Tom 7(4)2019, s. 215–231 doi:10.4467/23540214ZM.19.014.11340 www.ejournals.eu/ZM Agnieszka Węglińska Dolnośląska Szkoła Wyższa [University of Lower Silesia] ORCID 0000-0002-2573-5981 PUBLIC TELEVISION IN POLAND TVP AND JOURNALISTS A TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGE Abstract Th is paper addresses the place of Poland’s public television network, Telewizja Polska (TVP) with- in the country’s media system. Th e role of journalists is an important element of public media. In an author view Poland’s public media as part of a system of polarised pluralism, as described in Daniel Hallin and Paolo Mancini’s classifi cation. Th e main aspect of this research is that of TVP’s transfor- mation in its approach to technology. Journalists who started working in the 1990s have diff erent at- titudes from younger staff to the network’s public objectives. Th ey are usually less competent in new media and less concerned about technological convergence and social media. Th e research involved unstructured interviews with TVP journalists. Key words: public service media, TVP, journalism, media system, social media, new technology Introduc on Th is article considers increasingly visible trends aff ecting Poland’s public media, pointing to the technological revolution which strongly infl uence the operations and content of the public broadcaster, Polish Television (Telewizja Polska – TVP). Aft er 1989 Poland’s media system – much like the entire country – was trans- formed. During the fi rst months and years of this transformation, a competitive press market developed; aft er the Broadcasting Act took eff ect in 1993, a dual me- dia system came into being and took shape, based on the co-existence of public and commercial media.1 1 K. Pokorna-Ignatowicz, Polish Public Television as “Political Loot”, “Studia Medioznawcze” [Media Studies] 2010, no. 2(41), pp. 39–48. 216 Agnieszka Węglińska Economic and social transformations also began, in parallel with constitution- al change.2 A media market arose, at fi rst without a suitable legal mandate. In those times, the most important processes aff ecting the mass media were the commercial- isation of the press, the infl ow of foreign capital, the appearance of private audio- visual broadcasters and increased competitiveness. At the beginning of the twenti- eth century the technological revolution was initiated in media system of Poland. Th e most important features that distinguish a public broadcaster include the way in which the public system is fi nanced, its general accessibility, a distinct set of legal regulations within the media system and the fulfi lment of its mission – pur- suing public objectives.3 Th e public media’s remit is a key argument for their exist- ence: if the public broadcaster has no objectives to fulfi l, it is hard to argue that its fi nancing is legitimate.4 In European democracies, citizens pay public broadcasters – through subscriptions, taxes or other means of support – to pursue public objectives. Polish media system was classifi ed as one of polarised pluralism and justifi ed this classifi cation with reference to literature. Research into TVP journalists – those who prepare network programmes and take responsibility for their content, infl u- encing what is covered – may give us an idea of how TVP functions and what fac- tors infl uence programme content. It was essential to ask whether TVP journalists recognised the advent and development of the technological revolution. Th e Polish public television network, TVP, served as the starting point for the research. Th e net- work pursues public objectives, which can be also refer to as its remit, including ac- cessibility throughout Poland. Poles pay a licence fee for the network and TVP hires journalists who take responsibility for broadcast content. Legislation involving the media aff ects the network’s eff orts. Th e analysis that has been carried out allows the thesis to be put forward that the work of TVP journalists has experienced bottom- up change– initiated by themselves – as a result of the technological revolution(RH). The Polish PSM in the media system Th e transformation of government media into public media has been attributed to various causes, in particular, the paternalistic motivation, aiming to carry out edu- cational work.5 A further stimulus, the democracy-freedom motivation, has been 2 B. Klimkiewicz, Between Autonomy and Dependency: Funding, Mechanisms of Public Service Media in Selected European Countries, [in:] K.A. Ibarra, E. Nowak, R. Kuhn (eds.), Public Service Me- dia in Europe: A Comparative Approach, London: Routledge, London 2015, p. 113. 3 P. Scannel, Public Service Broadcasting: Th e History of Concept, [in:] A. Goodwin, G. Whan- nel (eds.), Understanding Television, Routledge, London 1990, pp. 11–30. 4 M. Różycka, Media publiczne – państwo, społeczeństwo, rynek, “Zarządzanie Mediami” [Me- dia Management] 2013, no. 1(1), pp. 11–32. DOI:10.4467/23540214ZM.13.003.2294. 