Politicians and journalists : allies or enemies?

Bibliogr. s. 249-250

Contemporary public debate is in general a media debate, organized by journalists working for major media companies. Journalists are not merely employees of their corporations. They, as "opinion leaders", shape political attitudes as well as behaviors of their viewers, readers and listeners. Compounds between media and politics are multifaceted and one of them is relationship between journalists and politicians. Each party tries to influence the other, with various results but it certainly can be said that politicians and journalists are interdependent. However, in recent times, journalists are increasingly dependent not only from politicians but also from their employers, thus weakening their professional position. This leads to a reduction of the importance of informational function of the media for the sake of entertainment. The aim of the article is to examine political journalism in terms of relationships between interviewers (journalists) and interviewees (politicians) taking place during television interviews. The analysis is carried out mainly through the prism of actors and themes occurring in the context of the convergence of traditional and tabloid journalistic standards.