This study aims to demonstrate that media can achieve a religious construction of an event or issue and set the public sphere in a religious frame through the sacralization of events and persons. This perspective can be supported empirically by the studies showing the way in which mass media framed different events in a religious imaginary and language and proposed this image as a frame for public sphere debates and theoretically by the concepts of media events, mediatization, ritualization, and sacralization, in order to reveal the processes through which the translation from a secular discourse to a religious discourse is produced. Under certain circumstances, mass media work as an “as if” (metaphoric) religion, and the events are presented through a religious frame – through themes and figures that come from the religious sacred narratives. Journalists accomplish this by setting events and leaders within the symbolic frame specific to religion: within this framework, those who report the facts are using narratives close to hagiographic stories, and by this, they are accomplishing the sacralization of these events. This enables journalists to exert a “ritual mastery” over presenting the events and imposing its significations.

In the present study, I undertake to show that the public sphere can be constructed within the frames of a discourse loaded with religious symbols, either as part of religious institutions and manifestations, or, in a more interesting case, through the media discourse. I want to show that media functions as a ritualizing agent, which builds symbolic spaces of action and thinking. Journalists accomplish this by presenting events as if they had pre-established and immutable order and meaning, set within a religious system. The ritualization of the journalistic performance and the mythologization of the representation of events are some of the strongest tools for promoting a representation of events in a language loaded with religious symbols and to outline a public sphere constructed in a religious frame. Thus, using a sacralizing language, media creates a religious public sphere, which function as a liminal, subjunctive framework: it is possible to assume that now a new type of public sphere, defined by a religious frame, is developed, in a social context and symbolical frame that are totally different to the usual circumstances of a religious experience.

This chapter concludes the book. The chapter starts by describing the background for the new model of the influencing factors of journalism, including some of its shortcomings, and then discusses the ways in which this and other new models that have been presented in this book can assist researchers, lecturers and practitioners – both those in newsrooms and those in classrooms. Ultimately, this new model of the influencing factors of journalism is not only a reminder to researchers, educators and the daily practitioners of journalism of the forces that can restrict and enable journalists but also an inspiration for us to think more concretely about what journalism is, and who journalists are, here in the 21st century, where new technologies have made it easier for other professions and organizations to produce, publish and distribute something that resembles journalism. These are questions related to identity and …

Despite the emergence of religions on Internet and the importance of social media, research dedicated to religious leaders’ construction of symbolic image on social media, is hard to find. Starting from the 2013 Applebee’s social media crisis, which was triggered by a pastor, the present study investigates the frames and themes Facebook users employed in order to give meaning to the crisis, attribute responsibility, and more importantly, define the role of a religious leader in daily life. This study shows the existence on social media of an active religious literate public, a public clearly troubled in their religious faith and convictions by the non-Christian behavior of the pastor. This shows that in a post-secular society the religious imaginary is not only a “canopy” inherited and kept because of convenience, but a cultural frame of signification the real and a vector of dialogue in a (online) micro and macro public sphere.

Will Robots Take Your Job? is very well researched, yet short and succinct.It presents a wide range of arguments and provides a grand view of problems of technological unemployment.I strongly recommend the book to anyone who wants to learn more about the topic quickly, and to read about the main theories in the field without looking at (too many) primary sources.When it comes to solutions, however, Cameron is much more cautious.While some people may argue that we need more radical, or more straightforward, strategies and action plans, Cameron's approach is in line with an important point made by Brian Sudlow: 'nobody is quite sure what a world increasingly run by artificial intelligence will actually look like, or indeed how fast that world could evolve into something else entirely different' (Sudlow, 2018).This is why Will Robots Take Your Job? is refreshing and relevant.From his experience as a technology writer and think-tank director, Cameron makes an important point that we need to build (social) consensus before we start acting.This does not indicate lack of vision; rather, it signals a democratic and open-minded view of the future.In line with this view, the book starts with a warning: 'A short book on a complex and controversial topic is a rather dangerous thing to write.'The author continues: 'the questions addressed here, at the meeting point of science, technology, and society, are questions for all of us'.In my opinion, this sentence is the key to the reading of Cameron's book because the chosen formatsuccinct, wide, and well researchedis an appropriate base point for reaching consensus.Cameron has managed to position his work in the wide spectrum of literature on technological unemployment as a succinct, powerful call to democratic action.Within a rapidly growing body of literature where authors develop this or that imaginary future to their own liking, this modest but hugely important volume should be taken very seriously.

