Personalization of the discursive role of the imitation tabloids in the 2015 Polish presidential election campaign (Tak, Gazeta Prezydencka and Gazeta Stonoga)

Abstract

This paper analyses the model of the occasional imitation tabloid, a product that made its multi‑variant appearance in the run‑up to the 2015 Polish presidential election. Our representative sample includes on Tak [Yes], a single‑issue magazine featuring Magdalena Ogórek (candidate of the Democratic Left Alliance); Gazeta Prezydencka, a single‑issue magazine with Janusz Palikot (leader of the upstart Your Movement), and Gazeta Stonoga, which ran eight issues promoting Zbigniew Stonoga (leader of the ephemeral Stonoga Party Poland). Each of them was conceived — as their editors later admitted — as an imitation of the mass‑circulation tabloids. The mimicry ranged from the attention grabbing layout to the easy‑to‑read style of the articles. With the help of qualitative discourse analysis has been possible to identify not only the peculiarities of that style (a mix of celebrity hype and politics) but also to the tabloids' narrative strategy, i.e. modelling their stories on the Karpman drama triangle with the trio of roles distributed as follows — the legacy politician as the Persecutor (Villain), the ordinary citizen as the Victim, and the tabloid as the Rescuer. The tabloid, however, is by no means a humble Good Samaritan; its appeal and ambition, embodied in the presidential candidate (Magdalena Ogórek, Janusz Palikot or Zbigniew Stonoga), seem to know no bounds. The Rescuer has an instantly recognizably face and a biography — what with childhood, family life, personality and motivation – full of interesting or intriguing stories. In practice, each 2015 election‑campaign tabloid adapted this agenda to the individual profile of its candidate, emphasizing his/her strengths and playing down his/her weaknesses. The specious electioneering newspapers were a one‑day show, and yet they displayed no less inventiveness in the sphere of communication and persuasion than the regular tabloids. Some of their strategies, like the use of personalization to enhance the tabloid's credibility and to establish a closer rapport with the readers, certainly deserve further study. This paper analyses the model of the occasional imitation tabloid, a product that made its multi‑variant appearance in the run‑up to the 2015 Polish presidential election. Our representative sample includes on Tak [Yes], a single‑issue magazine featuring Magdalena Ogórek (candidate of the Democratic Left Alliance); Gazeta Prezydencka, a single‑issue magazine with Janusz Palikot (leader of the upstart Your Movement), and Gazeta Stonoga, which ran eight issues promoting Zbigniew Stonoga (leader of the ephemeral Stonoga Party Poland). Each of them was conceived — as their editors later admitted — as an imitation of the mass‑circulation tabloids. The mimicry ranged from the attention grabbing layout to the easy‑to‑read style of the articles. With the help of qualitative discourse analysis has been possible to identify not only the peculiarities of that style (a mix of celebrity hype and politics) but also to the tabloids' narrative strategy, i.e. modelling their stories on the Karpman drama triangle with the trio of roles distributed as follows — the legacy politician as the Persecutor (Villain), the ordinary citizen as the Victim, and the tabloid as the Rescuer. The tabloid, however, is by no means a humble Good Samaritan; its appeal and ambition, embodied in the presidential candidate (Magdalena Ogórek, Janusz Palikot or Zbigniew Stonoga), seem to know no bounds. The Rescuer has an instantly recognizably face and a biography — what with childhood, family life, personality and motivation – full of interesting or intriguing stories. In practice, each 2015 election‑campaign tabloid adapted this agenda to the individual profile of its candidate, emphasizing his/her strengths and playing down his/her weaknesses. The specious electioneering newspapers were a one‑day show, and yet they displayed no less inventiveness in the sphere of communication and persuasion than the regular tabloids. Some of their strategies, like the use of personalization to enhance the tabloid's credibility and to establish a closer rapport with the readers, certainly deserve further study.