Współczesna debata telewizyjna a konflikt destruktywny

• Authors: Sobczak Barbara

Title variants

EN

Modern TV debate and destructive conflict

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article proves the point that modern public debates on TV, such as Jan Pospieszalski’s Warto rozmawiać [It’s worth talking], aired since 2004 on channel 2 of Poland’s public broadcasting corporation TVP, are communicative events based on destructive conflict, i.e. the ones that, according to L. Kriesberg, do not actually aim at a resolution of a problem, but serve as the occasion for a manifestation of aggression, while the aim of the argument is not to overcome differences dividing the warring parties but to subdue the opponent. This results from the particular communicative situation of a TV debate and the adopted attitude to, first, attract attention and then to satisfy the needs of the secondary recipient – the viewer. To achieve that, such elements as the choice of the subject for a debate, its scenario, selection of the audience, and then the verbal and non-verbal behaviour of the audience, are all subordinated to the purpose. Ultimately, such a TV debate violates the rules and strategies typical for a constructive and rational debate, which are subsequently replaced with the types of behaviour representative for destructive conflict, i.e. lack of openness to the arguments of the opponent, the attitude of defeating the antagonist, reluctance to find other solutions than one’s own, acts of provoking or inciting, undermining credibility of opponents, shifting the focus of a debate from the essential matter to that of a personal critical remarks, introducing ad hominem abusive that involves insulting one’s opponent, a refusal to work out a common position, etc. It is this pattern for a TV debate, i.e. one that has become a hasty fruitless formation and presentation of opinions devoid of conclusion and designed primarily to offend the interlocutor and to provide the audience with excited and short-lived emotions, that enhances the common belief that dialogue and problem solving in public discourse are not possible and that antagonism is a dominant factor in it.

Keywords

PL

komunikacja w mass mediach; debata; konflikt destrukcyjny

EN

mass media communication; debate; destructive conflict

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warmińsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie
• Journal: Prace Językoznawcze
• Year: 2011
• Issue: 13
• Pages: 241-253

Contributors

author

Sobczak Barbara

• Poznań