Abstract
The aim of this paper is to determine the level of populist and nationalist trends in the Polish influential press articles related to the global financial crisis triggered on 15 September 2008 by the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank. The result of the Polish presence in the European Union and NATO structures is that the crisis situations in Western Europe and the USA constitute an important topic for Polish media, and allow for the assessment of the level of approval/criticism towards the Western world. The author assumed that the domination of populist and nationalist trends is a sign of Euro-skepticism, while their presence that is not more than incidental – a sign of pro-European attitude. The paper versions of the most influential Polish press titles constitute the research material, namely daily papers: “Rzeczpospolita” and “Gazeta Wyborcza” and weekly magazines: “Newsweek Polska” and “Polityka”.
Highlights
AND METHODOLOGYThe Polish presence in the European Union (EU) is connected with social and political changes after the fall of communism in 1989 and democratization, which resulted in accession of Poland to the European structures in 2004 [Sztompka 1996; Ekiert 2003; Žídek 2011; Szalkowski, Jankowicz 2004; Copsey, Pomorska 2014]
The analysis undertaken in this study aims at verifying the following research hypothesis: The Polish press took up the topic of the financial crisis following the fall of the Lehman Brothers investment bank
The Polish press discussed the issue of the financial crisis within the period directly following the fall of the Lehman Brothers investment bank on the level of information, and interpretation
Summary
The Polish presence in the European Union (EU) is connected with social and political changes after the fall of communism in 1989 and democratization, which resulted in accession of Poland to the European structures in 2004 [Sztompka 1996; Ekiert 2003; Žídek 2011; Szalkowski, Jankowicz 2004; Copsey, Pomorska 2014]. The author assumes that the tone of approval in press articles towards populist and nationalist trends in their conservative version will, in principle, evidence the Euro-skeptical attitude of the media. The first term is a protest against the idea of European integration, and the second one means an attitude expressing a series of reservations with regard to different areas of EU actions – quality-based attitude towards some of the current EU policies which are not coincident with the national interest of one’s own state, without undermining the very principles of the EU existence and membership of one’s own state in its structures [Sondel-Cedarmas 2015: 396] It is this latter interpretation, which can be defined as “soft Euro-skepticism”, that is assumed by the author as the explanation of the term “Euro-skepticism” in this paper. The categorization key for all analyzed press titles consisted of two features examined: POPULISM and NATIONALISM
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
