This year presidential elections they showed not only a fresh political scenery – in which candidates to the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Law of the Holy Order, for the first time in history, managed to rise more than 1 5th of the vote – but besides media. We have seen how much the function of conventional media has fallen in relation to the 2020 elections, not to mention those of 2015, and the fresh ones have grown.
Next to Navrocki, Mentzen and Braun, the biggest winner of these elections is Krzysztof Stanowski and his Zero Channel, which became 1 of the most crucial media channels of this campaign. The disregard of it and the misunderstanding of its specifics was 1 of many errors behind the president of Warsaw, consisting that it was yet Karol Nawrocki who won by 370 1000 votes more and secured the presidency. Let us remind you that, erstwhile able to air anything there, the squad of Trzaskowski aired a video of Roman Giertych explaining why as a Catholic he will not vote for Nawrocki.
This trend is expected to only deepen. In the next election, what large TV, net portals or paper press say about candidates will be little and little crucial for the behaviour of voters, especially the youngest ones.
Horses again
Of course, it is not that conventional media no longer matter. They are inactive a key tool for communication with the 50+ electorate, and especially 60+, which in an ageing Polish society is increasing. In this year's campaign, any of the key events were inactive tv debates, and in peculiar the 1 that Rafał Trzaskowski tried to organize at the Horses.
Trzaskowski inadvertently pushed the remaining candidates to revolt – headed by Szymon Holovnia – and generated a reviving boring run of chaos. From that point on, KO candidate's staff usually remained on the defensive and sometimes even seemed to have lost control of the campaign.
However, the 3rd debate in Koński, held before the second circular by the tv Republic, did not substance much. Like the absence of an KO candidate, who chose to meet his voters in Kalisz alternatively of the marketplace in Koński. 5 years ago, the absence of the debate in Koński organized by TVP could have cost Trzaskowski a defeat – especially due to the fact that Andrzej Duda took advantage of the chance given to him by the public broadcaster and cleverly gave signals to groups of voters specified as anti-vaccinators. This year, among many publicist-expert exchanges of explanations, why Trzaskowski lost, there is no mention of absence in the debate in Koński before the second round.
For political dynamics between the first and the second circular there was greater importance than the debate of the Republic in Koński, but besides the 1 between Nawrocki and Trzaskowski on air 3 major televisions, there were performances of both candidates on the YouTube channel of Sławomir Mentzen and their repercussions on social media.
Don't politicians request conventional media anymore?
Mentzen's remarkable success is proof that politicians no longer request conventional media to scope the mass audience. Mentzen builds from the beginning his political position on direct communication with voters on YouTube and TikTok.
In the campaign, he avoided journalists, sometimes moving from them on a scooter, rushing from 1 gathering with voters for another. In interviews, he went bad – talking to Krzysztof Stanowski caused the first major crisis in his campaign; apart from the last debate of all candidates on TVP in all others, he fell poorly. The mainstream media – although they had previously enjoyed the "economic common sense" of the Mentzenian wing of the Confederate – spoke of it in the course of the run alternatively critically, announcing, for example, a message from the talk with Stanowski about the rape as "unpleasant".
However, this did not prevent Mentzen from collecting almost 15 percent and nearly 3 million votes. He built his own media ecosystem based on YouTube and social media, which allowed him almost completely not to worry about what conventional media say about him. His constituents don't get information from them anyway, and even if they do, they don't necessarily believe them.
Zandberg besides mostly based his superb run on a dynamic YouTube entry and social media, where he could talk straight to his supporters – and we must admit that the leader Together this format is getting better.
Public media have lost chance to show what they are needed for
Nawrocki's triumph can besides be read as a symptom of the weaknesses of conventional media, which drew him a series of scandals and until fatigue made all the dark points of PiS candidate's biography public. While the affair of the studio could have cost the president of the IPN the first round, due to the fact that it took the media space in which Nawrocki's gathering with Trump in the White home would have sounded much more powerful, 1 can wonder whether in the second circular a continuous negative transmission around Nawrocki did not push towards it any anti-system voters – to spite the media establishment.
The consequence of overheating negative messages to Nawrocki may be to strengthen the conviction of young anti-system voters that the media is biased and, erstwhile they uncover political scandals, it is better to check twice what their agenda is. On the another hand, liberal-progressive public opinion (which supported free media, frequently financially) can wonder what the point is erstwhile the most sensational findings of investigative journalists yet Nothing changes and has no major political effect.
In this campaign, however, the anger of public opinion focused on public media. This is TVP, next to Trzaskovsky's staff, the most got in for the unfortunate debate in Konski. Public media were accused that even if they could not compare their current message to what was done on Voronica in the days of the hen, they are inactive biased, they do not fulfill their mission, yet – they are simply boring.
Public media bias before the second circular of elections is besides mentioned in the OSCE observer report. It reads: "Despite its statutory obligation, public tv – like TVN's private station and Onet portal – frequently portrayed Karol Nawrocki in a negative light, while the message concerning Rafał Trzaskowski was mostly uncritical". The study adds that even more biased was the message of the Republic, made by people forming TVP during the times of the Law and Justice, but the coalition voters expected more than public media little biased than those created by Michał Rachonia – due to the fact that it truly is not a highly suspended bar.
Public media could have utilized this run to show that despite all the controversy about the way the board was exchanged in late 2023 and functioning as a liquidated media have a socially crucial role, especially in the context of elections and accompanying public debate. This is truly crucial in a country where the demands for "to liquidate TVP" or at least TVP Info have long been part of the political decade "A healthy peasant mindIt’s okay. ”
Meanwhile, the public media did not work completely in the presidential run as a origin of high-quality information, allowing them to read in depth the programs of all candidates and verify whether their proposals make sense. The format of debates, where 13 candidates recite the day's message for respective seconds, which in full takes them nearly 4 hours, proved completely dysfunctional. Already better with the views of the candidates allowed Stanowski to get acquainted, making almost all longer conversations.
Public media should do this at a higher level. For example, I would like to see a group of liberal economists, economical journalists and business leaders grill Zandberg for 2 hours, asking for details of his economical programme. On the another hand, as economists and journalists of more left-wing orientation, social policy experts or trade unionists do.
From Kukiz to Channel Zero
Such an attitude of public media created a large space for the Stanowski Canal. The writer perfectly utilized the start of the run to advance his medium. He introduced himself as a contemporary Stańczyk, embarrassing the absurdities of our politics and presidential games. However, the blade of this satire was directed very unilaterally, mainly against Trzaskowski.
One might wonder if Stanowski with his Zero Channel played a function akin to Paweł Kukiz in 2015. Kukiz then served as a bridge, after which erstwhile PO voters could go to the PiS, his start created political and cultural dynamics, in which Komorowski became a candidate more embarrassing and grandfatherly than Andrzej Duda. Channel Zero, a average of "healthy peasant reason" and soft alt-right for young men, could make a akin dynamics around Trzaskovsky, contributing to his failure in group 18-39, appearing to the youngest voters as greater evil, and possibly even greater embarrassment than Nawrocks.
If Channel Zero after rising on the run wave does not lose viewers until the next election, in 2027 the right will have a very beneficial media landscape. On the 1 hand, the weakening conventional media, seen by an crucial part of the electorate as biased and engaged on 1 side, on the another hand the Republic-type media, serving the elder and most identity electorate of the right, and on the 3rd channel Zero for young, moderately anti-systemic men, including politicians with their own communication channels, like Mentzen. If the liberal-left side does not start moving more efficiently in this fresh media landscape, it will be very hard for it.
