The report ‘Social communication in the nineties in Poland: the review of transformations and the situation at the beginning of the new millenium’ will cover the decade between 1991 and 2000. This report like the previous three (review of the seventies, from July 1980 to December 1981 review and review of the eighties) will present communication changes against the background of political changes in Poland and the world. The subsequent chapters of the review will include technological innovations of the passing decade (‘Old and new media in the world’) and their consequences for social communication in Poland as well as its legal (the Radio and Television Act was passed then) and macro-/microeconomic conditions (commercialization has started to dominate mass communication) and the transformation of organisational and ownership structures in the media (this decade media consortia with the majority of foreign capital have strenghtened/consolidated their ownerships). Next the information policy of the government and other subjects like the Church, major parties and trade unions will be described.

 In the previous reports the process of public communication was presented from the point of view of either the disponent, broadcaster or the potential recipient, receiver. In the review of the nineties both viewpoints will be taken into consideration. Yet, we are going to begin from recipient’s point of view, i.e. from the description of the changes in the social consciousness of the Polish people; then we will take into account their attitude towards media and media activities.

 Various media offer will be compared with the general public expectations and interests. A separate chapter in the report will be devoted to network communication. These descriptions of media offer will be accompanied by a dynamic, based on research, ‘collective portrait of journalists’ of the nineties confronted with their portrait from the eighties, and the description of media distribution strategy in Poland. There will be also description of the content changes of newspapers, magazines, radio and television programmes, and, additionally, a reconstruction of the media images of the world, Europe, Poland and the Poles. The final chapters of the review will address the problem of public persuasion in media, i.e. advertising, propaganda, and the media’s participation in shaping the public opinion in Poland.