“Lethal churches and the useless God.” Religion in the media discourse in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland: sociological reflections

Abstract

The aim of the article is to identify and analyze the contexts in which religion appears in the discourse of Polish conservative online outlets. The discourse was treated as a cognitive frame used to engender an intersubjective world of meanings that legitimize and motivate collective actions. The analysis targeted three news and comment websites defined as conservative. It was assumed that media representations show the social significance of religion on the one hand and, on the other, sustain and redefine it. As a result of the analysis, a number of themes that focused the attention of the media were identified: defining religion, churches and congregations of the faithful as a threat and searching for new forms of religious life that do not require face to face interaction.