5 H. Van den Bulck, Public Service Television and National Identity as a Project of Moderni- ty: Th e Example of Flemish Television, “Media, Culture and Society” 2001, no. 23(1), pp. 53–70; ZARZĄDZANIE MEDIAMI Tom 7(4)2019 Public Television in Poland (TVP) and Journalists – A Technological Challenge 217 present in countries such as Germany or Spain, as well as in post-Communist co- untries which have been shedding the heritage of totalitarianism. Direct reference may be made to Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini’s clas- sifi cation of media systems,6 which assumes that the state is important in shaping a country’s media system. Hallin and Mancini observed that a basic form of state infl uence has been public media. In Western Europe, public media have long oper- ated on the principles governing public monopolies, while in the former Soviet bloc countries, they have functioned as state media. Th e authorities in various coun- tries, as the media’s legislators and funders, could exploit the public media for polit- ical ends. In the 1980s, ongoing technological developments changed this situation markedly. Decision-makers had to allow commercial entities to enter the market, which led to both a shrinking of the broadcasters’ audience and to commerciali- sation; these trends are discussed in more detail below. Over the years, various re- searchers have made use of Hallin and Mancini’s classifi cation, taking further the research results which they published in 2004.7 Hallin and Mancini’s classifi cation has been broadened, widely discussed and also frequently criticised, if only for its initial version miss the countries of the post-Communist bloc.8 Hallin and Mancini’s classifi cation of media systems was marked by variables such as the level of media market development in a particular country, its level of print media readership, the extent of political parallelism, the degree of journalistic professionalism and the extent and nature of state intervention. Hallin and Mancini also identifi ed three models of media systems: polarised pluralist, democratic cor- poratist and liberal.9 Investigating public media, the researchers distinguished four basic management models: the government model, the professional model, the Par- liamentary or proportional representation model, and the civic or corporatist mod- el. Figure 1 presents management models for public service media (PSM).10 J. Skrzypczak, Spór o media publiczne w Polsce w świetle standardów europejskich, “Środkowoeuropej- skie Studia Polityczne” 2015, no. 4, pp. 91–112. 6 D.C. Hallin, P. Mancini, Systemy medialne. Trzy modele mediów i polityki w ujęciu porównaw- czym, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego [Jagiellonian University Press], Kraków 2007, pp. 21–46. 7 T. Aalberg, T.P van Aelst, J. Curran, Media Systems and the Political Information Environment: A Cross-National Comparison, “Media, Culture and Society” 2010, no. 15(3), pp. 255–271; R. Ben- son, M. Blach-Orsten, M. Powers, I. Willig, S.V. Zambrano, Media Systems Online and Off : Compar- ing the Form of News in the United States, Denmark, and France, “Journal of Communication” 2012, no. 62(1), pp. 21–38; F. Esser, C. de Vreese, J. Strömbäck et al., Political Information Opportunities in Europe, “Th e International Journal of Press/Politics” 2012, no. 17(3), pp. 247–274. 8 F. Büchel, E. Humprecht, L. Castro-Herrero, S. Engesser, M. Brüggemann, Building Empiri- cal Typologies with QCA, “Th e International Journal of Press/Politics” 2016, no. 21(2), pp. 209–232. 9 D.C. Hallin, P. Mancini, Systemy medialne…, op. cit., pp. 87–201; idem, Comparing Media Systems: Between Easter and Western Europe, [in:] P. Gross, K. Jakubowicz (eds.), Media Transfor- mation in the Post-communists World: Eastern Europe Tortured Path to Change, Cambridge Univer- sity Press, Cambridge 2013, pp. 15–33. 10 D.C. Hallin, P. Mancini, Systemy medialne…, op. cit., pp. 87–201. ZARZĄDZANIE MEDIAMI Tom 7(4)2019 218 Agnieszka Węglińska Figure 1. Management models for PSM the professional model management models for public service the civic or corpora st the government model broadcas ng (Hallin & Mancini, 2004) model the Parliamentary or propor onal representa on model Source: D.C. Hallin, P. Mancini, Systemy medialne. Trzy modele mediów i polityki w ujęciu porównawczym, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego [Jagiellonian University Press], Kraków 2007, pp. 30–31. Th eir classifi cation deserves careful consideration, as it has provided the basis for the study of media systems in the last decade. Th e countries classifi ed in Hallin and Mancini’s typology have several features in common, but some diff erences are also apparent. Th e fi rst of the above-described models, polarised pluralism, is char- acteristic of countries where the leading print media serve elites and there is other- wise a low level of readership. As the media have oft en been subsidised by the state, press freedom and commercialised mass communication have developed quite late.