sonal emotions and animosities. Politicians hold a belie , which is ully con rmedby the experience o recent years, that the excessive presence o leaders in the mediaresults in their decreased ranking in terms o popularity as public opinion perceivesthem to be embroiled in current disputes. Polish voters, like oreign ones, liketo support a heated political game but they do not like to take part in it. Te journal-ists rom both programs can be described as active, yet those rom Fakty are closerto the active-neutral type, whereas those rom Wiadomoci are more o an active-advocate type (Donsbach, Patterson, 2004, p. 266).

Objects of statements

Te analyzed in ormation programs observed the principle that nothing is moreattractive to viewers than con ict, and they emphasized those statements by politi-cians which were personal in nature (Fig. 6). Te personal nature o a statementmeans that it concerns the intentions, motivations and personalities o other politi-cians (habitually o political opponents), or polemicizes with their opinions. Tispolemic does not pertain to the content, but undermines, or even questions, theopponents ability to make an accurate judgment o reality.

Figure 6. Te objects o politicians statements o themes in Fakty and Wiadomoci 2009and 2010

Source: author.

Fakty illustrates the change in the selection o quoted statements particularlywell. In contrast to the public broadcaster, in 2009 its editorial staff primarilyquoted statements concentrating on the issues o current politics. In 2010 theimbalance between statements concerning personal remarks and those concern-


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ing subject matter increased overwhelmingly in avor o the ormer, which is par-ticularly observable in Wiadomoci. Once again, in the case o the public broad-caster this is a consequence o the changes made in the management board andgreater than usual embroilment in the election struggle as two important electioncampaigns are to take place in 2010: the presidential and local government cam-paigns.

I politicians do express their opinions on issues, they usually address a currentdecision-making process or present events. Politicians re er to international a -

airs only i they are related to the current political struggle.Comparing the two analyzed periods we can observe a decrease in the number

o (exclusively male) experts commenting on current events, or rather on politi-cians behavior. Such comments were always a part o longer statements, whichmight suggest that the journalists selected those ragments that suited their takeon a news item. Te number o ordinary people in the political news was differentin the two programs (they were more present in Fakty ). Teir presence usually justi ed (explained) a journalists interest in a given topic.

CONCLUSION

Te processes that were identi ed as indicators o the tabloidization o politicaldiscourse in both the examined in ormation programs were present to an extentwhich allows us to affi rmatively answer the second research question, namelywhether the tabloidization o in ormation programs affects the manner in whichthey conduct the discourse and its content. It can be interpreted in the ollowingmanner: the process o in ormation programs assuming the eatures o tabloidsresults in long-term socio-political changes. Tere is a change in the discourse opolitics employed by the politicians, who nd it important to be in the media andare there ore willing to behave so that they are attractive to the media; politicaldiscourse changes because journalists mainly concentrate on politicians behaviorrather than on their political plat orms. Te hypothesis that tabloidization o newsprograms affects tabloidization o political discourse was con rmed.

Kaid et al. writes that political reality can be perceived as a set o three catego-ries. Firstly, there exists an objective political reality composed o political eventsas they actually are. Secondly, there exists a subjective reality, that is, politicalevents as perceived by their participants and observers (political actors and citi-zens). Tirdly, there exists a constructed reality, that is the reality as describedby the media (Kaid, Gerstl & Sanders, 1991, p. 1216). Citizens perceive realitysubjectively, ollowing its description by the media. In the examined Polish in or-mation programs the discourse o politics and political discourse was conductedby male politicians, commented on by male experts and ocused on current, do-

mestic events; it was super cial and abounded in personal re erences.


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I we were to reconstruct media political reality, this is what it would look like:politics has a personal dimension, concerning individuals and their mutual rela-tions rather than the issues and decisions pertaining to the system. Politics is inprinciple a closed circle and mainly present in Warsaw, the viewers citizens, takepart in it only as judges or supporters. Politicians do not get involved in discussionson complex issues, they do not explain the circumstances o diffi cult decisions, andinstead they quarrel about the issues that are understandable or the citizens, but areo little importance or their everyday li e. Te politicians present in the in orma-tion programs seem to be sel -suffi cient to the effect that they do not need othersto have a good time and others do not need them to live. Journalists are the onlyexception here, although they are less and less interested in reporting politics ina traditional manner.

Personalization, ocusing on personal con ict, predominance o domestic poli-tics, ragmentation and decontextualization, overdramatization o ordinary events,the analysis o emotions rather than events and the emphasis o differences betweenpoliticians are the eatures o leading Polish in ormation programs. Te progressingtabloidization process o these ormats clearly in uences the manner in which theystimulate and conduct political discourse regardless o whether they are createdby a public or commercial broadcaster.

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Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 251270.Esser, F. (1999). abloidization o news. A comparative analysis o Anglo-American and Germanpress journalism. European Journal o Communication, 14(3), pp. 291324.

Kaid, L.L., Gerstl, J., Sanders, K.R. (eds.) (1991). Mediated Politics in wo Cultures: PresidentialCampaigning in the United States and France . New York: Praeger.

Kurtz, H. (1993). Media Circus Te rouble with Americas Newspapers. New York: RandomHouse.

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Patterson, T.E. (2000). Doing Well and Doing Good: How Sof News and Critical Journalism AreShrinking the News Audience and Weakening Democracy and What News Outlets Can Do About It , Boston: Harvard University Press.

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