The faces of the Polish political parties on the

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See more: J. Strelau, D. Doliński, Psychologia, Gdańskie Wydawnictwo ... 339–340. 10 E. Aronson, T. Wilson, R. Akert, Psychologia społeczna. Serce i umysł.
AGNIESZKA TURSKA-KAWA

The faces of the Polish political parties on the Internet in the context of the campaign for the European Parliament in 2009.

T

he successes of the Internet-supported political campaigns contributed to the fact that the web has become a valuable tool of political marketing, which should not be disregarded in the electoral campaigns. The Internet turned out to be a legitimate informational media, whereas the growing number of recipients of messages makes it increasingly more interesting for the political entities. Studies show that 48% of Poles above 15 years of age uses the Internet. Three fourth of them does it every day or almost every day1. The access to the Internet in the households grew from 16.9% in 2003 to 51.4% in 2009, whereby within the last two years this number grew rapidly. It is worth mentioning, that the definite majority of the home Internet users connects to it via a broadband connection2. The users and non-users of the web are significantly different from one another as far as the social & demographic variables are concerned. Dominik Batorski even states that we may actually say that at this moment we have two Polands. One of them is modern, young, well-educated, whereas the second one is traditional, poorly educated and poorly adjusted to the present times3. Significant differences can also be noticed in respect of their interest in politics. The results of the research which was performed at the beginning of 2009 prove that the internauts show a higher interest in politics than the people which do not use the Internet. In every age group, the internauts declare their big interest in the political scene at least two times more frequently. The web users underline their political activity – most of them are of the opinion that they would surely participate in the elections to the Seym and the Senate if they were held in the nearest time. The differences between the users and non-users of the Internet can also be noticed in their party preferences. Among the internauts in general almost one third supports Platforma Obywatelska, one tenth supports Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, whereas Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej and Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe have the fewest supporters. However, if we take into account only the answers of the people which declared their participation in the possible parliamentary elections, then it turns out that more than half of the internauts supports PO, whereas the remaining parties enjoy a far smaller popularity. Among the non-users of the web, the support for PO is half as high as in case of the internauts, whereas in both groups the remaining parties achieve similar results. Despite this, the non-users of the Internet also regard PO as the first party, however in this group the differences between the leader and the other groups are significantly smaller. The research shows that the internauts have a more favourable 1

48% of Poles at the age of 15+ uses the Internet (NetTrack XII 08 – II 09), report of InterStats.pl. http://www.internetstats. pl/index.php/2009/04/48-polakow-w-wieku-15-korzysta-z-internetu-nettrack-xii-08-ii-09/ (accessed on: 18th July 2009). 2 Diagnoza społeczna 2009. Warunki i jakość życia Polaków, J. Czapiński, T. Panek (red.), Rada Monitoringu Społecznego, Warszawa 2009, s. 288. 3 Ibidem, p. 289.

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attitude to the achievements of the government of Donald Tusk and a worse attitude towards the activity of the President of the Republic of Poland than the non-users of the Internet4. The web may constitute a medium that provides political or, in the strict sense, electoral information to its users. During the last seven days before the research which was performed in 2009, 25% of the web users obtained information from the Internet sites of public institutions, 29% of them read the electronic versions of the newspapers, 71% viewed the www sites5. The manner of presentation of the political information depends to a large extent from the journalists – whether they maintain the canons of content reliability or maybe, through various operations, present the ‘expected social & political reality’? The bias in presentation of the publications most frequently functions in three areas: the selection of contents, the manner of their presentation and the allocation of time for a given message. The selection of materials which are intended for distribution is associated above all with the decision about a specific piece of information which is supposed to be put in a given news bulletin and elimination of the one which shall not be passed to public circulation. It is difficult to estimate the determinants of the mechanisms that are related to the selection or definitely specify its functioning and scale, because this activity is to a large extent editorial in nature. Dan Berkowitz, when trying to estimate the factors which have an impact on the selection of information, stated that the main aspects which were taken into account by the gatekeepers, included: the freshness of information (r = 0.36) as well as its predictable importance for the recipients (r = 0.22)6. In other studies of this author, it turned out that the most significant selection criterion was the evaluation of the attractiveness of the news (r = 0.46)7. Another phenomenon, which is related to the selection of materials in media, is the creation of interpretive frames. This is a manner of content presentation which is associated with the formation of a specific guiding axis, with a peculiar presentation of the individual issues and with presentation of a problem from a certain perspective. Wojciech Cwalina and Andrzej Falkowski quote the opinion of Holli Semetko and Patti Valkenburg: the adoption of a specific perspective results in changes in the judgements about a given problem, which are evoked by a subtle differentiation of its definition. In other words, as a consequence some attributes of an object or of an event become more underlined in the message, and thus activate a certain manner of their interpretation and lead to their inclusion in the evaluation process8. The presentation of materials refers to the external features of the account which is passed to the public opinion through the media. Some distortions in this area may refer to the tendency to present the candidates, which are preferred by a certain editorial profile or journalists, in a more favourable light, to devote more time to them and to place the content in the key places within a given medium. These actions find their justification in the psychological phenomenon called the exposure effect which was described by Robert B. Zajonc. This effect states that the more frequently a given object is exposed, the more it is liked9. In case of the Internet, it is necessary to 4

