General information about the research

The objective of the research was to ascertain whether the media space -conceived as the communicative dimension of the public sphere in Poland - is favourable to deliberation. Therefore, the first thing to be analysed was the way in which public discourses concerning the given topic exist or do not exist in the media. In the case of the current ones, their internal structure and dynamic was analysed, as well as the mechanisms that dictate their media visibility. Secondly, apart from analysing the media space, we also examined the role of the media themselves as actants in the field of promoting the ideas of deliberation and participation, creating certain representations of these concepts, as well as the function of mobilising citizens to participate in them and providing information on their progress.

The material selected for exploring how these mechanisms worked comprised topics linked to energy policy as an area of policy that is on the one hand presented as strategic for the country and extremely important for its citizens’ quality of life, and on the other as complicated, difficult and demanding particular competences. Three subject areas were chosen from the related areas. In 2011, at the research planning stage, two of these were so-called “hot topics” that were capturing the media's attention - nuclear energy and shale gas. We also chose the topic of wind energy, as the form of alternative energy based on renewable energy sources that was the most recognised and most common in the Polish media. The initial exploratory research showed that wind energy tended to be treated as something of a counterpoint for the remaining two energy sources.

The main load of the analyses concerns current discourses, anchored “here and now,” meaning in practice systematic monitoring of the media for 12 months. We then conducted a qualitative analysis of the contents of the sources in selected periods from this time, permitting us to observe the continuity of the discourses, and thus the process of how the arguments used developed, topics were continued, actors were included and excluded as the discourses developed, the scenes of events were constructed, and specific definitions of the situation created and negotiated. Thanks to continual monitoring, the researchers were able to refer to the current socio-political situation.