Centre for Public Discourse Monitoring
Mission
We believe that improving public debate in Poland may begin with the systematic analysis of its most basic indicators.
We live in an increasingly diverse, divided, and fragmented world. People living in close physical proximity may be separated by profound social distance and radically different experiences of what appears to be the same culture. In other words, even the most basic foundations of a shared symbolic universe are becoming increasingly difficult to establish.
In such circumstances, the quality of public debate becomes especially important. Providing free and unrestricted access to the public sphere, while ensuring transparency and appropriate regulation, reduces the likelihood of permanently excluding any perspective represented within the community.
Our mission is to identify and publish quantitative measures of the quality of public debate in Poland. We do not engage in journalistic polemics, catalogue instances of aggression and brutality in public discourse, or conduct in-depth analyses of metaphors, associations and rhetorical devices. Qualitative analysis has limited persuasive power and can therefore only play a meaningful role once the public sphere becomes more structured and coherent.
However, the fragility of the symbolic universe makes it increasingly difficult to establish objective measures of the quality of public debate. Most evaluative judgements are vulnerable to deconstruction and open to contestation. We believe that improving public debate in Poland may begin with the systematic analysis of basic indicators, such as the extent to which different political parties are given a voice in the public sphere. Nevertheless, we recognise that such basic measures are insufficient in the long term.
Methodology
Assumptions
Contemporary media act as gatekeepers, determining which issues, problems, and topics are present in the public sphere and in public consciousness. Speaking in public provides an opportunity to establish interpretive frameworks for public debate, present and impose one’s own perspectives, and influence shared definitions of a given situation. The influence exerted by individuals speaking in the media increases with the reach of the broadcasting outlet and the viewership or listenership of a given programme.
Analysed Media
In line with the above assumptions, our analysis focuses on which politicians are invited as guests on the most widely broadcast journalistic programmes on radio and television. To determine the daily media agenda, it is important to consider the content aired during peak viewing and listening hours, namely in the morning (07:00-09:00) and evening (18:00-21:00). In the field of current affairs programming, the internet remains largely secondary to traditional media, most often serving as an additional distribution channel for content originally produced for radio and television.
Data Sources
Information about invited guests is obtained through direct monitoring of the broadcasts whenever possible. When this is not feasible, information published on stations’ websites and social media channels is used instead.
Indicators
Presence refers to the participation of a politician or non-political guest in a journalistic programme. This is recorded in the same way, regardless of whether the guest is interviewed individually by the host or appears as part of a larger studio panel. More detailed analyses also apply weighting based on the broadcasting station’s reach and/or the airtime allocated to each guest.
Dashboard
Our publications
Sojak, R., Meler, A., & Królicka, B. (2025). Kto dominuje w polskim dyskursie medialnym? Profil ideologiczny polskiej infosfery. Studia Socjologiczne, 1(256), 5-28. DOI:10.24425/sts.2025.154169
Meler, A. (2024). In The Beginning, Let There Be The Word: Challenges and Insights in Applying Sentiment Analysis to Social Research. In WWW ’24: Companion Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2024 (pp. 1214-1217). Association for Computing Machinery. DOI:10.1145/3589335.3651264
Sojak, R., Meler, A., & Królicka, B. (2024). Medialne emocje po śmierci Pawła Adamowicza: próba analizy zautomatyzowanej. Dyskurs i Dialog, 13(1), 7-28. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.12515317
Królicka, B., Sojak, R., & Meler, A. (2023). Why is a minority continuing to decline? The representation of female MPs on Polish political commentary programmes, 2015-2019. Feminist Media Studies, 23(3), 1124-1141, DOI:10.1080/14680777.2021.1916770
