The politics of television programming as a metaphor for the condition of society. The TV programme “Chłopaki do wzięcia” as an example of maintaining negative stereotypes of the Polish rural population

The media policy of television stations treats attracting viewers’ attention as the primordial principle of their operation. The use of pathological content that crosses the boundaries of the normative system on screen has become a new media practice and a strategy for increasing viewership. An example of such production is tv programme “Chłopaki do wzięcia”, described as ‘documentary’. Its protagonists are men and women from Polish villages and small towns who are looking for love. The author attempts to examine the ‘reality’ presented in the programme “Chłopaki do wzięcia” by means of content analysis, which is the starting point for the analysis of social representations. He uses theoretical categories concerning new media practices, such as: humiliation culture, victim show theory, stereotypes and media voyeurism. The aim of this article is an attempt to identify media images and specific interpretations of reality in the programme “Chłopaki do wzięcia”, which, in the author’s opinion, contribute to maintaining a negative image of rural inhabitants by transmitting social pathology to television. Moreover, the author makes an attempt to outline the policies followed by the producers of “Guys for the Taking” to explain its popularity and the reasons behind its creation.