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"Students Against Politics: how to change minds?"
by Agnieszka Stepinska
Despite its historical background, or maybe just because of it, Polish society always has been strongly interested in and involved with politics. Political issues are, and always have been, a popular topic of everyday conversations with family members and strangers.
At the same time, one of the main features of Polish society is inactivity and a high level of distrust in state institutions, political parties and politicians. The society’s negative attitude towards politics not only results in low levels of electoral turnout and political activity (party’s membership, party’s financial support, volunteering), but also affects the way in which young people perceive politics.
Put simply, many young people in Poland are, if possible, more indifferent toward politics than their elders. Born in the 1980’s (in Poland, students are usually people between 19 and 24 years old), they were too young to consciously experience the political and economic change at the beginning of 1990’s. They were also too young to remember life under the communist regime. Consequently, the 40-year period after World War II seems to be “ancient history” for many of them. They are at once as passive as their parents generation and less knowledgeable about public affairs. Thus, although they are not satisfied with the current political situation, their response is rather to avoid than to change it.
Surprisingly, many of those who study political science have the same attitude towards politics. Although the majority of them is interested in political mechanisms and phenomena, their perspective is strongly influenced by negative attitude towards political reality in Poland.
This presents something of a challenge for those of us charged with teaching them something about this subject.
Teaching Classes on Media and Politics in Poland
Whereas in many countries the main task for teachers is to focus students’ attention on politics, in Poland the dilemma is slightly different. Students already focus a great deal of attention on politics—but mainly to criticize and dismiss it. At least, this is what they express in public. Students tend to overestimate their knowledge and analytical skills, and, perceiving public mass media as strongly biased, they place implicit trust in the objectivity of some alternative sources of information (private television stations, newspapers, Internet). Thus, lecturers must find ways of jolting students out of their strong negative attitudes.
Teaching mass and political communication, I have noticed that, although students usually declare their lack of trust towards public media and politicians, they are still extremely interested in relations between politics and the media sphere, as well as in new political phenomena (political marketing, political advertising) and campaign strategies and tactics.
In dealing with this complexity, I employ a few basic strategies. First of all, I place a great deal of emphasis on different “models of public media.” I show students that public media have had a different history in different countries, resulting in different consequences—and even in different senses of the mission of journalism. Eventually, students begin to locate the Polish media system in this comparative context, and to think of ways it might be improved. I have found that focusing students’ attention on constructive ways of improving the media system is one way to overcome their negative preconceptions.
I also encourage students to conduct their own research on media content. While analyzing political coverage, they learn about framing and agenda setting, as well as about international flows of information and the role of international news agencies in the process. Working in small groups, students compare how different media have covered some particular political events or phenomenon. This makes them more aware of the mechanisms of information selection used by all media (public as well as private ones).
Many students express interest in election campaigns, so I devote a good deal of time to this topic. I organize workshops to present step-by-step the stages of campaign communication. I have students engage in role-playing to help them get into the mindset of candidates, advisers, and journalists. And I confront students with voters’ expectations about the duties and responsibilities of these various actors. My hope is that by engaging students in these exercises they begin to take elections seriously and stop seeing them as mere political games.
One of the most difficult problems that I may face is the diversity of attitudes my students bring toward Polish political history. On the one hand, some students are strongly influenced by their parents’ past engagement with politics. On the other hand, some students have no interest in and little knowledge of this subject. Moreover, although it happens more rarely than a decade ago, ideological discussions still sometimes occur (between right wingers and left wingers). Such conversations are most likely in the course on the “System of Polish political parties”. This is the process of analyzing political parties’ origins and agendas that arouses emotions leading to fierce conversations. Although it is not my course, I always ask students to recall the conclusions they made during these discussions when I face similar situation. I believe that in all of these cases, focusing students’ attention on the process of forming political preferences seems to be an effective strategy.
In summary, teaching classes on media and politics in Poland is an ongoing process of balancing negative emotions, excitement, apathy, and political biases. I have outlined some of the strategies I employ, but the task is, needless to say, quite challenging!
Agnieszka Stepinska is an instructor in the Institute of Political Science and Journalism at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan Poland.
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