Media voyeurism in Polish tabloids
Issues concerning Polish tabloids constitute a complicated topic that has a lot of aspects. In spite of the fact that it more and more frequently draws foreign scientists’ attention, here in Poland it is still dealt with in a fragmentary or marginal way. There are even people who argue that “true science” should not deal with such topics. The crucial element characterizing tabloids is media voyeurism which is not profoundly analyzed in Polish contemporary media science. The aim of this paper is to define the phenomenon of media voyeurism, determine the object of its interest and analyze it in the context of Polish tabloids. The article pays attention to the fact that reflection over media voyeurism is in fact multisurfaced because it introduces a scientist to onthological topics for example, questions about existential status of a phenomenon, epistemological for example, how, thanks to voyeuristic mechanisms, tabloids are able to peep at the reality and reach uncovered facts as well as ethical what one is or is not allowed to peep at. The author reveals that voyeurism shall be perceived as peeping, watching people, disclosing their secrets and even as invasion or invigilation of their privacy. The paper emphasizes the fact that media voyeurism is best realized in tabloids which can be characterized as having tendency to peep at and analyze the most intimate aspects of human life. The paper also pays attention to the recent tendencies of voyeurism to maximum use of modern technologies and domination of image over word visual culture. It is also shown that contemporary media voyeurism is not an isolated or occasional element in Polish press but instead shall be classified as an obligatory one in case of tabloids.