Musical chairs? The three public spheres of Poland

Abstract

Following Jurgen Habermas, Nicholas Garnham defines the public sphere as the network of media, educational, knowledge and opinion-forming institutions within civil society whose operation is conducive to the emergence of public opinion as a political power. Of those, the mass media are today perhaps the most powerful element of the public sphere. Since 1976, Poland has also had an opposition public sphere, consisting, as far as its media are concerned, of underground periodicals and books. This public sphere came into the open during the Solidarity period in 1980-1, in the form of about 1,000 Solidarity periodicals. The new communication policy outlined was clearly designed to counter what the authorities perceived as a threat that Poland's social system would become so polycentric as to become unmanageable and uncontrollable. The Church media will remain and even no doubt grow stronger, but they will not be voices from outside the system, and even less will they constantly challenge it.