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Dana RADU

Religious issues in the Romanian public sphere. Media discourse and deliberative practices

Romanian Journal of Journalism and Communication, issue 4 (50), year X (XIV), 2015

section: Media & Religion

pages: 15-27

abstract

This article considers the media debates around challenging the status of religious education in the Romanian public schools while aiming to investigate the deliberative practices through which the Romanian media problematizes this controversial issue, grants visibility and mediates between different viewpoints, worlds and interests. By using content analysis doubled by a critical discourse analysis perspective, correlated with theoretical approaches on media and public space, the study examines the media discourse on the “religion class” controversy. The concept of “deliberative mediatization” is operatio-nalized in an analysis that targets to highlight the role of the journalist, the variety of actors and viewpoints considered as well as the specific strategies underpinning the journalists’ engagement with the expressed opinions, the extent to which they assumed a particular role in the debate, adhered to or dissociated themselves from expressed viewpoints, reframed or redefined certain views. The analysis substantiates that the media has had manifold roles in shaping the public debate on the status of religion in national public schools not only by granting access to the public arena to a varied typology of actors and arguments, but also by a significant number of problematizing strategies and practices.

keywords

Religion, controversy, deliberative mediatization, public space, journalists.

abstract (second language):

Cet article s’intéresse aux débats médiatiques portant sur le thème de l’enseignement religieux dans les écoles publiques roumaines. Prenant appui sur une analyse de contenu et sur des éléments de l’analyse critique du discours, l’article met en évidence la manière dont deux journaux roumains se sont appropriés la controverse autour de « la religion dans les écoles ». Le concept de « médiatisation délibérative » est opérationnalisé afin d’approcher le rôle du journaliste a travers diverses stratégies de problématisation. L’analyse relève que la construction du discours médiatique a contribué à la polarisation du débat. C’est dans ce cadre de la polarisation du débat que les médias ont engendré la visibilité des divers points de vue et positionnements.

keywords (second language):

Religion, controverse, l'espace public, journalistes.

 Accredited Publication by the National Council of
 Higher Education Scientific Research (code 779), as B+, and indexed full text by EBSCO and ProQuest.