Science in the Polish popular press – between Eastern and Western colonialism?
Science in the Polish popular press – between Eastern and Western colonialism?

Summary/Abstract: The paper provides an analysis of the image of science that can be drawn from the press texts dedicated to science in 1975 and 2005. The analysis covers full yearly editions of the most popular and influential Polish newspapers and magazines – 9 titles for 1975 and 9 titles for 2005.Methodologically, the paper is based on the content analysis and representative method. Based on the results of the analysis a question arises: which countries are referred to (or cited) in the Polish press as sources of scientific information. Then the sources for the years 1975 and 2005 are compared and contrasted in order to verify the following hypotheses. One of them is that the mediatisation of science (the way science is presented in the media, specifically, in the press) depends on the current cultural or political situation. Thus according to the dominant cultural / political trends reflected in the Polish press the main sources of scientific information communicated in the press are either the countries grouped in the Soviet bloc (especially the USSR) – until the transformation in 1989 – or the Anglo-Saxon countries (especially the USA) – from 1989. Cultural and scientific dependence of Poland (and probably other so called ‘people’s democracies’) on the imperial role of the USSR (before 1989) or the USA (after 1989) resembles colonial relations. What comes as a surprise, however, is the fact that according to the analysis’s results Poland has always been a western-oriented country – even while being a part of the Soviet bloc.

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