Openness and Divisive Discourse on Ukrainian War Refugees. The First Month of the Russian-Ukrainian War in Polish Online Tabloids

Abstract The Ukrainian-Russian war (2022-ongoing) has been associated with the issue of war refugees from the very beginning. The problem has aroused a very strong social response in Poland not only in the form of mass aid, but also differences of opinions in society. The aim of the study was to determine the specifics of the discourse on Ukrainian refugees in the two most popular Polish online tabloids: “Fakt” and “Super Express”. The analysis included two dimensions of discourse: openness, dialogic and divisive, polarising. Various dimensions of discourse were analysed: social, cultural, economic, and political. The study was conducted using hybrid methods. Based on data provided by the Brand24 platform, the first stage determined the number of articles containing the keyword “refugees” in the studied tabloids. Real Users (RU) rankings and the so-called Influencer Score were used to identify these media. Next, a discourse analysis of textual media materials from the first month of the war was conducted. The materials studied were the most influential articles from tabloids (423 items), dating back to the first month of the war. The study showed that open discourse takes the form of (1) emphatic, (2) agitating for duty, and (3) aid discourse. In contrast, the divisive discourse takes the form of (1) crisis and (2) polarisation discourse.