Methods of presenting the private life of public figures on the pages of the tabloids using the examples of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Cezary Pazura
The private life of well-known people is a topic often covered by the tabloids. Weddings, romances, and divorces of politicians, musicians, and other public figures are of great interest to these newspapers. It is worthwhile noticing that not every such a relationship is treated in quite the same way. The aim of this article is to introduce the way in which the tabloids deal with the private lives of the famous. It takes as examples the divorce and following relationship of the former prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, and the marriage of actor Cezary Pazura to Edyta Zając. In each case there is a common factor; the man is considerably older than his partner, who is similar in age to his own children. The presentation of Marcinkiewicz and his fiance in the media is compared with the image of their relationship created by him and his fiance. The way this relationship was presented by the press is then compared with the media presentation of the marriage of Cezary Pazura. The rhetorical techniques used by the journalists and the effect they created are also shown. Each pair is described in a different way. Writing about the former prime minister, journalists either write negatively or judgmentally, trying to condemn his decision, retreating into irony, employing stereotypes, and describing situation with a mocking tone. The private life of the actor, although it acts as fodder for jokes and various comments, is not, in fact, the subject of such an aggressive attack — the media are rather more positively inclined towards him. This article attempts to clarify reasons of these differences.