Announcement of CBOS BS/33/2009. The portrait of an Internaut. Diagnoza społeczna 2009… op.cit., s. 308. 6 D. Berkowitz, Refining the gatekeeping metaphor for local television news. ‘Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media’, 34(1), 1990, pages. 55–68. After: W. Cwalina, A. Falkowski, Marketing polityczny. Perspektywa psychologiczna, Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne, Gdańsk 2006, s. 276–278. 7 D. Berkowitz, Assessing forces In the selection of local television news, ‘Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media’, 35(2), 1990, pages: 245–251. After: W. Cwalina, A. Falkowski, Marketing polityczny… op.cit., s. 276–278. 8 W. Cwalina, A. Falkowski, Marketing polityczny… op.cit., s. 273. 9 The explanation of this phenomenon has its justification in the thesis that the sympathy towards an object has its source in the acquaintance with such object. Nevertheless, the exposure itself is not the most important determinant of human attitudes and it appears only in some limited conditions. The object must be neutral or at least non-aversive at first (frequent encounters with a disliked object usually intensifies such reaction), the object may not be exposed too 5

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point out most of all to two exposure criteria. First of all, the placement of a publication in an Internet portal – in which column it is placed, whether it is thematically related to the article, thanks to which it is easier to find it, as well as which place is occupied by the title of the message (or by its short description) in the news structure. The most attractive materials most frequently have a highlighted title, they are often accompanied by a photo and are located at the top of the column, which at the same time more frequently attracts the attention of the recipients. The priority effect is another reinforcing phenomenon which states that the first information is usually most important, because it has an impact on the interpretation of the subsequent messages. In particular, if the subsequent incoming messages are contradictory to the first one, then they are more frequently ignored or considered as insignificant10. The second criterion is the text of the title, because the specificity of the reading of materials on the web allows us to view the entire text at once; we reach it most often by clicking on its title. Thus, it must be interesting enough to attract the readers. One of the fundamental indices of media reliability is the assurance of informational pluralism, the possibility of exposure of the viewpoints and opinions of all political entities. Due to the specificity of the presentation of materials on the Internet, it is difficult to take into account the indices which are used in the traditional media – the evaluation of the quantity of statements in a specific time or the duration of the exposure of a given politician in individual news programs. The size of publications is also of little importance here. A given text is usually accessed by the recipient through thematic sections (culture, news, music), in which the top of the column of titles is occupied by the most important information. The lack of informational pluralism will therefore in particular refer to the majority of materials that deal with the same entities.

Presentation of the research results Our analysis covered 329 articles which appeared, in the period from 1st February until 5th June 2009, on one of the following three popular Internet portals: Interia.pl; Onet.pl and Wp.pl (from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.). The materials were presented as current information: ‘Facts’ (Interia.pl) and ‘News’ (Onet.pl, Wp.pl). We have taken into account those articles, the subject or direct subject-matter of which was a party/political group or a party/political group member. The analysis took into account also the presented opinion polls. The analysis was performed in the quantitative and qualitative mode. The quantitative analysis will allow us to capture the interrelations between the subject of a publication and the number of specific texts that describe such subject. The qualitative analysis will further specify the subject and character of the message. Special attention, due to the specificity of presentation of the materials on the web which are accessed through their title, was attached to those titles which contain the name of a party of a political group. The outlined field of research implies the possibility of formulation of the problem in the form of a main research question: Does the Internet message, which deals with the individual political entities, meet the criteria of informational reliability? frequently, because this leads to boredom. Moreover, the complex objects profit from the repeatability more than the simple ones; in case of simple objects, boredom is a more frequent phenomenon. The exposure effect is also strongest when the object is little known. See more: J. Strelau, D. Doliński, Psychologia, Gdańskie Wydawnictwo Psychologiczne, tom. II, Gdańsk 2008, s. 339–340. 10 E. Aronson, T. Wilson, R. Akert, Psychologia społeczna. Serce i umysł. Wydawnictwo Zysk i S-ka, Poznań 1994, s. 139.

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Such presentation of the problem allows us to pose the detailed research questions: 1. 2. 3. 4.

