Inwazja Rosji na Ukrainę w polskich dziennikach opinii Rzeczpospolita i Gazeta Wyborcza

Abstract

Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine in the Polish Opinion Dailies Rzeczpospolita and Gazeta Wyborcza The aim of the article was to reconstruct the image of the initial stage of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the time immediately preceding it, in the Polish opinion dailies Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita. It was verified which of the interpretive frame, as defined by Holli Semetko and Patti Valkenburg, was the dominant one, which tópoi (natural vs. cultural) dominated in the research sample and how the number and exposure of press texts were changing, alongside the intensity of press coverage regarding the Russia’s war in Ukraine. The content analysis method, the framing analysis concept, the priming concept and the locus communis concept were used in the research. The frame of conflict and the frame of human affairs were the dominant frames in Polish opinion dailies. Rzeczpospolita also noted a high degree of saturation of publications with the economic consequences frame. Cultural tópoi prevailed over natural ones. The most numerously represented natural tópoi were: the right to freedom and security, human dignity, the right to life, while the cultural tópoi were: the politics of superpowers, the economic consequences of war, migration and refugees. The greatest interest of Polish dailies in Russia’s war in Ukraine took place just after February 24, 2022, whilst the “freshness effect” decreased only slightly with the passage of time. The article increases the cognitive value in the area of research on the image of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the Polish opinion press.