The mission of medias – among ideal and the illusion? An analysis of the development and of the
present state of the media in Poland will allow for a critical outlook on the fulfillment of their
public mission in the freedom space, which we shall analyse in the present paper. The public and
social media are part of the free market space. They try to be themselves and to create a harmony
between commerciality and mission. The public mission of the media originates from their very
nature as social mass media. Consequently, the need to carry out that mission seems to be more than
obvious. What is debatable, however, emerges on the level of understanding the mission and on the
level of different answers to the challenge to the functioning of all media at the beginning of the
twenty-first century. The analysis to be found in the present the paper is an attempt to critically
assess the debate and present a few problems inherent in the debate in the context of public and
social media in Poland and their public mission in the society.
Key words: public mission of medias, mission of medias, media ethics, ethic of journalismus,
journalist mission, axiology of communication