How are the individual political entities presented in the Internet messages? What are the dominant interpretive frames in case of those Internet messages which refer to individual political entities? What was the emotional focus of the content of the Internet messages, which dealt with various political entities? What is the structure of the titles which contain in itself the names of the individual political entities? ***

The most intensive phase of the electoral campaign took place in May, in the month which preceded the elections. At that time, each of the analysed Internet portals had the biggest number of articles about the candidates to the European Parliament. On Wp.pl as well as on Interia.pl, the campaign began in March, whereas Onet.pl published 4 texts already in February. In total, the biggest number of publications appeared on Onet.pl, about 30% more than on the remaining portals (table no. 6). Table 1. Quantitative and percentage distribution of the analysed articles on the three Internet portals in individual months. Onet.pl quantity

percentage

February 4 3.05% March 22 16.8% April 38 29% May 52 39.7% June 15 11.45% Total 131 100% Source: Author’s original research.

Wp.pl

Interia.pl

quantity

percentage

quantity

0 21 29 41 7 98

0% 21.4% 29.6% 41.8% 7.2% 100%

0 19 25 47 9 100

percentage

0% 19% 25% 47% 9% 100%

Total quantity

4 62 92 140 31 329

percentage

1.2% 18.8% 28% 42.6% 9.4% 100%

Almost half of the analysed articles referred to Prawo i Sprawiedliwość; such texts dominated in each of the portals. The materials about Platforma Obywatelska, the second party as far as the number of publications is concerned, constituted 37% of the publications about PiS. These were the two parties whose messages were the most intensive on the Internet. The texts devoted to Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej & Unia Pracy11 were half as numerous as those about PO, whereas Libertas was presented in 20 publications. In the analysed period, there were a few materials about Porozumienie dla Przyszłości Centrolewicy, Samoobrona as well as about Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe. The remaining parties and groups did not occur in any texts. In the collected empirical material, the opinion polls constituted more than 13%, whereas the share of publications about various parties was slightly above 3%12. (table no. 7). Considering the quantity of messages about the individual political entities, further analysis will take into account only the materials about PiS, PO, SLD & UP and Libertas. The number of

11 The analysis of materials which refer to Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej & Unia Pracy takes into account also the publications about Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, because only on 2nd April 2009 did the National Electoral Commission receive the notification about the creation, on 31st March, of the Coalition Electoral Commission of SLD & UP. Especially in the beginning period of the analysis, the publications about SLD appeared much more frequently. 12 By the expression which refers to publications about various political parties, the author refers to these materials which simultaneously refer to several parties (e.g. comparison of the program aspects of various parties).

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publications, which referred to other parties and groups significantly limits the possibility to draw reliable conclusions. Table 2. Quantitative and percentage distribution of articles about individual entities on three Internet portals. Onet.pl quantity

Wp.pl

percentage

Opinion polls 17 13% Platforma 22 16.8% Obywatelska Prawo i Spra65 49.6% wiedliwość Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycz12 9.1% nej & Unia Pracy Porozumienie 3 2.3% dla Przyszłości Centrolewica Polskie Stron1 0.8% nictwo Ludowe Samoobrona 1 0.8% Libertas 7 5.3% Article about 3 2.3% various parties Total 131 100% Source: Author’s original research.

quantity

Interia.pl

percentage

quantity

Total

percentage

quantity

percentage

14

14.3%

14

14%

45

13.7%

17

17.4%

18

18%

57

17.3%

46

46.9%

44

44%

155

47.1%

6

6.1%

9

9%

27

8.2%

1

1%

2

2%

6

1.8%

1

1%

1

1%

3

0.9%

3 7

3.1% 7.1%

2 6

2% 6%

6 20

1.8% 6.1%

3

3.1%

4

4%

10

3.1%

100

100%

329

98

100%

100%

The subject of publications In case of each of the analysed entities the prevailing number of publications referred to individual entities, politicians and not to a party or a group as a whole (table no. 8). In this analysis, the personal subject was characterized through the prism of the types of political images of Marek Jeziński. According to the author of this classification: Each of these categories is to show a politician as an individual with a specific domination of personality features (e.g. domination of the paternal features) and evoke certain emotions in the voters by directing the reception of one’s politics on the right interpretive track13. Furthermore, he states that the creation of a public person is usually a derivative of the style of politics that is run by such person14. In case of the Polish political scene, the author refers the basic image types to two different styles: conflictual and conciliatory. The catalogue of Marek Jeziński was added with two types: a criminal and a fox. The actions of a criminal are focused on conflicts. This is a person which is presented as one which violates the law, entangled in various conflicts with the judiciary. The fox is a person, whose major action strategies may be described as conciliatory & conflictual. On the one hand, such person is oriented towards a dispute with the use of specific forms of fight for support, which are associated with slyness and cunning. On the other hand – 13 M. Jeziński, Wizerunek polityczny jako element strategii wyborczej [in:] B. Dobek-Ostrowska (red.), Kampania wyborcza: marketingowe aspekty komunikowania politycznego, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, Wrocław 2005, s. 124. 14 Ibidem.

