"The contributions of this special issue are grouped in three sections: context, theoretical framework and empirical research. The first articles set up two important dimensions of the context we are living in that have to be definitely improved if we want to take advantage of the positive sides of
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Covid-19’s effects to bring about real social relations and a good communication of science [...] The following articles deal with three important core components needed to set up a theoretical framework, from which this issue intends to start a serious scholarly conversation around the lessons learned from the Covid’s impact on social communication: (1) how a person knows and shapes his/her judgment in practical affairs when s/he is critically involved in them, (2) why and how science has surrendered to technology in the last decades, (3) and how practical knowledge is socially shared [...] The context and theoretical framework having been set up, the issue enters into the empirical part of our research: several papers examine the news coverage of the Church dealing with the pandemic in a good sample of newspapers around the world, one paper looks at how social media have engaged in the response to the pandemic by the Catholic Church, and another at how local churches have managed the challenges of the pandemic [...] The analysis of worldwide media coverage aims to find out how the mainstream press has portrayed the role of Christian churches and other religious bodies in dealing with the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. All researchers have broadly shared a common qualitative methodology: looking for the frames and inducing the topoi (common places) underlying the resulting frames of the examination of news and editorial items." (Pages 2-4)
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"Can religious messages be transmitted through the media? If so, how and why? Taking these questions as its starting point, and focusing on the relationship between media and religion, this book presents an analysis of the relationship between religion and the media. It explores the inherent qualiti
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es of media communication channels and codes and the ways in which they affect the dissemination of religious messages, as well as the arguments over religion used in public discourse. The book also presents a critical analysis of church media in Slovakia, and shows that although the media do have the capacity to convey religious messages, they can only do so in a superficial manner and thus do not represent a suitable instrument for mediating deep spiritual content or serving as a vehicle for evangelization. Another key finding here is that the differences between the basic argumentation structures of the religious and secular worlds are irreconcilable, meaning that conservatives and progressives can expect little more than a basic sense of tolerance and decency from each other." (Publisher description)
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"The author analyses strong and weak points of the Church media in Slovakia. Her conclusions are based on more than ten previous researches in the field of Church and media, realized on the Catholic University in Ruzomberok, Slovakia. She states, that Slovak church media are exclusively pastoral, wi
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lfully resigning to the evangelization function. Marginal evangelization attempts (such as in Radio Lumen in the late 1990s) have failed. This means, inter alia, that they do not do journalism in its original sense. They act as public relations bodies of the bishop’s conferences and as an extension of spiritual service of the church to the believers. The competent decision-makers (i.e. church hierarchy) are not willing to subsidize evangelization medium, because the currently accepted doctrine is to use ‘their own’ media space to spread ‘their own’ messages. Thus, opening complex topics, covering opinion plurality and encouraging discussion, is regarded as harmful. This function is, in the last years, substituted by the commercial project of the Conservative daily Postoj, but this is neither a church nor religious medium. As the researches show, also the request of believing the audience for independent critical Church medium is disputable. The audience is – disregarding age – divided between the audience of the official church media and decent secular media. Between these two groups exists a relatively strong antagonism." (Abstract)
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"The purpose of this study is to determine whether the media language code is suitable for transmitting religious messages. In religious media communication one observes a tendency not to respect the classical news values, and in fact tends to limit them. This approach makes religious media communic
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ation fail at the start. Using textual analysis and qualitative research techniques, e.g., focus groups and Delphi, we investigate some news values relate (positively or negatively) to the religious messages. Here we present three most expressive of them: conflict, scandalousness and story. If messages are formed by news values, then religious messages are formed by means of values that we named the gospel values and can be identified with traditional Catholic Church virtues. Finding possible connections between the news values and the gospel values seems to be one of the basic solutions for the religious message media coding." (Abstract)
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"The paper presents results of the research focused on opinion leaders and interpretive communities of young active Catholics in Slovakia in connection with contemporary ecclesial-societal issues. The author pays a special attention to the Church opinion leaders and the sources of the opinion leader
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s credibility. She proceeds from a broader research, realized on the sample of 339 respondents from 18 to 40 years old. She is linking her findings with the three current ecclesial-societal issues: the removal of the archbishop Róbert Bezák from office, financial separation of Church and state and clerical celibacy." (Abstract)
