Polarisation or Dialogue? Media Image of Polish-Ukrainian Relations During the War in Ukraine in the Broadcast of the Polish Magazine on TVP Polonia

Abstract TVP Polonia adapted its programming to the war in Ukraine, focusing on the conflict’s impact, particularly on its compatriots living there, by centring much of its content around the ongoing crisis.As one of the few Polish TV stations, it had the opportunity to work with journalists permanently living in Ukraine. The aim of the study is to describe the media image of Polish-Ukrainian relations during the war in Ukraine in the television broadcast of the program “Studio Lviv” carried out by Polish journalists in Lviv. The material for analysis was selected on the basis of the following criteria: (1) temporal, the year of the war (February 2022-February 2023) a total of 50 archived episodes and (2) issues concerning the war and Polish-Ukrainian relations (in the area of topics and visualisation of communication about the war). The content analysis research is in the nature of a media-culturalist perspective (according to Denis McQualin), in which media communication gives priority to the content and form of the media message. In the area of form, the mechanisms of audiovisual message construction were indicated, while in the area of content, the research material was categorised in four main contexts located in the area of Polish-Ukrainian relations: social, historical, cultural and political contexts. Analysis of the research material showed a clear dominance in the program of the subject matter of the war in Ukraine after the outbreak of war on 24 February 2022. The perspective of Polish journalists determined the way of telling about the situation of Ukraine during the Russian onslaught and Polish-Ukrainian relations. Exposing dialogue and cooperation confirmed the hypothesis that the message of the Polish-American TV magazine on public television created a positive image of Polish-Ukrainian relations.