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such person tries to convince the voters that he/she strives for cooperation by presenting him/herself as honest in comparison to his/her rivals and as someone who follows the letter of the law, which is imprecise about certain activities. Such person may be characterized as self-confident, aware of the shortcomings of law and of the possibility to ‘stretch’ it for achievement of his/her electoral goals. The personal subject in case of Prawo i Sprawiedliwość was most frequently presented as a hero. This is a person, which is characterized by determination, courage and the sense of mission. Such person has a prophetic vision of the social order. His/her style of performing the public activity may be accounted as conflictual, whereas his decisions are mostly taken in an authoritarian manner. In a large portion of the publications the subject was also presented as a criminal or father. The father, was the most frequent entity which appeared in the materials about Platforma Obywatelska. This is a person, which is characterized by responsibility, protectiveness, political wisdom, paternalism. Such entity is brave and composed at the same time. Its main action strategies have their foundation in the conciliatory & conflictual style. There were a little fewer entities which could be characterised as experts. An expert has an extensive knowledge and competences and he/she is effective in his/her actions. This is a credible, reliable and accurate person. The strategies of his/her actions may be defined as conciliatory & conflictual. The entity which was found in texts about Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej & Unia Pracy was most frequently presented as an expert and eccentric. The eccentric is a person which has an untypical attitude towards the social & political reality; the attention of the audience is attracted by his/her non-standard behaviours both in the social life and on the political arena. In turn, more than half of the texts about Libertas presented the entity as a fox, whereas some materials presented it as a world-saving hero which fights against all historical adversities15. Table 3. Structure of the subject of articles in case of the individual parties. PiS quantity

PO percentage

Personal Expert 3 3.3% Father 11 12.1% Lover 0 0% Hero 35 38.4% Ordinary man 7 7.7% Nonentity 4 4.4% Eccentric 6 6.6% Idol 0 0% Clown 8 8.8% Cool guy 5 5.5% Criminal 10 11% Fox 2 2.2% Total: 91 100% Group 64 100% Source: Author’s original research.

quantity

15 22 3 0 4 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 47 10

SLD & UP percentage

31.9% 46.8% 6.4% 0% 8.5% 0% 6.4% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 100% 100%

quantity

5 2 0 0 2 1 6 0 1 0 0 0 17 10

percentage

29.4% 11.8% 0% 0% 11.8% 5.9% 35.2% 0% 5.9% 0% 0% 0% 100% 100%

Libertas quantity

1 0 0 4 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 10 16 4

percentage

6.25% 0% 0% 25% 0% 0% 6.25% 0% 0% 0% 0% 62.5% 100% 100%

The styles of politics, which include the said types of political images, may be placed, as mentioned above, in two dimensions. The first one is conflictual, focused on a dispute and a battle with the use of various forms of support winning. The purpose of the second one –

15

Ibidem.

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conciliatory – is to reach the voters with an appeal that underlines cooperation and actions for the benefit of common agreement. The marketing strategies of every political entity (party) should be directed so as to ensure that the set of political products, which is offered to the voters, each time contains the candidates that correspond to various types of images. The image of a given group would seem here as one which is complete, which provides the electorate with a broad offer of styles in which politics may be run, and at the same time as an image which fulfils the requisition of the recipients for both types at once: the conflict and agreement16. If we pay attention to the styles of politics which are presented by the individual types of images we can notice some significant differences (Fig. no. 124). In most cases, the personal entity in PiS was directed towards a conflict. In turn, in case of PO we noticed the domination of the mixed conciliatory & conflictual style, whereas the disputes and battles were least intensive. The types of political images visible in case of SLD & UP constituted a derivative of the mixed and conflictual style practically to an even extent. In turn, the dominating style in Libertas was characterized as mixed; it is worth mentioning that in this party we found no type of image which would be based on the conciliatory style. Figure 1. Percentage distribution of the styles of politics together its derivative types of political images which are presented in the publications.

Source: Author’s original research.

Interpretive frames of the message In the analysed materials we can notice some differences in the interpretive frames of the individual publications (table no. 9). In case of Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, the biggest number of texts put emphasis on the conflict within the party and on the attack on another political entity. In the majority of cases, the materials which refer to Platforma Obywatelska underlined the community, integration and enthusiasm of its actions as well as its expert and professional behaviour. The messages which referred to Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej & Unia Pracy most frequently concentrated on the attack of the group on another political entity; a significant portion of the publications also had an informative overtone and one that stressed the conflict within the party. Half of the materials about Libertas presented the party as better, in various dimensions, in comparison with the other parties. 16

Ibidem, p. 125.

