Damian Guzek - Böcker

Written against the backdrop of ten years of visits and studies in 220 Gothic cathedrals, Gothic iconic local churches, and neo-Gothic cathedrals, this Element examines the idea of historical religious structures as 'hybrid media spaces' using grounded theory and communication and media approaches to capture the processes of communicating and erasing Christian processes of excommunicating in contemporary secular society. They show that at the current pace of societal conditions, cathedrals and iconic churches labeled as Gothic style are becoming the new platform for religious hybrid media practices and connections between religious and non-religious approaches.

Written against the backdrop of ten years of visits and studies in 220 Gothic cathedrals, Gothic iconic local churches, and neo-Gothic cathedrals, this Element examines the idea of historical religious structures as 'hybrid media spaces' using grounded theory and communication and media approaches to capture the processes of communicating and erasing Christian processes of excommunicating in contemporary secular society. They show that at the current pace of societal conditions, cathedrals and iconic churches labeled as Gothic style are becoming the new platform for religious hybrid media practices and connections between religious and non-religious approaches.

Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have faced significant political, economic, social, and technological transformations over the last four decades. Democratic processes, after relative stabilisation, have begun to tremble again around polarizing values, populist leaders, or nationalistic ideologies. Online communication, especially social media platforms, play a vital role in shaping how citizens interact with the state, political actors, media, and other citizens.This book focuses on some of the challenges democratic institutions in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries face in transforming and sustaining civil society and captures how the digital media environments mitigate or exacerbate those challenges. The chapters in this book focus on the role that online platforms play in shaping satisfaction with democracy in the CEE region, the interactions between journalists and political actors, the strategic media coverage of elections, affective polarisation and political antagonism, and discursive attempts to discourage young people from civic engagement. The first section of the book looks at CEE countries from a comparative perspective, and the second section examines specific case studies within different CEE countries such as Albania and Kosovo, Czechia and Hungary, Poland and Ukraine.This volume will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of Communication Studies, Politics, Media Studies, Sociology and Central and Eastern European studies. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Journal of Information, Technology & Politics.

The book provides an empirically based analysis of changes on how various political and denominational actors seek to influence the Church and state relationship, as well as how we understand the idea of the secular state. A set of case studies shows how and why changes in the coverage of the secular state and Church-state relations have followed the dynamics of media logic. By establishing a grounded theory based on media content, legal regulations and political party programs in the years 1989–2015 as well as a current survey, the author throws new light on the theory of mediatization. The book demonstrates that the disseminated idea of the secular state is largely a result of the adaptation of both political and religious representatives to a dynamically changing media logic."The book is the first study of this kind showing the Polish perspective. It is an interesting and important source of information for those who want to trace the media picture of relations between the Polish state and the institution of the Roman Catholic Church, representing the largest religious community in Poland."Professor Dorota Piontek, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań