The orchestration of the media

By virtue of his position as the research director of the main Polish mass media center - Osrodek Badan Prasoznawczych - in Krakow, Tomasz Goban-Klas was assured access to documents of various types and orientation and was permitted to attend Party caucuses on the tasks of the press and informal caucuses of journalists. Above all he was allowed on behalf of the state to organize empirical research on the mass media and journalism.

The result is The Orchestration of the Media, an insider's study of the history of Polish media emphasizing its incarnation after the fall of communism and the democratization of the state.

In sixteen brief chapters the author provides a coherent and comprehensive description of the creation and then the erosion of the monolithic media system in Poland and investigates the professions, institutions, and individuals supporting, opposing, or reforming the existing media system at various times. He also identifies the dilemmas involved in shaping the new communications system in Poland today.

Combining Polish reference sources in the notes with a popular writing style, The Orchestration of the Media will appeal to both the scholar and the educated general reader. It will prove interesting to students in journalism, mass communication, political science, history, and Eastern European studies and perhaps to the growing number of Western-based consultants involved in various forms of assistance or joint ventures in media, education, banking, and business.

For the general reader, the last chapters, with updated reviews of the present media landscape and analysis of the post-Communist media policy, should be of special interest.