8 Table 4. Interpretive frames of individual publications17. Interpretive frames

PiS quantity

PO percentage

Community (integration and 13 7.3% enthusiasm of actions) Weakness 5 2.8% of actions Expert 4 2.3% behaviour Social 14 7.8% mobilization Information 21 11.7% Superiority 9 5% over others Conflict 46 25.7% inside the party Attack 67 37.4% Total: 179 100% Source: Author’s original research.

quantity

32

SLD & UP percentage

40%

Libertas

quantity

percentage

quantity

percentage

0

0%

1

5%

1

1.3%

0

0%

0

0%

18

22.5%

2

7.4%

0

0%

9

11.2%

3

11.1%

1

5%

8

10%

5

18.5%

4

20%

0

0%

0

0%

10

50%

6

7.5%

5

18.5%

2

10%

6 80

7.5% 100%

12 27

44.4% 100%

2 20

10% 100%

Emotional focus of the texts In the qualitative analysis, we have taken into account the emotional aspect of the guiding axis of the content of publications. Was the message directed at underlining the positive features of a given entity, or was the stress put on its negative characteristic, or maybe the negative features of another political entity were emphasised more clearly than the features of the subject of publication, or finally were the texts characterized only as informative? (table no. 10 and 11). The majority of publications which dealt with Prawo i Sprawiedliwość were concentrated on the negative description of another entity, mostly of Platforma Obywatelska. There were fewer texts which pointed out to the negative features of PiS, whereas even fewer focused on the positive features. In a majority of cases, the publications which referred to PO put stress on the positive description of the party. In the analysed period, there were hardly any texts which would underline the negative features of this party and that would attack other entities, which in case of PO was narrowed down only to PiS. Half of the publications which referred to Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej & Unia Pracy contained a negative description of another political entity– PiS, PO or both these parties at once. More than 20% of the publications stressed the positive features of the group; the informative materials constituted a little smaller percentage. In turn, the texts which described Libertas mostly presented a positive profile of this party.

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The number of frames which is assigned to individual publications is not equal to the sum of these publications, because in some materials the frames which were distinguished by the author of the frame were difficult to separate explicitly, and thus two frames were assigned.

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Table 5. Emotional focus of the content of those publications which describe the individual parties . PiS

Positive features of the subject of publications Negative description of the subject of publications Negative description of an entity which is not the subject of publications Information

PO

SLD-UP

Libertas

quantity

percentage

quantity

percentage

quantity

quantity

51

26.7%

58

78.4%

6

21.4%

12

60%

53

27.7%

3

4%

3

10.7%

2

10%

67

35.1%

6

8.1%

50%

2

10%

20

10.5%

Total: 191 100% Source: Author’s original research.

7

9.5%

74

100%

14

5

17.9%

28

100%

percentage

quantity

4

20%

20

100%

Table 6. Subject of negative description in materials which are focused on the negative features of an entity which is not the subject of publications. PiS quantity

PO percentage

Prawo i Sprawiedliwość Platforma 66 98.5% Obywatelska Lech Wałęsa 1 1.5% Prawo i Sprawiedliwość and Platforma Obywatelska Total: 67 100% Source: Author’s original research.

SLD & UP

quantity

percentage

quantity

6

100%

4

-

-

0

quantity

Libertas quantity

percentage

28.6%

1

50%

5

35.7%

1

50%

0%

0

0%

0

0%

-

-

5

35.7%

0

0%

6

100%

14

2

100%

100%

It is worth stressing the differences in exposure19 of the publication of individual texts in materials which refer to specific parties (table no. 12). When it comes to the messages which put stress on the positive description of an entity, the most exposed materials referred to Libertas, whereas the worst exposed ones were about SLD & UP. We noted small differences between the exposure of such texts about PO and PiS in favour of the first party. At the same time, the messages which were focused on the negative aspects of the subject of publications were best exposed in case of SLD & UP, and definitely worst exposed in case of PO. The negative description of an entity which is not the subject of the publication was best exposed in the 18 The number of emotional guiding axes, which were distinguished in the publications is not equal to the sum of these publications, because in some of these materials it was difficult to separate explicitly the two aspects among the analysed ones, and thus such message was classified in two different ways. 19 Exposure is the average place of the title of publications within a column, in which such publications are presented to the reader. The more important and new texts are placed higher, the first title usually has a bolded text, frequently accompanied with a photo and thus attracts the attention of the readers. The lower the number, the bigger the exposure.

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materials about Libertas, and least exposed in those about PO. The information about PO and Libertas were more available than the information about the remaining entities. Table 7. Exposure of individual texts which refer to specific parties. PiS

Positive features of the subject of publications Negative description of the subject of publications Negative description of an entity which is not the subject of publications Information Source: Author’s original research.

