Abstract

Religion and media are more closely intertwined than ever before. Media play an increasingly central role in making religions publicly visible and religions in turn are influenced by the logics of the media. Under pope Francis, the Catholic Church has developed and specified a particular form of the relationship between religion and the media. The articles collected in this special issue represent an attempt to address some research issues relevant to this relationship. This introduction sets out the background and key concepts for analyzing the continuities and innovations introduced by pope Francis and provides a brief summary of the arguments of the individual articles within this collection.