The main goal of this study is the verification of a hypothesis/idea of centralized
personalization during Polish electoral campaigns. Because of its goal and implemented
methodology, such research project is unique among research presented in scientific
literature thus far.
The work has a descriptive character; it is congruent with treatments from the field
of political communication, combining approaches of communicology and political
science, in that it expresses an attempt to include in the analysis the circumstances
of election campaign personalization and factors specific to mediacentric and political
-scientific perspectives, as well as because of the fact of recognizing media content
in political party communication. Election communication research includes six Polish
parliamentary elections from the years 1993—2001. Along with an analysis of communiqué
contents, published in information media, as well as communiqué prepared by
political subjects contending in the elections, basic analysis methods within the study
are historical-comparative and statistical data analyses.
The specific objectives of the treatment are:
— Description of circumstances of the political communication personalization thesis
on the level of mediatization of politics and political campaign professionalization
theories;
— Analysis of the trend occurrence and characteristics of the electoral campaign
personalization trend based on empirical research conducted in western-European
parliamentary democracies;
— Recognition of conditions of electoral campaign personalization in parliamentary
elections in Poland;
— Analysis of the trend occurrence and characteristics of media personalization in
Polish electoral campaigns based on opinion-forming press research;
— Analysis of the trend occurrence and characteristics of strategic personalization in
Polish electoral campaigns based on political TV advertisement research