PO

SLD & UP

Libertas

3.9 3.9

3.6 5.3

4.2 3

2 4

3.3

3.7

3

2

3.3

2.4

4.2

2.5

The materials which deal with the individual political entities were also analysed on the ‘emotionality versus rationality’ axis of the message (table no. 13). It turned out that the publications about PiS were dominated by emotional messages as well as by the mixed ones with the advantage of the emotional ones. PO presents an opposite structure – in most cases these were mixed materials with the majority of the rational texts as well as rational ones. The publications about SLD & UP mostly had a mixed overtone with a majority of emotional texts. The texts about Libertas were quite equally distributed in the emotionality – rationality dimension. Table 8. Messages related to the analysed political entities on the emotionality – rationality axis. PiS quantity

Emotional 67 Rational 12 Mixed with the majority 59 of the emotional ones Mixed with the majority 17 of the rational ones Total 155 Source: Author’s original research.

PO percentage

quantity

SLD & UP percentage

quantity

quantity

Libertas percentage

quantity

43.2% 7.7%

6 16

10.5% 28.1%

7 6

25.9% 22.2%

4 5

20% 25%

38.1%

7

12.3%

11

40.8%

5

25%

11%

28

49.1%

3

11.1%

6

30%

100%

57

100%

20

100%

27

100%

Title of publications Due to the specificity of presentation of the materials on the Internet, where the publications are accessed most frequently through their title, in the analysis special attention was focused on these titles which contained the name of a political party. Among the 98 publications, which had the name20 PiS in their title, a definite majority referred to Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, single ones described some other party, Platforma Obywatelska, or covered materials about various parties and opinion polls. The majority of materials about PiS underlined the negative aspects of this party, a large portion of these materials referred to the negative features of the opponent, which was most frequently defined in the title as a widely-understood opposition. Some texts in fact referred to a party other than Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, however they put stress on the negative description of PiS. 20 We have considered all titles in which the name explicitly referred to a given party: both the abbreviation (PiS, PO, SLD), its modifications (Platforma), as well as their entire name (Libertas).

11 Table 9. Structure of titles with the name PiS in the title.

82.5%

17

100%

6

6%

0

0%

6

15%

0

0%

1

1%

0

0%

1

2.5%

0

2

2%

0

0%

0

0%

98 100%

4

100%

40

100%

Other texts of publications percentage

33

Name of the opponent in the title

quantity

percentage

percentage

100%

Other party

quantity

quantity

4

Text of publications with a negative attitude to an entity other than PiS

percentage

percentage

91%

Text of publications with a negative attitude to PiS quantity

quantity

89

Total:

PiS

About arious parties

Text of publications with a positive attitude to PiS

Opinion poll

To whom did the publication refer

2 3 6 2 1

35

94.6%

-

-

0

0%

0%

-

-

0

0%

0

0%

-

-

2

5.4%

17

100%

-

14

37

100%

Tusk premier PO Government Other party

Source: Author’s original research.

Half of the publications which had the name PO in the title referred to Platforma Obywatelska. These were mostly materials which put stress on the positive features of this party, single ones underlined its negative aspects or the negative aspects of some other party, which was already defined as PiS twice in the title. A significant portion of materials which had PO in the title covered the pre-electoral opinion polls. Among them, the general majority presented a positive profile of PO. Some publications referred to PiS as well as to texts about various parties. In the first case, the messages underlined the negative features of PO, whereas in the second case – the positive ones (table no. 15).

12 Table 10. Structure of titles with the name PO in the title. Name of the opponent in the title

quantity

1

14.3%

2

100%

PiS

2

12

70.6%

Other party

6

12.3%

0

0%

6

85.7%

0

0%

-

-

0

0%

6

12.2%

5

22%

0

0%

0

0%

-

-

1

5.9%

13

26.5%

9

39%

0

0%

0

0%

-

-

4

23.5%

49

100%

23

100%

7

100%

2

100%

-

2

17

quantity

percentage

39%

About various parties

percentage

quantity

9

quantity

percentage

49%

quantity

PO

24

Opinion poll

Other texts of publications percentage

Text of publications with a negative attitude to an entity other than PO

Total:

Text of publications with a negative attitude to PO percentage

Text of publications with a positive attitude to PO

To whom did the publication refer

100%

Source: Author’s original research.

In the collected empirical material, only 10 texts had the name SLD/SLD & UP in their title. Among them, 7 texts referred to this particular group, however the majority of the materials underlined its negative aspects. One publication described some other party, two of them referred to pre-electoral opinion polls. Table 11. Structure of titles with the name SLD & UP in the title.

