Prasowe pranie mózgu (na podstawie „Gazety Krakowskiej" 1949-1956)

Abstract

The brainwashing is known as a range of procedures that are targeted at changing human personality and his way of thinking. It is manipulation of human behaviour, that is ‘purposeful and secret action which imposes false imagination of certain reality on an individual or a group of people’. The manipulation is often coordinated by the state authorities, and educational, public and political organisations. Such manipulation was also used by the communist press, that was convincing people about the right actions made by the communist government with the input of ‘the big brother’, the Soviet Union. At first the press weakened the authority of those who were witch- hunted against, and then it diverted their supporters. The press manipulation stirred up hatred towards the enemy (the Church or, so called, profiteers), and fancy to certain people or ideology. It destroyed individuality, and deprived its readers of reliable information. The Cracow Newspaper, as the organ of the Polish United Party of Workers, showed the people’s satisfaction of the authorities actions, e.g. the passing of new constitution, the building of Nowa Huta - the perfect socialist town, the dissemination of socialistic realism, or, inversely, the alarm because of the actions made by priests or farmers, or a shortage of different products. The Cracow Newspaper also passed over different matters, or diverted people’s attention from disadvantageous affairs for the authorities. It was persuading its reader that the whole society is of the same opinion as the one expressed in its articles. Despite the historical changes, all those methods used by the communists did not disappear from our life. Nowadays such methods are used for the commercial and political purposes. Fighting against the manipulation is not easy. However when revealed manipulation disappears.