Overlapping with the time of the presidential election in Poland, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically reconfigured the electoral campaign in terms of the electoral law and campaign strategies. The lockdown limited the intensity of electoral campaign, shifted the focus to pandemic-related issues, and increased the electoral advantage of the incumbent President Duda, still performing his official duties during the campaign. At the same time, the election campaign contributed to a notable ‘presidentialisation’ of the government communication about the pandemic, something that impacted heavily on people’s reactions to the COVID-19 crisis and on their trust in government’s measures. Utilizing data from in-depth interviews and media diaries with 29 participants, this chapter examines audience engagement with different government communication channels, focusing on their relative effectiveness and on the impact of polarization.
History
School
Social Sciences and Humanities
Department
Communication and Media
Published in
Political Communication in the Time of Coronavirus
This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Political Communication in the Time of Coronavirus on 14th September 2021, available online: http://www.routledge.com/9780367761851.