Other texts of publications

100%% 0%

5 1

71.4% 14.3%

0 0

0% 100%

-

-

1 0

50% 0%

0

0%

0

0%

0

0%

-

-

0

0%

0 1

100% 100%

1 7

0

0% 100%

-

-

1 2

50% 100%

14.3% 100% 0

quantity

percentage

Name of the opponent in the title

percentage

Text of publications with a negative attitude to an other entity

1 0

quantity

percentage

Text of publications with a negative attitude to SLD/SLD&UP

quantity

SLD/SLD&UP 7 70% Other party 1 10% About various 0 0% parties Opinion poll 2 20% Total: 10 100% Source: Author’s original research.

quantity

percentage

quantity

To whom did the publication refer

percentage

Text of publications with a positive attitude to SLD/SLD&UP

13

In the analysed publications, only 13 had the name Libertas in its title. The general majority of these texts referred to this particular party. Most of them underlined its positive features, one stressed the negative ones and another one also had a negative attitude towards some other political entity, which in the title was defined as PO. Three publications with the name Libertas in the title referred to texts that described various parties, whereas one publication referred to the pre-electoral opinion poll. Table 12. Structure of titles with the name Libertas in the title.

quantity

percentage

quantity

percentage

Other texts of publications

percentage

Name of the opponent in the title

quantity

Text of publications with a negative attitude to an other entity

percentage

percentage

quantity

Libertas 9 69.2% Other party 0 0% About various 3 23.1% parties Opinion poll 1 7.7% Total: 13 100% Source: Author’s original research.

Text of publications with a negative attitude to Libertas

quantity

Text of publications with a positive attitude to Libertas

To whom did the publication refer

5 0

83.3%% 0%

1 0

100% 0%

1 2

33.3% 66.7%%

PO -

1 -

2 0

40% 0%

0

0%

0

0%

0

0%

-

-

3

60%

1 6

16.7% 100%

0 1

0% 100%

0 3

0% 100%

-

1

0 5

0% 100%

Extrapolation of the research results The research proved, that the Internet messages during the electoral campaign for the European Parliament in 2009 can surely be put under discussion as regards the reliability of the form of the publications and the manner of their presentation. The quantitative analysis showed that the media petrify the structure of two parties which dominate the Polish political scene, and at the same time shows their opposite images. The Internet is a poor source of information about political entities other than Prawo i Sprawiedliwość and Platforma Obywatelska. In the analysed period, the publications about these two parties constituted almost two third of all the collected materials, whereas the quantitative advantage was in favour of PiS. From February until June 2009 we found 155 publications about this particular party, 57 texts about PO, 27 about Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej & Unia Pracy and 20 about Libertas. Other parties and groups were represented only in few texts. The qualitative analysis proved, that the Internet messages do not only meet the pluralism criterion, but also, through different interpretive frames which are put on the texts and different emotional focus of the texts, presents various images of the political entities. PiS appears as a conflicted party, one of the basic action techniques of which is to attack the opponent. The majority of materials was focused on the negative description of other entities, mostly of PO. A significant portion of the publications contained a negative description of PiS. The messages were dominated by emotional texts as well as by mixed tests with a majority of the emotional ones. In the texts about PiS the entity was presented mostly as a hero, a strong, determined, brave person, which takes decisions in an authoritative way. The dominating style of politics, which was presented by the personal entities in the materials, was directed at conflicts. PO was presented as an integrated party, which is characterized by professionalism and expert

14

actions. The majority of messages contained rational texts as well as mixed ones with the majority of rational texts. Above all, the materials underlined its positive features. Single publications contained an attack on other entities and presented a negative profile of the party; such texts were least exposed. In the publications which referred to PO the entity was presented mostly as a father, a person which is characterized by responsibility, protectiveness, political wisdom, paternalism. There were slightly fewer experts. The dominating style of politics, which was presented by the entities in the materials, was the mixed conciliatory & conflictual style, whereas the conflicts and disputes were underlined least frequently. The Internet messages which referred to SLD-UP most frequently stressed the attack of the group on another political entity. Half of the materials contained a negative description of some other entity – especially of the two dominating parties – PiS and PO. There were also many publications which stressed the negative aspects of the group; at the same time these texts were characterized by a good exposure. A significant portion of the materials pointed out to the conflict within SLD & UP, some of them were purely informational. One fifth of the publications underlined the positive features of SLD & UP, however it is worth stressing that these materials had a poor exposure. In the publications the entity was most frequently presented as an expert and eccentric, the dominating style of politics could be characterized as mixed and conflictual. The publications about Libertas present a peculiar picture of the party. The texts show a picture of a party, which creates its image on the basis of a contrast with other entities – it is depicted as better and smarter. The presented image types are a derivative of the mixed style, however it is worth mentioning that we found no type which would be grounded in the conciliatory style of politics. The texts were not dominated by the rational or emotional elements – the texts were quite evenly distributed in this dimension. The materials about Libertas mostly presented a positive description of the entity; those texts were also definitely best exposed. The publications which presented a negative profile of some other political entities were also better exposed than in case of the other analysed parties and groups. Big quantitative and qualitative disproportions were noted also in case of the analysis of the titles that contained the name of a given political entity. The collected empirical material contained twice as many materials with the name PiS than with the name PO in the title. In turn, there were about five times fewer titles with the name SLD & UP in the title than with the name PO. Most titles which contained the name PiS and SLD & UP referred us to texts which underlined the negative features of those political entities. Among the titles which referred to PiS, in comparison with the remaining ones, a significant portion of these referred to the materials which attacked the opponent, which already in the title was usually defined as a widely-understood opposition. In turn, the titles which contained the name PO and Libertas most frequently referred to the texts which put stress on the positive description of the party. Considering the quantitative and qualitative analysis (the negative versus the positive image) the presented entities may be placed on a characteristic continuum (Fig. no. 125).