In the Romanian newsrooms women outstrip men. Women are not only more numerous but also much younger, being under 30. They have university degrees and, in comparison with men, are more often specialized in journalism. Thus, of the 341 interviewed journalists, 62.5 percent (213) were female and 37.5 percent (128) were male. 84.8 percent of the Romanian journalists were younger than 40, on average being 30.65 years old (s=9.79). A large number of journalists held a bachelor’s (41.6%) or a master's degree (26.7%), while 10.0 percent had not completed their university studies. 18.8 percent of the total had attained secondary education, while 2.3 percent obtained a Ph.D. Over 80.0 percent of the Romanian journalists with university degrees had specialized in journalism and/or in other field of communication, as follows: 47.4 percent had specialized in journalism, 17.2 percent had studied other field of communication, and 15.7 percent had specialized in journalism and other field of communication. The high number of university degrees in journalism is spectacular compared to the first two decades of postcommunism.

The Global Journalist in the 21st Century systematically assesses the demographics, education, socialization, professional attitudes and working conditions of journalists in various countries around the world. This book updates the original Global Journalist (1998) volume with new data, adding more than a dozen countries, and provides material on comparative research about journalists that will be useful to those interested in doing their own studies. The editors put together this collection working under the assumption that journalists' backgrounds, working conditions and ideas are related to what is reported (and how it is covered) in the various news media round the world, in spite of societal and organizational constraints, and that this news coverage matters in terms of world public opinion and policies. Outstanding features include: Coverage of 33 nations located around the globe, based on recent surveys conducted among representative samples of local journalists ; Comprehensive analyses by well-known media scholars from each country ; A section on comparative studies of journalists ; An appendix with a collection of survey questions used in various nations to question journalists. As the most comprehensive and reliable source on journalists around the world, The Global Journalist will serve as the primary source for evaluating the state of journalism. As such, it promises to become a standard reference among journalism, media, and communication students and researchers around the world. [Book Synopsis]

This article reports key findings from a comparative survey of the role perceptions, epistemological orientations and ethical views of 1800 journalists from 18 countries. The results show that detachment, non-involvement, providing political information and monitoring the government are considered essential journalistic functions around the globe. Impartiality, the reliability and factualness of information, as well as adherence to universal ethical principles are also valued worldwide, though their perceived importance varies across countries. Various aspects of interventionism, objectivism and the importance of separating facts from opinion, on the other hand, seem to play out differently around the globe. Western journalists are generally less supportive of any active promotion of particular values, ideas and social change, and they adhere more to universal principles in their ethical decisions. Journalists from non-western contexts, on the other hand, tend to be more interventionist in their role perceptions and more flexible in their ethical views.

To cite this Article Hanitzsch, Thomas , Hanusch, Folker , Mellado, Claudia , Anikina, Maria , Berganza, Rosa , Cangoz, Incilay , Coman, Mihai , Hamada, Basyouni , Elena Hernández, María , Karadjov, Christopher D. , Virginia Moreira, Sonia , Mwesige, Peter G. , Plaisance, Patrick Lee , Reich, Zvi , Seethaler, Josef , Skewes, Elizabeth A. , Vardiansyah Noor, Dani and Kee Wang Yuen, Edgar(2011) 'MAPPING JOURNALISM CULTURES ACROSS NATIONS', Journalism Studies, 12: 3, 273 — 293, First published on: 15 November 2010 (iFirst) To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2010.512502 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2010.512502

This article reports key findings from a comparative survey of the role perceptions, epistemological orientations and ethical views of 1800 journalists from 18 countries. The results show that detachment, non-involvement, providing political information and monitoring the government are considered essential journalistic functions around the globe. Impartiality, the reliability and factualness of information, as well as adherence to universal ethical principles are also valued worldwide, though their perceived importance varies across countries. Various aspects of interventionism, objectivism and the importance of separating facts from opinion, on the other hand, seem to play out differently around the globe. Western journalists are generally less supportive of any active promotion of particular values, ideas and social change, and they adhere more to universal principles in their ethical decisions. Journalists from non-western contexts, on the other hand, tend to be more interventionist in their role perceptions and more flexible in their ethical views.

This study is based on the conceptual framework created by Dayan and Katz (1992) focusing on what they called media events, and it proposes a step forward by applying an anthropological framework to such media phenomena. My analysis is focused on the symbolic mechanism through which the Romanian media produced a media event out of an 'ordinary' Michael Jackson concert, ritualised journalists' behaviour and conferred religious-like meanings, ceremonial and mythological in nature, not only to the gestures and reactions of the star-idol performing his show, but also to its political and social echoes. The media events' theoretical model could explain the social mobilisation produced by the media (as a strong short-term media effect). Nevertheless, it does not explain the transformation of the journalistic discourse into a liturgical one. The study shows that the process of commodification of saints, heroes and stars by the media is mirrored by another process, that of the sacralisation of celebrities through journalistic discourse.

Surveying 1,700 journalists from seventeen countries, this study investigates perceived influences on news work. Analysis reveals a dimensional structure of six distinct domains political, economic, organizational, professional, and procedural influences, as well as reference groups. Across countries, these six dimensions build up a hierarchical structure where organizational, professional, and procedural influences are perceived as more powerful limits to journalists' work than political and economic influences.