Agnieszka Stępińska

Adam Mickiewicz University | UAM · Department of Social Communication

Data suggests that the majority of citizens in various countries came across ‘fake news’ during the COVID-19 pandemic. We test the relationship between perceived prevalence of misinformation and people’s worries about COVID-19. In Study 1, analyses of a survey across 17 countries indicate a positive association: perceptions of high prevalence of mi...

A widely believed claim is that citizens tend to selectively expose themselves to like-minded information. However, when individuals find the information useful, they are more likely to consume cross- cutting sources. While crises such as terror attacks and pandemics can enhance the utility of cross-cutting information, empirical evidence on the ro...

This working paper examined citizens' reactions to populism. It also verified whether anti-elite populist narratives have an impact on citizens' trust in politics and institutions. Additionally, the research investigated the success of populist content on Facebook by means of reactions. Given different purposes, this study relied on both quantitati...

This paper points out the main opportunities and challenges when qualitative data collection (both in-depth interviews and focus groups) is transferred from an in-person setting to a video conferencing platform. Online video research interviews (OVRI) permit an overcoming of limitations in in-person interviews such as access to participants, time,...

Abstract: How is political news shared online? This fundamental question for political communication research in today's news ecology is still poorly understood. In particular, very little is known how explaining news sharing differs from explaining news viewing. Based on a unique dataset of approximately 870,000$ URLs shared approximately 100 mil...

The aim of the paper is to study the role of Facebook as a source of political information for Polish media users. The study combines a survey, a content analysis of Polish-language news items disseminated through Facebook, and computational methods. Findings revealed that Facebook has already gained a position as a crucial agent of political commu...

This chapter studies rally-around-the-flag effects cross-nationally during the COVID-19 crisis, with a focus on the moderating role of media and political polarization. It relies on a comparative two-wave panel survey scoping across 17 countries to measure changes in trust in government before and after the outbreak of the pandemic and levels of me...

While the role of social media in the spread of conspiracy theories has received much attention, a key deficit in previous research is the lack of distinction between different types of platforms. This study places the role of social media affordances in facilitating the spread of conspiracy beliefs at the center of its enquiry. We examine the rela...

Exogenous shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic unleashes multiple fundamental questions about society beyond public health. Based on the classical concept of ‘need for orientation’ and the literature on the role of the media in times of crisis, we investigate to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic affected news consumption in comparative perspective. Ba...

The transition from low- to high-choice media environments has had far-reaching implications for citizens’ media use and its relationship with political knowledge. However, there is still a lack of comparative research on how citizens combine the usage of different media and how that is related to political knowledge. To fill this void, we use a un...

This research investigates links between the Euro Crisis and populism and asks whether there are patterns of populism in different election campaigns, namely is there country-specific populist rhetoric or similar anti-elite criticisms? Through content analysis, we examine the mainstream media coverage of populist and non-populist actors in the coun...

This publication combines several aspects of populist research. It shows a multitude of research perspectives that give a multifaceted view of Polish right-wing populism in an attempt to capture its specificity. It is a continuation of theoretical and interpretative discussions present in both Polish and foreign literature. The correlation between...

Celem niniejszej publikacji jest ukazanie nie tylko różnorodności definicji i poglądów na status ontologiczny populizmu, ale także perspektyw badawczych oraz metod i narzędzi stosowanych w analizach populizmu ujmowanego jako zjawisko dyskursywne. Należy przy tym podkreślić, iż przedmiotem zainteresowania nie jest tutaj po prostu zjawisko populizmu,...

The aim of this paper is to recognize the factors limiting journalists’ sense of autonomy and affecting the level of their self-censorship during the last three decades of the post-transformation period. The issue will be addressed two-fold. First, we will analyze changes in the journalists’ perception on their professional autonomy. Second, we wil...

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest prezentacja wyników badania przeprowadzonego wśród studentów kierunku DIKS na siedmiu polskich uczelniach w ramach międzynarodowej inicjatywy badawczej zatytułowanej „Journalism Students Around the Globe”. Artykuł koncentruje się na motywacjach, oczekiwaniach i planach zawodowych adeptów dziennikarstwa, już posiadane...

While most of the scholarship on populism and populist political communication is focused on Western European countries with a long tradition of populist parties’ appearance on the political scene (such as Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, or Sweden), this volume offers an insight into populist political communication in countries less frequently...

This working paper presents the findings of quantitave and qualititave research into populist communication on Facebook. Specifically, we look at how populist politicians from all across Europe used Facebook in their campaigns for the European Parliamentary elections in May 2019 and compared this with a posts from July 2019. We start the paper with...

