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Strikes should be completely delegalized) and more totalitarian (The army should
help the government in their ruling). All the data take into account gender, age,
education and income and the results are significant even though the influence of those
demographic variables is controlled for (Klebaniuk, 2003, 2006a). As can be easily
noticed, the political views of heavy television viewers were close to those proliferated
by the Right-wing parties well before they gained power. Although a content analysis
would provide decisive evidence, the existing data allows to draw some conclusions.
According to the cultivation theory it was television, that prepared ground for the Far-
right to take over. Also, it should be noticed, that before the 2005 elections corruption
and other forms of low breaking were high on the agenda, as several parliamentary
investigation commissions were active and their sessions were transmitted and widely
commented in the media.
An alternative to the cultivation theory is the spiral of silence theory. Although
this approach is methodologically doubtful, it is one of the most influential media
society concept. The spiral-of-silence thesis contends that public opinion serves as a
"social skin" that binds a given society together. Most individuals fear social isolation
and attempt to avoid it, using what she terms a "quasi-statistical, unconscious organ" to
read what are, and what are not, socially acceptable views and behaviours in any given
situation ( Noelle-Neumann, 1984, p. 179). As it is based on a simple assumption that
people conform to the most widespread opinion and try not to oppose to the majority
point of view, it may be used to explain the absence of some critical opinions in the
media. The national, catholic and pro free market messages dominate Polish media.
Therefore criticising the Right-wing ideology or simply not conforming to it in Poland
can put you in trouble. There are social, and recently even court sanctions for not being
a 100% patriot, Roman Catholic and capitalism-supporter. Anti-war protesters in April
2003 in Wrocław were fined; an artist using cross in her installation in a rebel way or
and a journalist naming John Paul II parochial preacher were sued. In 2006 one
private television station was heavily fined by the national media watchdog for
presenting some material mocking from hardliner Catholic activist (on public television
the Church is praised and the right symbols worshiped).
42
STUDIA KULTUROWE Numer 1/2008
Therefore the spiral of silence is working, silencing any Left-wing opposition on the
media and elsewhere in public life.
Perversely enough, the creator of the theory Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, once
the Gebels propaganda part, claims that the media are leftist and the traditional values
are endangered. One of the author s critics, Christopher Simpson concludes that
examples of the basic continuity of her thought include a continuing distrust of racial,
ethnic, and cultural diversity, and of ethnically pluralist societies in general; an apparent
contempt for many aspects of democracy, and particularly for the role of the "less
intelligent public," as she has put it, in political affairs; a willingness to scapegoat an
ostensibly liberal mass media for a broad range of social ills; exploitation of research
designs that produce politically useful results; frequent claims that her personal
preconceptions are scientific facts; and an ongoing commitment to promotion of the
interests of the powerful in German society over those of the weak and disenfranchised
(Simpson, 1996: 151). This is an example of how the same theoretic starting point can,
if taken by persons committed to different ideological beliefs, can lead to different
conclusion. Politics seems a dangerous trade for a scientist.
Sources of the political right s popularity: personality orientations
Low & Justice leaders are considered to lead the party, the government and the state
in an authoritarian way. The keep all the power strings very tightly. Also, they do not
initiate any public debates on important issues and suppress all the fringe movements
within their own party (the opponents are either marginalized or must go). Who
supports such way of ruling? The answer not unexpected at all was found in a
research programme done during the 2005 Polish presidential election period. The
students, who cast their vote on LPR, PiS and /or Lech Kaczyński are more
authoritarian than the others (both voters and non-voters). The results showed the
external validity of the Right-Wing Authoritarianism theory and unexpectedly
authoritarian orientation of pedagogy and psychology students (Klebaniuk, 2005).
The origins of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) theory may be found in
classical authoritarianism theories of Erich Fromm (1941) and Theodore Adorno and
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