Audience acquisition in the mediated strategic communication (on the example of the Polish news service “Wiadomości”)

Abstract

The article analyzes one exemplary edition of “Wiadomości” — a news service of Polish public television. The program is framed as a medium implementing the information policy of their administrator, i.e. the policy of power. The focus was placed on evaluation as the most expressive linguistic mechanism of strategic communication. The analysis of evaluation, defined as a mechanism of audience acquisition, allowed the author to identify the values referred to by the government of the Republic of Poland in the process of creating the narratives ultimately shaping its image. The values of ‘success’ and ‘patriotism’ have become the basis for popularizing the narrative of the government as the entity with patriotic motivations, which prove successful. The mechanism of audience acquisition is implemented into two planes of text functioning which are the content plane and the expression plane. In the case of selected object of study, speaking about the content plane, it is necessary to pay attention to the choice of topics covered in the analyzed information program, their characteristics and the reasons for which these topics were raised. At the same time, speaking of the expression plane, it is necessary to discuss the use of techniques that contribute to the acceptance of a certain narrative about Poland (namely the Polish government) and the use of different ways of evaluating the reality that is the subject of the speech. In addition, the author of this article draws attention to the relationship between the concepts of strategic communication, public relations and propaganda.