Beyond Journalistic Norms contests and challenges pre-established assumptions about a dominant type of journalism prevailing in different political, economic, and geographical contexts, to posit the hybrid, fluid and dynamic nature of journalistic roles. The book brings together scholars from Western and Eastern Europe, North America, Latin Americ...

Celem niniejszej publikacji jest ukazanie nie tylko owej różnorodności definicji i poglądów na status ontologiczny populizmu, ale także perspektyw badawczych oraz metod i narzędzi stosowanych w analizach populizmu ujmowanego jako zjawisko dyskursywne (Hawkins, 2009; Hidalgo-Tenorio, Benítez-Castro i De Cesare, 2019; Macaulay, 2019). Należy przy tym...

Populism as a socio-political phenomenon can be studied from many perspectives. Taking a political communication perspective, we can define populism as “a set of characteristics or elements of messages that have their roots in, or at least relate to, the aims, motivations and attitudes of political actors, the media or citizens” (Reinemann et al.,...

This working paper presents the findings of quantitave and qualititave research into populist communication on Facebook. Specifically, we look at how populist politicians from all across Europe used Facebook in their campaigns for the European Parliamentary elections in May 2019 and compared this with a posts from July 2019. We start the paper with...

"(...) We will try to draw a thematic map of Polish populist discourse in 2015–2017 by answering the following detailed research questions: (1) What were the most frequently discussed topics in the collected information materials? (2) What topics were most frequently discussed in materials that contained at least one element of populist discourse,...

This book is the final product of the research project ``Populist political communication: political messages, media coverage and audience feedback''. It focuses on three categories of participants in populist political communication, that is political actors, media, and citizens. In particular, this study offers an insight into reasons behind the...

This study proposes the interventionist and the detached orientations to watchdog journalism through the conceptual lens of journalistic role performance. Based on a content analysis of 33,640 news stories from sixty-four media outlets in eighteen countries, we measure and compare both orientations across different countries using three performativ...

Link to Journal: http://cejc.wuwr.pl/category/-764

This chapter focuses on trends in reporting over time. It examines the presence of populist key messages in “news coverage of immigration” and “commentaries on current political events” in European newspapers at two points in time, namely spring 2016 and spring 2017. The chapter has a twofold aim. First, it will explore similarities and differences...

The principal aim of this study is to further research on elections and news media coverage by identifying contemporary characteristics and tendencies across different European countries. This introductory chapter contextualizes the rationale and methodological approach for the study of election campaign coverage in six European countries (Croatia,...

In 2015, Polish political actors and society faced the challenge of “double elections” for the second time since the transformation of the political system in 1989. It happened for the first time in 2005. The accumulation of two elections in one year was not the only similarity between the 2005 and 2015 elections in Poland. In fact, the 2005 electi...

By employing the concepts of opportunity structure and discursive opportunities as a theoretical background, this paper aims to identify and analyze the factors that may have led to the breakthroughs of two right-wing political actors in Poland in 2014–2015: Paweł Kukiz and his Kukiz’15 movement and Janusz Korwin-Mikke and his political initiatives...

Komunikacja traktowana jako system zróżnicowanych zależności pomiędzy podmiotami i aktorami politycznymi, organizacjami, mediami czy obywatelami ma dziś niebywały potencjał kształtowania relacji między nimi, propagowania określonych zachowań i wzorców politycznych, społecznych oraz kulturowych. W procesach tych ważną rolę odgrywają media, które jak...

Influential research on comparative media systems identifies distinctive models according to which certain countries—particularly advanced democracies— share key features in their journalistic cultures. Revisionist literature has not only emphasized the limitations of such models, but also highlighted the hybridization of journalistic cultures else...

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter edited by Toril Aalberg, Frank Esser, Carsten Reinemann, Jesper Strömbäck, and Claes H. de Vreese published by Routledge as Populist Political Communication in Europe on July 26, 2016. The book is available online at: http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/book/10.4324/9781315623016

Celem artykułu jest zestawienie postaw polskich dziennikarzy wobec aktorów politycz-nych deklarowanych w ankietach (role perception) z faktycznymi działaniami podejmowanymi przez dziennikarzy wobec polityków w przygotowywanych przez nich materiałach informacyjnych (role performance). Wyniki badań ankietowych ujawniają istotne różnice pomiędzy poszc...

This paper aims at presenting the conclusions drawn from a systematic review of the studies conducted among Polish journalists since the 1970s. By comparing results of the studies on journalists with expectations and attitudes of current Polish journalism students, the paper offers an insight into the ongoing changes that have been observed among P...

In all the postcommunist Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, the contemporary media systems are defined by a heritage of decades of communist rule and the influence of market mechanisms introduced after 1990. While during the communist time all media were state-controlled, in the first decade of the 1990s the ownership structure of the bo...

