kravietz 🦇 on Nostr: A quick case study for one of the reasons why PiS (“Law and Justice”) government ...
A quick case study for one of the reasons why PiS (“Law and Justice”) government in #Poland has largely lost its majority in the last elections.
One of the reasons for PiS success for two consecutive electoral cycles was their efficient use of media. Or, that’s what they described it - I would describe it simply as tabloid-style propaganda, often inspired by example of Russian state media. After PiS took away any journalist independence from the public TVP, they turned it into a very rough propaganda machine, with extremely simplified and biased messages. Their subtitles became legendary due to their sheer stupidity, targeted at the lowest instincts of the least perceptive audience.
But I have just stumbled upon a screenshot of one infamous 2021 press conference…
In September 2021, amidst the #Belarus human trafficking crisis, the Poland’s ministers of internal affairs and of defence (!) spoke on a press conference where he presented slides with content allegedly found on the immigrants’ phones
The presentation contained barely redacted paedophile and zoophile photos. While the border force and the minister clearly described these as “content found on phones” and even mentioned first names of the two specific perpetrators, the Polish state TV (TVP) wasn’t as subtle. Their news was worded literally: “Zoophiles among migrants. He raped a cow and wanted to get into Poland.”” The text also hinted that
https://www.tvp.info/56071419/zoofilia-wsrod-imigrantow-zgwalcil-krowe-chcial-dostac-sie-do-polski-szczegoly-ujawniaja-polskie-sluzby-konferencja-mon-i-mswia-27092021
Shortly after, the video was identified by OSINTers and found to be an old video, widely available on zoophile portals. So while technically it’s possible that this video was actually found on someone’s phone, the TVP title was an outright and rather extreme manipulation. Or the whole story could have been entirely invented and presentation compiled from photos someone from Polish ministry laboriously collected from zoophile portals, we don’t know.
Why am I even mentioning this case? Because what PiS did was very much an experiment on public communications. Specifically, it was experiment whether a whole state could communicate in the same way as the worst yellow press tabloids communicate, monetizing on the lowest instincts and audience that can’t be honestly described other than dumb. It certainly resonated with some, just as tabloids also have their market segment (unfortunately).
However, as we can see, turning your state media into one huge tabloid doesn’t resonate well with the majority of the voters, who feel that public media should be representative to everyone. By the way, the same thing had largely happened to the Russian state media from whom the PiS spin-doctors were learning their lessons: Russian state TV was losing audience and authority since ~2010 when Putin first turned it into simplistic propaganda machine. PiS apparently missed that bit…
One of the reasons for PiS success for two consecutive electoral cycles was their efficient use of media. Or, that’s what they described it - I would describe it simply as tabloid-style propaganda, often inspired by example of Russian state media. After PiS took away any journalist independence from the public TVP, they turned it into a very rough propaganda machine, with extremely simplified and biased messages. Their subtitles became legendary due to their sheer stupidity, targeted at the lowest instincts of the least perceptive audience.
But I have just stumbled upon a screenshot of one infamous 2021 press conference…
In September 2021, amidst the #Belarus human trafficking crisis, the Poland’s ministers of internal affairs and of defence (!) spoke on a press conference where he presented slides with content allegedly found on the immigrants’ phones
The presentation contained barely redacted paedophile and zoophile photos. While the border force and the minister clearly described these as “content found on phones” and even mentioned first names of the two specific perpetrators, the Polish state TV (TVP) wasn’t as subtle. Their news was worded literally: “Zoophiles among migrants. He raped a cow and wanted to get into Poland.”” The text also hinted that
https://www.tvp.info/56071419/zoofilia-wsrod-imigrantow-zgwalcil-krowe-chcial-dostac-sie-do-polski-szczegoly-ujawniaja-polskie-sluzby-konferencja-mon-i-mswia-27092021
Shortly after, the video was identified by OSINTers and found to be an old video, widely available on zoophile portals. So while technically it’s possible that this video was actually found on someone’s phone, the TVP title was an outright and rather extreme manipulation. Or the whole story could have been entirely invented and presentation compiled from photos someone from Polish ministry laboriously collected from zoophile portals, we don’t know.
Why am I even mentioning this case? Because what PiS did was very much an experiment on public communications. Specifically, it was experiment whether a whole state could communicate in the same way as the worst yellow press tabloids communicate, monetizing on the lowest instincts and audience that can’t be honestly described other than dumb. It certainly resonated with some, just as tabloids also have their market segment (unfortunately).
However, as we can see, turning your state media into one huge tabloid doesn’t resonate well with the majority of the voters, who feel that public media should be representative to everyone. By the way, the same thing had largely happened to the Russian state media from whom the PiS spin-doctors were learning their lessons: Russian state TV was losing audience and authority since ~2010 when Putin first turned it into simplistic propaganda machine. PiS apparently missed that bit…