The Media and Intra-Elite Communication in Poland: The Role of 'Special Bulletins'
Abstract
The Rand Corporation is conducting a multiyear comparative study of the role of the media in intra-elite communication in Communist countries. Western analysts of the political process in "closed" Communist systems necessarily rely heavily on the published and broadcast output of the mass and specialized media. These media are in part propaganda organs, but they also have other functions. A generation of Sovietologists has had to base much of its analysis of policies and politics on interpretations of media nuances. Yet their assumptions about the relationship between the media and the political actors whose behavior or attitudes are inferred from them have received little attention. The Rand study was initiated to fill this need. Its emphasis is not on techniques of content analysis, but rather on the process by which politically significant material appears in Communist-country media. The principal data base of the study is information obtained from interviews with 44 emigres formerly involved in the media process as writers, journalists, editors, censors, and government and Party officials. The results of this study are published in a Summary Report, which provides an overview and conclusions, and in a series of Rand Notes, which contain more detailed analyses and documentation of the research. Parallel to the mass circulation media in Poland is an elaborate system of limited-circulation bulletins. These include straight translations of international wire service reports, transcripts of Western radio broadcasts into Poland, and reprints of articles censored from the mass media. These bulletins serve as an important information source for the policymaking elite and have an important effect on mass media analyses of national and international events and on politics generally. This Note focuses on specific Special Bulletins: Polish Press Agency Internal Bulletins, Polish Radio Monitoring Bulletin, and the Censorship Office Bulletin of Censored Articles.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA483783
Entities
People
- Jane L. Curry
Organizations
- RAND Corporation