The Media and Intra-Elite Communication in Poland: Case Studies of Controversy
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. This Note documents six case studies of controversy in Polish media: (1) The wide-ranging media campaign during the March 1968 crisis, which was directly linked with internecine political struggle within the Polish United Workers' Party (PUWP); (2) The "Falkowska debate" of 1964; (3) The differentiated treatment of the German question in the media in the late 1960s; (4) The 1971 media debate over the law on social parasitism; (5) The 1976 controversy over amendments to the Polish constitution; and (6) The media discussions of 1977 and 1978 concerning decentralization and unemployment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA483784
Entities
People
- A. R. Johnson
- Jane L. Curry
Organizations
- RAND Corporation