During the last decennia media environments and political communication systems have changed fundamentally. These changes have major ramifications for the political information environments and the extent to which they aid people in becoming informed citizens. Against this background, the purpose of this article is to review research on key changes...

The 2014 European Parliamentary election was the fourth EU-related vote in Poland. A decade previously, on 13 June 2004, Polish citizens had elected their delegates to the European Parliament (EP) for the very first time. This was just one year after Poland’s accession referendum (7 and 8 June 2003). All three EP elections from 2004 to 2014 had bee...

European media systems have gone through major changes in the last few decades, and these changes have included increased opportunity structures for the dissemination of populist messages. Chapter 12 (‘Switzerland’) rightly states that the disappearance of the traditional party press, increased media ownership concentration, dependence on advertisi...

This paper aims to present a theoretically-empirical reflection on the citizen-oriented model of journalism developed from the social responsibility of the media paradigm. The main indicator of that model is the significant attention paid by journalists to the current perspective of the citizens (in terms of their expectations, demands, actions), t...

Political ritual is a repeated and culturally standardized activity related to a political sphere and/or performed by political actors. It expresses and communicates feelings, concerns, and ideas central for and shared by the community. The fundamental building blocks of ritual are mythic stories, symbolic acts, and words that bring diverse ideas t...

The aim of this Special Issue of Central European Political Studies is to bring media scholars together and to reflect on the current trends in political journalism in our region. The focus of the articles is trained on the discovery of the shifts and continuities in journalistic practises 25 years after the collapse of the communist regimes. Some...

This paper aims to present the findings of the quantitative analysis of the content of selected Polish print media regarding the coverage of the Polish EU presidency. The study concentrates on the relation between political bias of selected Polish daily newspapers and weekly magazines and their evaluation of Poland’s presidency in the European Unio...

Several research projects in the last decade have been devoted to studying professional role perception among Polish journalists. Still less is known about how different ideals of professional roles affect journalistic role performance. This paper aims to present the findings of the content analysis of 1,130 news stories published in four Polish ne...

This article presents the main findings of an international comparative project on the news coverage of the Polish EU presidency (2011). The study examines the coverage of Poland that for the first time held the leading position in the EU Council within a new institutional context. The findings presented stem from the analysis of six countries: Aus...

Theoretical background for media events studies The aim of this paper is to present and discuss theoretical background for media events studies that have been conducted since the 1980s. The paper collects all major perspectives and studies in order to provide a complete picture of a theoretical approach to research on the media events. First, the p...

The aim of this paper is to present the findings of a quantitative content analysis of the Polish print media. Sharing the codebook and procedures with an international team, we were able to gain a broad perspective on the media coverage of the first Polish EU presidency. In particular, we focused on: (1) the number of items covering events related...

Our decision to study foreign news implies, by de!nition, that we are engaged in comparative research, which itself is a rapidly growing area in the study of media and communication (Esser & Hanitzsch, 2012a; Gurevitch & Blumler, 2004). By delineating foreign news, we are ipso facto distinguishing it from domestic news. #is suggests that there must...

From the 17th through the 19th century, as Wilke (1987) demonstrated in his historical study of foreign news in German, French, English, and American newspapers, there was steady growth in the amount of foreign news coverage. Today, with the increasing globalization of news organizations (Chalaby, 2005) and the greater political and economic interd...

This paper provides an update of empirical data on the professional features, values and standards of Polish journalists. The study illustrates clear differences between three generations of journalists: those who have been working for media organizations for several decades now; those who entered the profession immediately following the political...

The paper intends to present the results of an analysis of the messages formulated by the two leading candidates in the presidential elections of 2010, Bronisław Komorowski and Jaros³aw Kaczyñski. The paper is interdisciplinary as it combines a politological analysis of the context of the presidential debates and a linguistic analysis of the conten...

Kariera, kontrola, służba społeczna – postawy różnych pokoleń polskich dziennikarzy 1 Wprowadzenie Jednym z efektów transformacji ustrojowej w Polsce były istotne zmiany zarówno w samych mediach, jak i w środowisku dziennikarzy. Jak pisze Z. Bajka, w pierwszych trzech latach dekady lat 90. z pracy w zawodzie odeszło co najmniej 1,5 tysiąca dziennik...

Niniejszy artykuł zawiera wyniki badań ankietowych przeprowadzonych w grupie dziennikarzy pracujących w mediach o zasięgu ogólnokrajowym. Celem badań było zdobycie wiedzy o wartościach, standardach zawodowych i priorytetach polskich dziennikarzy. Stąd też obok pytań dotyczących profilu demograficznego dziennikarzy oraz autonomii dziennikarzy w anki...