Liberalism vs. Solidarity or Freedom vs. Socialism? Conflicting and Misleading Framings of Mediated Messages in the 2005 Polish Presidential Campaign: A Political Communication Perspective

For most of September and October 2005, the Polish news media were busy covering the parliamentary and the presidential elections in that country. Beginning two weeks apart from one another, with the presidential run-off election following two weeks later, these overlapping campaigns became the most important media and political events of the year. Their conjunction was an occurrence expected to happen once in 20 years because of Poland’s five-year presidential term and a four-year parliamentary term. For the first time since 1989, the result was that the President, the upper house of the parliament (Senat) and the lower house (Sejm) of the parliament are now controlled by the same party, Law and Justice (PiS). For the first time since Solidarity swept both elections, the Polish electorate has also made a definite turn to the right, voting for a political party that supports radical change, the symbolic setting up of a Fourth Republic which will be a morally superior country in contrast to the third Republic, the independent Polish state established after the Solidarity revolution when Poland was the first country in the former Soviet Block to end communism. This essay analyzes the 2005 presidential campaign from the point of view of agenda setting theory of how political communication is framed in campaign messages, media use and media coverage.