Kształtowanie się gatunku wiadomości prasowej w XVIII wieku

Abstract

The beginnings of the Polish press were tightly linked with the European system of transferring information and of communication in the public sphere. Because of that the first Polish printed and handwritten newspapers of the 17th and 18th centuries were modelled on foreign patterns, both on the level of editing and of structuring information about events at home and abroad. On the basis of already existing methods of reporting affairs (letters, newssheets, avvisi) the genre of press information was then established. By confronting the research material with contemporary definitions of the genre, it can be concluded that the texts contain all essential features of press information: objective communication, reference to sources, professional quality and figurativeness. They differ from contemporary representatives of the genre only in the choice of stylistic devices, which is conditioned by the specificity of 18th-century Polish. At the same time, the analyses shown verify a stance quite common in media studies which states that all currently existing information genres were formed at the turn of the 20th century, together with the development of advance electronic and electrical distance telecommunications.