Prehistoria nowych mediów w wersji krajowej (uwagi na marginesie lektury monografii Piotra Sitarskiego, Marii B. Gardy i Krzysztofa Jajki „Nowe media” w PRL)

Abstrakt

The article presents the monograph by Piotr Sitarski, Maria B. Garda, and Krzysztof Jajko Nowe media w PRL [New Media in the Polish People’s Republic]. The authors of the book presented how technological development was assimilated by society in the final stage of the existence of the Polish People’s Republic. Individual chapters describe the process of social assimilation of video, microcomputers, and satellite television in Poland. Referring to social history, the authors show the beginnings of the Polish digital society in the 1980s. They do this using modern methodologies from history of technology, social history, and oral history. The aim of the article is to show the processes discussed in the book against the background of social and political changes of the epoch. The documents cited (Uchwała generalna VI Kongresu Techników Polskich [Resolution of the VI Congress of Polish Technicians]) and events (Rok Nauki Polskiej [Year of Polish Science], II Kongres Nauki [II Congress of Science]) allow us to see the links between the modernization of the Polish and communist propaganda. The technology was aimed to certify the strength of the socialist system.