Page 177 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

166 COMMUNICATION AND CITIZENSHIP

themselves which were supposed to serve as ‘spokesmen’ for the
masses and ‘express’ their views and feelings.
The ideologues of the new information order in Poland reject this
approach. They see communication as empowerment, as the exercise of
a right, and satisfaction of the need, to communicate by ‘speaking with
one’s own voice’, without the need for spokesmen and intermediaries.
In general social terms, this approach springs from what might be called
a substantive understanding of democratic communication as an
element of ‘communicative democracy’, seen as an integral element of
political democracy and an essential part of the process of democratic
governance. 4
In this approach, therefore, communication as empowerment strongly
ties in with the notion of subjectivity in its philosophical, political and
social sense (cf. Poprzeczko 1988)—itself an often used term (which
denotes a right to mastery of one’s own fate, to individual or group
identity in the broadest meaning of the term, as well as to self-
determination and self-government) to describe the goal of change
being promoted by Solidarity. In view of the nature of Poland’s
political, social and economic system, working-class protest in August
1980 involved a very clear desire to reform the social system so as to
make sure that society and its members would be in a position to
perform their role as subjects. Hence Solidarity’s goal of transforming
Poland into a ‘self-governing commonwealth’. Thus, in this approach
communication as empowerment combines both respect for the right to
communicate as a basic human right and a way of satisfying a
fundamental human need, and a view of participatory communication as
satisfying a fundamental social need, as a prerequisite of democracy and
self-government.

Building the new order
Let us begin with broadcasting where progress has so far been slowest.
During the round-table conference, Solidarity submitted a three-stage
plan for the socialization of broadcasting. In stage I, Solidarity editorial
departments would be set up within Polish Radio and Polish Television,
with guaranteed amounts of airtime at their disposal; right of reply
(encompassing elements of the American Fairness Doctrine) would be
observed in radio and television programming; representation of all the
nation’s major political and social forces in the governing bodies would
be ensured. In stage II, one nationwide radio channel and one
nationwide television channel would be turned over to social groups and