Press/media in Poland
- Details
- Created on Wednesday, 27 January 2016 11:36
- Written by germany
ERASMUS + ALZEY 19/01/2016 – 23/01/2016
POLAND
OUR OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING THE LOCAL MEDIA IN ELBLĄG
The local media are responsible for local matters about the city of Elbląg, the region and the whole province. Officially, there is no pressure exerted on them, even though, sometimes local decision-makers or business people try to make their claims and hold grudges against the media or particular journalists. However, it doesn't affect publishing the news. World affairs and politics appears in the media with the same frequency as it affects the citizens. It means that the local media deal with home or foreign politics when people are talking about it, e.g. when they are going to work or in conversations with friends.
Today the media seem to be serving the viewers or listeners, which means they publish things that the recipient wants to hear, read or see. The national media are currently heavily divided as far as political views are concerned. We have a strong representation of right-wing media, for example Weekly "ABC" and "in Network" or Radio Maryja - which favour only one political option. Now, as the radical right-wing party is in power, it seems that the politicians are taking over the public media such as Polish Television or Polish Radio. It bears a serious fear that they are not going to be objective and will serve the ruling team. It is connected with, for example, the time when particular politicians are on camera.
Another observation is that nowadays all the media have taboidising, which means they go in the direction of gossip newspapers - the scandals are what counts -because they are marketable . Fortunately, it doesn’t concern all the media. There are also opinion-forming weeklies, TV and radio channels, some of them thematic e.g. TVP History or TVP Culture, which try to be objective and not so politics-oriented.
Our conclusion is that the media will be changing along with their recipients. Information in the modern society is just commodity – it must sell and it will sell as long as there will be a buyer. We believe that a way to keep the media free and independent is to keep the proper proportions and the time on camera so that each issue has is treated equally in that matter and the society is not fed with gossip or low-quality programmes.