Relacjonowanie wyborów samorządowych w 2018 roku w publicznej telewizji regionalnej w świetle założeń misji publicznej (na przykładzie programu informacyjnego „Aktualności” TVP3 Katowice)

The public service mission of public media imposes a number of responsibilities on public broadcasters covering politics. These responsibilities were expressed in the article as three news media functions. First, information (dissemination of information about candidates, their programs and main issues in election campaign). Second, the “watchdog” role which focuses on the delivery of information about candidates’ abuses of law and ethical violations, as well as critical information about their offers. Lastly, mobilisation which focuses on the delivery of information encouraging voters to vote. To answer the main research question about how the requirements of public service mission were fulfilled by regional television in the period preceding regional and local elections in 2018, the above-mentioned functions were verified after the content analysis of news programme “Aktualności” TVP3 Katowice. The results of the qualitative and quantitative analysis exhibited the dominance of propaganda bias in television news regarding local elections. The overall conclusion was that the analysed medium did not respect the elementary rules of the public service mission (impartiality and internal pluralism) and it did not fulfill the functions of news media properly.