News Propaganda in Poland : Mixed Methods Analysis of the Online News Coverage About the Media Law Proposal Lex TVN

Abstract: The thesis investigates propaganda in the online news coverage about the media law proposal Lex TVN, committed to the Polish parliament in 2021. The mixed methods approach applied in the research is based on a novel analytical matrix combining the Propaganda Model theory (Herman & Chomsky, 1988) and modalities of propaganda techniques (Da San Martino et al., 2020). The main findings indicate that propaganda in the coverage about the Lex TVN is a cross-platform issue; that it occured in different forms, as: sources, critical content (flak) or expressions of ideological preferences; and that it was created using various propaganda techniques. Moreover, the analysis demonstrates that propaganda was used for several reasons: to attract attention of the readers; to increase the firm’s profit and popularity; to express the stance of the media brand towards the bill Lex TVN; and to criticize the current government. The study contributes to the field of Media and Communication Studies by using the novel analytical matrix that tests the applicability of the PM in a new geopolitical context, Poland, and adds to the academically unexplored research area of news propaganda in Polish media. Several topics for further studies are suggested: the analysis of propaganda in the news coverage published by the Polish state media brand TVPInfo; an investigation of the news reception in Poland and the ability of the Polish news readers to identify news propaganda; and lastly, studying potential positive effects of news propaganda in the Polish context.