Polish Nationwide Catholic Opinion-Forming Weeklies on Social Media—From Theoretical Introduction to Empirical Approach

Abstract

This paper is the first part of a cycle comprising five texts on the marketing use of social media by nationwide opinion-forming Catholic weeklies in Poland. Considering the state of the research so far, it is not completely clear how to classify Catholic media profiles on social networking sites. On the one hand, the media activity of the Church is typically evangelistic in nature, but on the other hand it takes place in typically secular conditions. The evangelising role of the Catholic media cannot be separated from the opinion-forming function. The main objective of the project is, firstly, to assess the marketing potential of social media used by the aforementioned weeklies and secondly, to complement the previously described online presence of religious entities in the context of the mediatization of religions. This paper—as the theoretical background of the research—presents the detailed interdisciplinary literature review on the issues crucial for the project, as well as the methodological introduction to our study.

Religious and Non-Religious Workplace Mobbing Victims: When Do People Turn to Religious Organisations?

“…Moreover, declining church attendance and the proliferation of social networks have not significantly undermined the role of official sources of religious information and knowledge [51]. At the same time, the ways in which consumers of religious products are reached and influenced in one way or another are also changing [52,53]. That is, from the marketing perspective, religious organisations have excellent opportunities to present the religious-spiritual assistance service.…”

“…That is, from the marketing perspective, religious organisations have excellent opportunities to present the religious-spiritual assistance service. Although the specific formula of the exchange is treated as commercial, these exchanges can be measured in spiritual categories, since the Church meets the religious needs of its members [52]. However, although there is a lack of the most recent research investigating the impact of disseminating information about religious-spiritual assistance on the choice of such assistance, some evidence demonstrates that in practice, this subject sometimes receives insufficient attention [54] or that assistance is generally only made available to the members of a particular denomination [55].…”

Effects of Pope Francis’ Religious Authority and Media Coverage on Twitter User’s Attitudes toward COVID-19 Vaccination

“…Messages are created by producers of goods not associated with the media industry. They do not become mass-media but they benefit from the democratisation of communication, creating a new channel of communication which is independent of the media, or competing with them for the attention of the audience [106]. The social media have become an undoubted rival of the traditional media in fulfilling the informational function.…”

Dispensation and Liturgy Mediated as an Answer to COVID-19 Restrictions: Empirical Study Based on Polish Online Press Narration

“…Following this path, the mediatisation of the Eucharist should be understood as its virtualised form, transmitted through traditional and non-traditional media. It may have positive consequences, i.e., reaching the faithful with the message, informing them, evangelising them; and negative ones, i.e., trivialisation, erosion of authorities, weakening of community ties, making religious practices superficial (Adamski et al 2020). Despite the latter, it should be stressed that during the pandemic, it was the media, where the authorities closed the temples or limited the number of participants in the liturgy, that made it possible for the faithful to participate in religious ceremonies on a mass scale.…”