„Ludzie – truskawki” i „niepomagalni” – wizerunek biednych w dyskursie prasowym tygodnika Polityka

• Authors: Karolina Starego

Title variants

EN

„STRAWBERRY PEOPLE” AND „THE UNAIDABLE” – THE IMAGE OF THE POOR IN THE DISCOURSE OF “POLITYKA” NEWS MAGAZINE

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The purpose of this paper is to present findings on the construction of the image of the poor in the influential Polish news magazine “Polityka”. The data were analyzed using the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) methodology. According to the CDA’s perspective the mass-media are important agents in the processes of constructing the dominant vision of social reality. The creation of a particular account of social reality is influenced by the social position, interests and aims of the discourse’s ‘producers’. The research revealed four strategies playing an important role in constructing the image of the poor. The first strategy is situated in a wider perspective of a critique of the public welfare regime. It presumes that providing direct help to the poor has negative consequences such as forming “welfare mentality” in the recipients, making them dependent on the help they receive and thus reducing their chances to become productive citizens. The second strategy is that of defining “social exclusion” as an unchanging state, in which the frontier separating the excluded from the rest of the society is a social constant, separating “health” from “sickness”. As a result, the marginalization of the poor is seen as a natural process. The third strategy is that of dehumanization using objectifying descriptions. The fourth is the “politics of visibility” that aims to present the lives of the poor using “popular ethnography” that invariably presents a dehumanized vision of the Polish poor. The main effect of the four presented strategies is the division of the poor into those who ‘deserve’ and ‘do not deserve’ the help they are given. This, in contrast with the stated progressive aims of the analyzed articles, helps to legitimize rather than question the inequalities and social stratification of the Polish society.

Keywords

EN

POVERTY; IMAGE CONSTRUCTION; MEDIA DISCOURSE; PUBLIC WELFARE

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Dolnośląskiej Szkoły Wyższej
• Journal: Teraźniejszość – Człowiek – Edukacja
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 2(58)
• Pages: 37-62

Contributors

author

Karolina Starego

• Instytut Pedagogiki Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, Zakład Pedagogiki Ogólnej, ul. Bażynskiego 4, 80-952 Gdańsk, Poland