Media system in Poland. An Overview of Transformation

The transformation of mass communication in Poland as well as in Central-Eastern Europe is based, in fact, on two crucial changes: political breakthrough in 1989-1995, and  technological transformation which started after 1995. In Poland, as the beginning of political changes the following factors could be recognised: 1) the abolition of press licensing (May 1989), or 2) parliamentary election (June 1989), or 3) suppression of communist-party controlled press monopoly (March 1990), or, finally, 4) abolition of censorship (June 1990). The Broadcasting Act adopted by the Polish Parliament on December 29, 1992, which  enabled to launch private, commercial radio and television stations, should be perceived as a crucial moment for audio-visual media .

The changes in the Polish media are accompanied by the change of information policy, which have a dual character. Firstly, the period of communist political government monopoly  of information policy has ended. There are many contributors with their own information policy (apart from political parties,the Roman-Catholic Church starts to play an important role in Poland). Secondly, the opportunity for executing government information policy in media has decreased. At present, appointing manager positions in the private media usually does not directly depend on political factors any more. The criterion of assessing managers of press, radio, and television  is based on economic results (e.g. readership, audience, advertising sales etc.). Yet, sometimes some specific connections between publishers and politicians can be observed. As a result of this, the editors-in-chief are removed from their posts due to political factors. 

It must be stated here, that the internal freedom of journalists in media did not increase remarkably. Their freedom is still legally and formally restricted by the 10^th article of the press law, which states that a journalist must comply with the general principles of his/her publisher. Any violation of this provision can be a sufficient reason for dismissal.

The process of demonopolisation and deregulation of electronic media in Poland goes in the same direction as the one in Germany which started 7-8 years earlier: the audience of  public radio and television slowly decreases when three private channels (Polsat, TVN, and TV-4). In 2001, a new partner ś TV Puls (a commercial channel, but inspired by Catholic social philosophy) appeared on the Polish television market.

In radio, the domination of private broadcasters is even more noticeable. RMF FM is head and shoulders above any other broadcasting stations including Program I and Program II of the public radio. In Poland, the analog signal is still received, nevertheless, everybody starts to realise how important digital television is for future development. At present, there are three partners (Cyfra+, Wizja TV and Polsat 2) which have a versatile programme offer.

The demonopolisation process of the press market in Poland seems to be a bit problematic. Before 1990, the political party publishing house RSW controlled 92% of daily circulation and about 60% of magazine circulation. 11 years after abolishing RSW, there are about 20 publishers of dailies on the Polish press market. The top publishing company has a 24,5% share, the three top companies share 63%, and the top 5 ś 82%. At the beginning of the 1990s several new dailies were created in Poland. After a few years, almost all of them disappeared, and the only ones that remained on the market were those newspapers which people got used to during the PRL (The Peopleęs Republic of Poland). At the end of the 1990s the number of regional newspapers was exactly the same as at the beginning. However, the number of national dailies of general interest decreased by half, i.e. from 12 to 6. Each of them has its own typical character and its own specific audience. Two of them represent two different newspapers categories, i.e. the elite daily Rzeczpospolita vs. the tabloid Super Express. The four remaining ones have distinct political orientations: from Catholic-national Nasz Dziennik, conservative Zycie, liberal Gazeta Wyborcza to social-democrat (some would say post-communist) Trybuna. Between 1991 and 2000 there was a 1/3 decrease in the sales of dailies compared to 1988. Simultaneously, the extent of dailies increased several times: from average 6-8 pages in 1989 to 60-80 nowadays.

The media of Poland are heading in the direction of globalism chiefly in the sphere of economics. On the press market dozens of foreign magazines  appeared in Polish language versions like, for instance, the French Elle, American National Geographic, Playboy, Cosmopolitan and Readers Digest, German: Burda Moden, Tina, Bravo and Bravo Girl.

Western groups successfully entered into the most lucrative markets of womenęs and youth magazines and television viewing magazines. Especially German publishing groups were active: Heinrich Bauer Verlag, Springer Verlag, Burda and Gruner+Jahr are the four biggest publishers of magazines in Poland. What seems to be very characteristic for our times is the growing number of narrowly-specialised newspapers, which are addressed to a limited group of readers. Their content varies from guide to promotion.

The media and advertising market are closely connected with that of advertisements. Its globalization in Poland manifests itself in the expansion of those advertising agencies that dominate the entire free market world. This relates equally to what is advertised as to who creates the adverts. Products of world standing, like Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Sony, Kodak, Michelin etc., dominate in the advertisements that appear in the large-circulation Polish media.

The number of journalists in the 1990s has at least doubled. This statement can be considered true if we assume that journalists are not only full-time employees in the editoręs office, but also all co-workers as well as journalist studiesę graduates looking for a job. The requirements towards future employees are completely different nowadays than several years  earlier. New technologies impose changes in organising work. Todays journalists are required not only to have language, but also computer operating skills. Mastering the skills of desktop publishing and using the Internet (in terms of searching, processing and sending information) has become a crucial element of preparing for the future job, just as mastering the ability to read and write many years ago. Archives and documentation sections in the form of newspaper cuttings, which were created in editoręs offices for years, have become outdated regarding their content and technology. Hence, computerization of such resources is of utmost importance. For young people ś also those working for print media ś information not presented in electronic form does not exist at all.

It is sometimes the case that journalists of initiative and journalist studies graduates ś following Nicholas Negroponteęs advice ś instead of looking for the job alone establish infobroker service firms. However, the question is whether an infobroker is still a journalist.

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The two transformations (political and technological) described above, which took place in Central-Eastern Europe in the 1990s have their economic and social aspects in such a way that we should talk of a political-economic-social breakthrough and a technological-economic-social breakthrough. The former was driven by politics, the latter by technology. The processes of desovietisation, democratisation, pluralisation, privatisation and marketisation were typical for the former, whereas digitalisation, telematization and globalisation were typical for the latter.

Evaluating the results of globalisation it can be stated that Poland heads towards the state in which its media (just like media in other countries) will attract people to the same advertisements of the same products by the same entertainment programmes and by the same news, coming from the same information sources about the same events.

However, as it is generally known, globalisation brings about its counter-process of localisation and fragmentization, which is present mostly in printed media. In Poland regional newspapers issue more and more local newspapers. At the same time, the number of sublocal newspapers increases: in 1988 about 100 titles were printed, in 1996 about 1200, in 1998 about 1500, and in 2000 as many as 1800. These include newspapers directed to inhabitants of one city quarter, one town, one county, one parish or one local association. Newspapers printed by various subculture, alternative youth groups/associations constitute a separate class of these publications. Year after year such publications launch their Internet web services. Owing to these activities, sublocal contents/channels mix with global contents/channels bringing about the process which is often called globalization.

That is why it is important to point it out once again. During the last decade in Poland and in other Central-Eastern European countries two essential transformations in media took place ś political (at the beginning) and technological (at the end). The after-effects of the technological transformation are more important and versatile, which corresponds with  McLuhanęs law that the medium is the message.