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"It is quite obvious that cultural and ethical questions have a potential to stir public discourse in countries which claim to be a part of the Western civilization. The ongoing public discourse on these questions has been tagged as ‘culture war’. The conflict itself appears irreconcilable and c
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oncerns have been raised as to whether a dialogue between the two opposing parties is useful or even possible. The author of the study seeks answers to this question against the backdrop of communication of religious message on marriage, family and homosexuality. Drawing on her previously published studies on media discourse prior to the Slovak referendum on family, as well as previous researches into the key argumentation bases (including ‘human nature’ and ‘manipulation’), the author examines the question using a method of in-depth interviews with the most influential journalists. The study focuses on how to effectively communicate religious messages in public discourse and presents the findings about the misunderstanding on both sides of the dispute. The study also suggests possible solutions. The author affirms that dialogue can make the form of discussion more enjoyable, however it does not lead to resolution of the differences. The study suggests that the ability of communicators to discern between political and non-political advocacy of ideas critical as the former require tougher forms, while the latter softer forms of communication. When used in incompatible contexts, these messages may backfire." (Abstract)
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"The article discusses the relationship of young engaged Catholics in Slovakia to the various media outlets which they follow. It attempts to reveal which media outlets are considered to be inspiring and thought-provoking and how are they perceived and evaluated by their followers. The author draws
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from extensive research into the interpretation of Church news and current affairs within the community of young engaged Catholics; therefore, the findings related to media reception presented herein also include demographical and personality characteristics for individual audiences. The findings are also presented within the context of three specific Church-related news stories: the contentious removal of Róbert Bezák from his position as Archbishop of Trnava, the financial separation of the Church and state, and clerical celibacy. The underlying research was conducted using combined questionnaires, both quantitative and qualitative, on a sample of 339 suitable respondents. The research reveals that the most inspiring Slovak media outlet according to the young engaged Catholics is the secular weekly týžden, followed by the Catholic television channel Lux. The research has revealed a significant discrepancy between the opinions of the audiences of secular media and the audiences of official Church media: while the former are very critical of Church media, the latter seem to be more reluctant to turn to secular media." (Abstract)
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"The present study is part of a complex research of media language to spread religious messages. It deals with the nature of the communication channel of the mass-media. It is based on the qulitative research carried out especially by means of the methods of focus groups and Delphi Techniques. Start
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ing with the key issue of the function of journalism, the study gradually investigates the attributes of the media communication channels according to their approach towards religious topics. Based on this criterion, the research divides media into two groups: secular and religious media. The study carefully investigates their internal motivation, commerciality, democratic nature and publicity, agenda setting and capacity to change people. (Abstract)
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"This study presents the results of research into the media's capacity to carry religious messages. It is based on a qualitative content analysis of original texts inspired by religious motives in Slovak Catholic and secular press. The main focus is the messages as such, related topoi (bases for arg
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uments) and their epiphenomena. The study focuses on the topoi and seeks an answer to the following key question: What ‘common ideas’ (in Greek topoi) do mass-media messages and religious messages refer to? Based on the comparison of the topoi of original religious messages and messages covered by media, the study concludes that the key topoi of religious messages and of media messages resulting from it differ significantly. The difference in topoi arises mainly from a different pre-understanding –that is, attitude of faith / absence of faith in a journalist, and the related trust / distrust of the church. Apart from basic personal predispositions, the study points to a number of important factors such as comprehensibility, attitude on the capacity of mass media to evangelize, compliance with journalistic form, understanding of the role of news values (conflict in particular), and level of religiousness of the language used in massmedia communication. Finally, the study offers several recommendations and outlines the challenges faced by church and secular media communicators." (Abstract)
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"The Katolícke noviny weekly derives five to ten times more income from advertising than Rádio Lumen, and the radio station derives three to ten times more income from advertising than TV LUX. Katolícke noviny are self-supporting, and so the publisher is not pressed for increasing advertising inc
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ome. On the other hand, both Rádio Lumen and TV LUX grapple with the finances and more advertising income would definitely help them. Rádio Lumen considers its advertising income adequate to market opportunities given the nature of the radio station and listeners’ profile." (Conclusion)
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