Meler, A., Królicka, B., & Sojak, R. (2023). Women in Polish TV series: qualitative and quantitative analysis. In G. Avezzù & M. Rocchi (Eds.), Audiovisual Data: Data-Driven Perspectives for Media Studies: 13th Media Mutations International Conference (pp. 105-123). Media Mutations Publishing. DOI:10.21428/93b7ef64.034c67d8
Sojak, R., & Królicka, B. (2023). Konstruktywizm w praktyce? Dyskurs pandemiosceptyczny w świetle socjologii wiedzy naukowej. Dyskurs i Dialog, 11(1), 7-29. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.8431362
Meler, A. (2022). Parlamentarne ćwierkanie o pandemii. Analiza sentymentu tweetów parlamentarzystów publikowanych podczas pierwszych 12 miesięcy pandemii koronawirusa w Polsce. Studia Socjologiczne, 2(245), 113-136. DOI:10.24425/sts.2022.141425
Meler, A., Sojak, R., & Królicka, B. (2020). Młode wilki, wojowniczki i samowykluczeni. Wzory komunikacji medialnej posłów VIII kadencji. In J. Arcimowicz & K. Gadowska (Eds.), Sfera publiczna w Polsce i jej współczesne konteksty (pp. 351-373). Instytut Spraw Publicznych. https://www.isp.org.pl/pl/publikacje/sfera-publiczna-w-polsce-i-jej-wspolczesne-konteksty
Sojak, R., Meler, A., & Królicka, B. (2020). Stereotypical or Non-typical? Women in Polish TV Series: Their Image, Presence and Context of Appearance. Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK, Biuro Krajowej Rady Radiofonii i Telewizji.
Sojak, R., Meler, A., & Królicka, B. (2020). Stereotypowe czy nietypowe? Wizerunek kobiet w polskich serialach – sposób prezentacji, obecność, konteksty. Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK, Biuro Krajowej Rady Radiofonii i Telewizji.
Meler, A., Sojak, R., & Piechocka, A. (2018). Przełomy i kryzysy – zmiany medialnej reprezentacji środowisk politycznych w radiu i telewizji. Zeszyty Prasoznawcze, 61(2), 247-269. DOI:10.4467/22996362PZ.18.017.9112
Piechocka, A., Królicka, B., & Sojak, R. (2018). Medialna sfera publiczna we współczesnej Polsce – ocena z perspektywy modelu liberalno-przedstawicielskiego. Studia Socjologiczne, 3(230), 127-152. DOI:10.24425/122475
Team
The current team consists of:
Radosław Sojak
A husband, father, and sociologist, he holds a postdoctoral degree (habilitation) and has been a member of staff at the Institute of Sociology at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń since 1998. A former Fulbright Scholar at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, he also received the “Stay with Us” scholarship awarded by Polityka Weekly. He is the author and co-author of numerous publications, including Zagubiona rzeczywistość (Lost Reality, 2004, with Daniel Wicenty); Paradoks antropologiczny (Anthropological Paradox, 2005, in the FNP Monograph Series); Spełniona obietnica (Promise Fulfilled, 2014); and Arystokraci i rzemieślnicy (Aristocrats and Craftsmen, 2015, with Łukasz Afeltowicz). His research is driven by a continuous search for theoretical frameworks to better understand the social world, and he has maintained a longstanding interest in the quality of public debate.
Andrzej Meler
He graduated from the Institute of Sociology at Nicolaus Copernicus University and received the Polish Sociological Association Award for his Master’s thesis, which explored media discourse on the Polish judiciary. During his third year of study, he began participating in social and market research projects with the “Pryzmat” Research Team, the ASM Centre for Research and Analysis, Pentor, and F5 Consulting. He subsequently spent ten years working as a research and analysis specialist at the Polska Press Group. His academic interests include the press and online media markets. He is currently engaged in media analysis research at the Institute of Sociology at Nicolaus Copernicus University.
Beata Królicka
Originally from Bydgoszcz, she completed her doctoral studies at the Doctoral School of Social Sciences at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. She is a sociologist with a PhD and currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Sociology at Nicolaus Copernicus University. Her research interests include public discourse in the media, media sociology, the sociology of emotions, political communication, and postcolonial theory.
In the past, the project also involved Anna Piechocka, Marta Serówka, Wojciech Rzymski, and Tomasz Jankowski. In addition, a large group of students and volunteers took part in the project, contributing by collecting data