Personal and social contexts of media reception. German experiences

The fourth question in Lasswell’s model (to whom?) assumes a study and an analysis of media’s publicity and broader reception of the content. This reception should go personally or socially.

The personal contexts include amongst others lifecycle and physical and mental limitations. The age plays an important role in media reception. The youth watches less television than the older people, who, on the contrary, are less likely to use electronic forms of communication.

Another pattern here is that the older the man is, the longer he reads newspapers and magazines during the day. Important limitations in media reception are due to physical obstacles such as: poor sight and impaired hearing whereas the most significant mental obstacle is depression.

The article presents also the problems of reception in a group, that is, when a person watches television or listens to the radio accompanied by other people. The presence of the others modifies all the process, there is a possibility of conversation and commenting the content. A spectacular example of reception in the group is watching football matches. Media can also be received in public space, open for everyone. Nowadays, public spaces are characterized by - as called by the scientists - a communication tyranny. Phone conversations are omnipresent and disturbs everybody. This is a kind of psychological pathology. Media reception depends on the culture, both personal and in a general sense. In Europe, there are differences between North and South that can be explained, among others, by religious factors (Protestantism vs. Catholicism). In the article- as practice shows – we mentioned main German studies, but also in a lesser extent - American and Polish ones. All of them relate to a more general problem of mediatisation and everyday life.

Key words:

media reception, Personal reception, reception in a group, media vs. culture

The political message based on the results of the evaluation. The analysis of the example of the presidential campaign in Poland in 2015

The main research problem of this article is whether the political message, that was addressed to voters in the presidential election from 2015, was based on the results of the evaluations or of the socio-economic researches were conducted by the research centers. The political views and slogans, which were presented by the candidates for the President of Poland during the campaign in 2015, were analyzed to answer the main research problem. The theoretical framework of the evaluation and the process of evaluation researches on the example of the managing authority of the operational program were described in the first part of this article. The European experience of utilization the evaluation results by the political class and the analysis of the presidential campaign from 2015 in reference of constructing political arguments with the results of the evaluation were presented in the second part. The author concludes that the results of the evaluation were marginally used during the campaign. The political arguments, that were used by candidates for the President of Poland, were mostly limited to recall simple figures, expert and public opinion, although in some cases the politics referenced to the results of the studies and reports. However, it is impossible to conclude if one of these studies was an evaluation research.

Key words:

evaluation, research results, presidential election, election campaign

The realization of the journalistic principle of truth and objectivity during the Polish parliamentary election of 2015

The purpose of the paper was the evaluation of the way of respecting the journalistic principles of truth and objectivity by nationwide newspapers „Rzeczpospolita” and „Gazeta Wyborcza” in the context of the method of reporting the program assumptions of the two largest parties of the Polish political scene, Law and Justice (PiS) and Civic Platform (PO) during the Polish parliamentary campaign in 2015. The author used the method of content analysis of press, analysis method and synthesis method.

Key words:

media agenda setting, elections, newspapers, truth, objectivity

Disbelief and shock or common sense, the reaction of the world's media on the results of the British Brexit

This article presents a new phenomenon, as yet unknown in the European Union. Namely to leave the country with Community structures. The first has made the United Kingdom, carried out by 23 June 2016. referendum. Slightly more than half the population of the British opted for the order to leave the European Union.

Media the day after the announcement of the results Brexit began to comment on them. Not only in the UK but around the world could read in the newspapers that no one had expected. For many, it was shock and disbelief. I wonder what will be next? As further European Union will function without this power? What consequences await the British starting from the structures of the European Union? Will we see a domino effect in which other countries will leave the Community?

Key words:

Brexit, the European Union, media, referendum

Landsgemeinde – open-air democracy. Does evident voting still matter?

The aim of this paper is to discuss specific form of decision-making process – Landsgemeinde. Landsgemeinde (i.e. open assembly) is one of the oldest and the simplest forms of direct democracy practiced in two German-speaking cantons: Glarus and Appenzell Innerrhoden. This assembly democracy survived in Switzerland for more than 600 hundred years and became part of Swiss identity. The article explores both advantages as well as defects of this institution.

Key words:

Landsgemeinde, Switzerland, open assembly, direct democracy, open-air democracy

Deputy as a mayor, councilor as a deputy. The public opinion on the phenomenon of termination of mandate in elective bodies

The main issue dealt with in this article pertains to a certain aspect of democratic rules, understood at large, occurring presently in Poland, which are: not serving full terms by various levels local government elected officials and members of parliaments (UE parliament included) due to running for other offices. Statistics of these practices are not reported by the State Board of Election, consequently estimating the level of this phenomenon is hard, for it requires following particular cases, which may lead to errors. While considering this author undertook an attempt to estimate this phenomenon. I will examine the issue of cutting short term due to candidacy for another position, from the legal point of view and then from the ethical and philosophical evaluation of such action with focus on the statistics of not fulfilling electoral term due to taking another preferred position. Finally I will examine how this affects public opinion according to Poland wide surveys conducted on representative samples at the turn of 2015 and 2016.

Key words:

local government, cadences, elections, party electoral politics

The information policy of the City Katowice in the area pro-family policy on the example of the program „Nas Troje i więcej” (“The Three of Us and More”)

The presented article concerns the information policy conducted by the local authorities of the City of Katowice during the implementation and execution of the program for families called „Nas Troje i więcej” (“The Three of Us and More”). The program has been approached in terms of case study in the field of internal communication in the commune understood as a process of exchanging information and dialog of the commune entities (stakeholders). The study covered the years 2011–2016, and their objective was to analyze selected tools of social communication in terms of function of medium, its content, type of communication (one or two-sided) and the capacity of communication channels. The study took into account both obligatory and optional instruments.

Key words:

social communication, information policy, local family policy

On the Origin of Nations. Between primordialism and modernism

The essay concerns issue of origin of the nations. Author presents discussion about when nations were „discovered”. The main topic is dedicated dispute between main scientific approaches represented by primordialism, modernism, ethnosymbolism and perenialism. Author presents all of them and in the conlusions takes a stand in this discussion as a moderate modernist, who accepts some ideas of ethnosymbolism.

Key words:

nation, primordialism, modernism, ethnosymbolism