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Professor Walery Pisarek (1931-2017)

portret prof. Walerego Pisarka

Professor Dr. habil. Walery Pisarek occupies a special position in Polish science as a researcher who subverted the stereotype of scholar, a unique personality, a man of impressive knowledge, who was capable of harmonizing the core values shared by people between the 18th and 21st centuries. Reasons for the young student of journalism and social communication to know his achievements are innumerable. And many scholars working today in our Department (and in a number of academic institutions both in Poland and abroad) were inspired by his thought in their major research achievements. We wish to make aware the younger generations of students and researchers of certain facts.
The private and academic biography of Walery Pisarek was closely related in its various aspects and phases to the Jagiellonian University and our Institute. Professor Walery Pisarek was associated with our University over the best part of his adult life: first as a student of Polish language and literature, then as a close assistant and doctoral student of the prominent linguist, Professor Zenon Klemensiewicz; he was also awarded the doctor habilitatus degree and the professor title by our University.
Walery Pisarek initiated the revival of journalism studies at the Jagiellonian University, following a twenty-year hiatus caused by the Stalinist regime. Beginning in 1971, he taught in the JU Post-graduate Journalist College at the Institute of Polish Philology, and then chaired the Journalist Division in the JU Institute of Political Science (1977-1985). He held the position of lecturer in the International School of Journalism in the JU Faculty of Political Science over the following years, and in the newly established Institute of Journalism and Social Communication in the Faculty of Management and Social Communication between 1999 and 2007. He was a teacher and tutor of generations of Polish journalists, an academic mentor and guide for young Polish and foreign media students, their unquestionable scientific and moral authority.
In Walery Pisarek’s academic career, work in the Press Research Centre played an important role, actually the most important role for the best part of his life: he began to work for the Centre immediately after his graduation in 1958, to become its contractual employee beginning in 1962. Beginning in 1969, after the tragic death of Irena Tetelowska, he managed the RSW “Prasa-Książka-Ruch” Press Research Centre (the only research institute of this type in the Polish People's Republic). As a press researcher and manager, he personified the Centre’s “golden age”. In the Third Republic of Poland, he continued to manage the institution, renamed the Press Research Centre Department and affiliated with the above teaching divisions of the Jagiellonian University.
Due to his rank as a scholar and his managerial position in the Press Research Centre, Walery Pisarek performed since the 1970s a number of functions in major international organizations concerned with mass communication. In 1976-1988, he held the position of vice-president of the AIERI/IAMCR (International Association for Media and Communication Research) – an organization affiliated with the UNESCO; previously he also managed the organization’s bibliographic section (beginning in 1970). Walery Pisarek was a member of the UNESCO Expert Committee for Research into Mass Communication (1972-1976) and worked with the Committee until the 1990s. In 1976-1990, he managed the Central European Mass Communication Research Documentation Centre (CECOM) of Krakow, a link in the COMNET global network of regional documentation centres. In Poland, Walery Pisarek was a honorary member of the Polish Communication Association (since 2008), a member of the Commission on Press Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Krakow branch), and the Commission on Culture and Media Management of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (Krakow Branch). 
Since 1964, Walery Pisarek worked in the editorial team of “Zeszyty Prasoznawcze” quarterly journal, the oldest media-studies journal published since the 1950s, and held the position of its editor-in-chief between 1991 and 2012. He also worked in editorial boards of such media-studies journals as “Journal of Communication”, “Mass Communication Review Yearbook”, „Journalism Studies”, and in the 21st century, of “Studia Medioznawcze” (since 2000) and “Central European Journal of Communication” (since 2008). He edited or co-edited an international biographical reference publication titled Who’s Who in Mass Communication, Encyklopedia wiedzy o prasie (an encyclopaedia of the print media), Słownik terminologii medialnej (a glossary of media terminology) and Encyklopedia książki (an encyclopaedia of the book). He supervised publication of the legendary reports on condition of social communication in Poland in the 1970s, 1980s, and in 1980-1981. 
As a linguist and promoter of correct Polish usage, Walery Pisarek chaired the Council for the Polish Language at the Polish Academy of Sciences (recently as its honorary chair); in this capacity, he represented Poland in the European Federation of National Institutions for Language (EFNIL). In 1993-2001, he chaired the Polish Language Culture Commission. He also held the positions of deputy chair and then chair of the Polish Language Club. He was also a honorary member of the above learned societies. In the 1990s, he initiated projects aimed to adopt the Polish Language Act of 1999.
He worked in the editorial board of “Język Polski” quarterly journal, and edited multiple issues of concise spelling dictionaries.
He promoted correct Polish usage on television, beginning with “Studio 2” programmes, and since 1987 he acted as a judge (and frequently text author) in the series of contests known as “National Dictation” in Katowice, and similar projects (e.g. “Dictation for Families”, “Małopolska School Spelling Contest”, “Dictation for the Polonia”).
Professor Pisarek’s scholarly achievements consist of more than 700 publications, including a dozen monographs and reference books used by a number of students, editors and publishers, lecturers and researchers. Here is a list of these books:
- Język wiadomości prasowych, on the language of press news (co-author with M. Kniaginiowa) (1967);
- Poznać prasę po nagłówkach! Nagłówek wypowiedzi prasowej w oświetleniu lingwistycznym, a linguistic analysis of press headlines (1967);
- Frekwencja wyrazów w prasie. Wiadomości, komentarze i reportaże, on word frequency in press news, commentaries and narratives (1972);
- Retoryka dziennikarska, on journalist rhetoric (1970, 1975, 1988);
- Prasa: nasz chleb powszedni, on print-media production, history, function (1978);
- Słownik języka niby-polskiego, czyli błędy językowe w prasie, on linguistic errors in the print media (1978);
- Aktywność, preferencje i świadomość kulturalna społeczeństwa polskiego, on Polish society at large (1981), co-author with T. Goban-Klas
- Analiza zawartości prasy, an analysis of print-media contents (1983);
- Słowa między ludźmi, on interpersonal communication and common linguistic errors (1985, 2004);
- Polszczyzna 2000. Orędzie o stanie języka na przełomie tysiącleci, on condition of the Polish language at the turn of the millennium, (ed.) (1999);
- Polskie słowa sztandarowe i ich publiczność, on Polish banner words and their audience (2002);
- Nowa retoryka dziennikarska, on new journalist rhetoric (2002);
- Słownik terminologii medialnej, a glossary of media terminology (ed.) 2006);
- Raport o stanie komunikacji społecznej w Polsce, sierpień 1980-13 grudnia 1981, a report on condition of social communication in Poland (ed.) (2007);
- O mediach i języku, on media and language (2007);
- Wstęp do nauki o komunikowaniu, an introduction to communication studies (2008).
- Kieszonkowy słowniczek ortograficzny, a concise spelling dictionary (six issues, the last of 2005)
More about scholarly achievements of Professor Pisarek: www.obp.pl
Photo: “Gazeta Krakowska”