Page 173 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

162 COMMUNICATION AND CITIZENSHIP

uncontrollable. It sought, at a minimum, to use the broadcast media to
define the rules common to all and extend the area covered by those
rules as much as possible. The most that can potentially be achieved in
this way would be combining the polycentric order with that of
‘collective ideas’ and thus creating a polycentric order of centrally
defined ‘collective ideas’. The Polish power structure seemed to hope
that it would be possible to do just that, and in this way to preserve, or
reintroduce, stability, and exercise a requisite degree of control over
social life.

Stealing the opposition’s thunder
The power elite also recognized that the emergence of a polycentric
political system and the disappearance of practically all barriers to
information flows required a new ‘philosophy of propaganda’.
According to one proposal, it should:
– remove the doctrinal shackles on propaganda;
– use objective information well combined with interpretation so as
skilfully to suggest the desired attitude to the news;
– take a clear stand on each issue (adding up to a well-defined image
of the social order for which the audience’s support is sought), including
engaging in open polemics with opposed views;
– clearly enunciate the political and ideological identity of one’s own
side;
– adapt the message to the audience, i.e. involve specialization and
decentralization of the media;
– favour long-term consistency in propaganda instead of its erstwhile
subordination to political expediency as well as short-term drives and
campaigns;
– rely on the agenda-setting and -building and cultivation functions
of the media, rather than on direct persuasion (Rosiecki 1989).
Old habits die hard, however, and so the most noticeable aspect of
this new information policy is not so much the subtlety implied by this
approach, but the lifting of the many politically motivated restrictions
on what can be said in the official media. There are very few taboos
left: everything (with very few exceptions) is fair game —and is
criticized with relish.
It has been pointed out, however, that
[such] criticism may breed a sense of hopelessness and inure the
readers to the abnormal situation surrounding them. In these