Yearbook of Bibliology and Press Studies

Summary

The subject of the article was the content of the most legally-published socio-cultural polish magazines between 1980 and 1983. The choice of the analysed magazines had an intentional character and included titles with the highest circulation and therefore having a significantly impact on public opinion. Omitting the statistical aspect of the analysis facilitated the highlighting of the most important threads presented in the magazines. Hitherto press coverage at the time was undertaken only once and dealt with only the legal dailies published under the state of war.
The author came to the conclusion that the officially-published polish socio-cultural magazines at the outset of 1980 in the XX century have two clearly defined periods. Analysis of magazine contents issued between September 1980 and December 1981 which permits the ascertainment that concentration was focused mainly on three key issues: the revival of self-government in all spheres of culture, restoration of writers' social role as well as the children's and the journalistic reports on the daily tensions of social life. Such contents attracted substantial interest from readers with regards to what the magazine offers, just like the press, at the time, which had great popularity.
After 13th December 1981, some known and popular columnists together with a substantial part of writers who came into permanent co-operation with the "underground press" or periodicals disappeared from the pages of the analysed press. Concessioned socio-cultural magazines became excessively polemical or overly flexible towards their political supervisors, which quite effectively put off potential readers. That is why, even after the state of war was lifted, in order to guard against the loss of audytorium, the spread of popular literature and literature of facts was embarked upon.