FROM EAST TO WEST. POLISH PUBLIC DISCOURSE ON MIGRATION IN PRESS

Discourse analysis as a theoretical and methodological perspective can be very useful for the study of stereotypes which can be defined as cognitive representation of social groups. Individuals define and redefine stereotypes using speech forms in is the process of categorizing and self-categorisation. The article focused on examining representations of Polish migrants in the media discourse in four the most opinion forming dailies. The collected analytical data consisted of 391 articles. It was noted that (1) discourse on Polish migrants is not coherent because of ideological profiles and marketing strategies that could affect the construction of these images; (2) different genres where used and different types of legitimisation (numbers, experts, first-hand account); (3) there are two dichotomous pairs of stereotypes: people of success versus losers and desired versus unwanted.