http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/43379169

The media and intra-elite communication in Poland summary report

The Rand Corporation is conducting a multiyear comparative study of the role of the media in intra-elite communication in Communist countries. Western analysts of the political process in "closed" Communist systems necessarily rely heavily on the published and broadcast output of the mass and specialized media. These media are in part propaganda organs, but they also have other functions. A generation of Sovietologists (and specialists on other Communist states) has had to base much of its analysis of policies and politics on interpretations of media nuances. Yet the assumptions of Sovietologists about the relationship between the media and the political actors whose behavior or attitudes are inferred from them have received little attention. The Rand study was initiated to fill this need. Its emphasis is not on techniques of content analysis, but rather on the process by which politically significant material appears in Communist-country media. The principal data base of the study is information obtained from extended interviews with 44 emigres formerly involved in the media process as writers, journalists, editors, censors, and government and Party officials. The Rand project utilizes this data base to examine the structure and process of Communist media; the study focuses on the medium in the expectation that this will enhance the analyst's ability to interpret its message. The results of this work on Polish media are published in the present report, which provides an overview analysis and conclusions, and in a series of Rand Notes, which contain more detailed analyses and documentation of the research. This report summarizes the major features of the Polish media system, describes the specific roles and editorial processes of major types of media, and analyzes the relationship between divergences of view that appear in the media and intra-elite discussion, debate, and controversy.

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