15 Figure 2. Interrelations between the quantity and quality of the collected materials that refer to individual political entities.

Source: Author’s original research.

The Internet messages are petrified, in terms of quantity, by the two dominating parties, through the simultaneous presentation of their two opposite images: the negative (conflicted, attacking) and the positive one (integrated, joint). In terms of the image, the party which is closest to the pole of PiS is SLD&UP. Libertas was placed closer to PO, however more centrally. The image of this party is specific – the materials stress the positive profile of the party, they are well exposed and at the same time attention is attracted to the superiority of this party in comparison with the others, its cunning in following the letter of the law, which is imprecise about certain activities. At the same time we found no publications which would present such image types which are a derivative of the conciliatory style. We may presume, that the exposure effect is not applicable to the analysed material. The more frequent presentation of information about PiS does not imply a bigger number of supporters of this party among the Internet users. It seems, that initial conditions for the effectiveness of this effect did not occur – first and foremost the entity was not neutral, and if we take into account the proportion of supporters of PiS and PO among the internauts we may notice that for a significant portion of them it could be aversive. In such situation a more frequent contact with an entity intensifies and solidifies she negative attitudes. The exposure effect is stronger when the subject is not very popular. However, on the one hand, for the politically-interested internauts this party does not constitute any novelty in itself. On the other hand, for those people who are not interested in the Polish political scene or those who do not have a crystallized political identification, for whom this party is rather neutral, the information presented about PiS definitely do not present its positive image, which could provide the party with new supporters. The priority effect also suggests, that both PO and Libertas are definitely better presented on the Internet than PiS and SLD&UP. In case of the first two parties, the materials that underlined their positive aspects were more exposed than those which presented them in a bad light. At the same time, good exposure was given to the publications about Libertas, which stressed the negative profiles of some other entities. There was absolutely no difference in the exposition of those texts which presented positive or negative opinions about PiS, however the publications which stressed the negative profile of some other entity were better exposed. In case of SLD&UP, the positive features of the group were exposed to a smaller degree than the negative ones and those that underlined the negative profile of some other entity. The purely informative messages about PO and Libertas were available to a higher degree than the texts about the

16

remaining entities.

Conclusion The presented research shows, that the Internet messages during the electoral campaign for the European Parliament in 2009 did not meet the criterion of informational reliability. It did not ensure any informational pluralism – all of the political entities, which had the status of a candidate in the elections, did not have equal opportunities when it comes to the presentation of their viewpoints and opinions. Moreover, the manner in which the texts about these parties and groups were exposed was different – the positive or negative features of the individual entities were unevenly underlined, they were included in different interpretive frames. The analysed materials show a much beneficial picture of Platforma Obywatelska and Libertas than of Prawo i Sprawiedliwość and Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej & Unia Pracy. The analysis allows us to conclude that the web messages are to a large degree focused on the supporters of PO, because they sustain its positive picture and at the same time put stress on the negative features of the opposition party i.e. PiS. The texts about PiS mostly present a negative image of the party – stress is put on conflicts, on the aggressive and determined fight for support, which at the same time is intensified by the number of publications. In turn, PO was presented as an integrated, community-type party which is distanced from conflictual action strategies. This seems adequate to the proportion of the PiS and PO followers among the internauts. Similarly, in case of SLD&UP – the positive texts about the group are less exposed, the negative ones and those which underline the attack on some other party or political group have a better exposure, whereas the information is poorly exposed. To a large extent this group is presented as one that is conflicted and attacking. It is worth mentioning, with reference to the research, that among the internauts there is only a very small percentage of SLD supporters. In turn Libertas, which is a new party on the Polish political scene, enjoyed a higher interest than a significant portion of the parties which have a long tradition. Moreover, the information about this party had a better exposure. In the light of the analyses we reach the following open question: Are the Internet messages an answer to the needs of the web users which, as the public opinions show, consist mainly of the PO supporters, or maybe the journalists, through the presentation of such form of the materials, want to influence a ‘certain social & political reality’ by having an impact on the proportion of the supporters of the individual political entities on the Internet?