Polish Nationwide Catholic Opinion-Forming Weeklies on Facebook—A Marketing Perspective

Anna Jupowicz-Ginalska,Iwona Leonowicz-Bukała,Andrzej Adamski

doi:10.3390/rel11050246

Anna Jupowicz-Ginalska, Iwona Leonowicz-Bukała + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11050246

Copy DOI

Abstract

The main focus of this paper is on the marketing approach of the use of Facebook by the Polish nationwide Catholic opinion-forming weeklies. The aim of the research is to analyse how the selected media use Facebook (FB) to create a media product, distribute, price and communicate its content (including self-promotional activities). The Facebook profiles of five weeklies were analysed: Gość Niedzielny, Niedziela, Przewodnik Katolicki, Idziemy and Tygodnik Rodzin Katolickich Źródło. Three research methods were chosen: literature review on marketing use of Facebook by traditional media, the case study and the content analysis (quantitative, qualitative and comparative). The most important results show that the use of the social media platform Facebook by the Catholic weeklies in Poland is limited to supplementing the main communication channel, which is the printed weekly and its website. The studied media treat Facebook as a marketing tool, favouring this function over the potential apologetic or evangelising ones, but at the same time none of the magazines fully exploit Facebook’s potential offered by its systemic and functional features.

Highlights

The first article (Adamski et al 2020) contained a presentation of the theoretical and methodological framework of the whole cycle. It carried out a literature review regarding close relations between religion, Catholic media and social media
The main research question focuses on what the marketing functions of Catholic media profiles on
The theoretical assumptions for the analysis of the content of communication in social media were based on Merton (2002) concept of American functionalism, which Dennis McQuail described as still providing a useful language to explain the relationship between the media and the society (McQuail 2007, p. 111)

Summary

Introduction

The first article (Adamski et al 2020) contained a presentation of the theoretical and methodological framework of the whole cycle. It carried out a literature review regarding close relations between religion, Catholic media and social media (the following topics were analysed: the mediatisation of religion, religious marketing, the concept and definition of Catholic media in Poland, the description of the Polish Catholic weeklies including their online incarnations and the theoretical approach to the marketing use of social media by traditional media). It should be pointed out that the aim of the research, of which the results are presented here, is to analyse how the selected media use Facebook (FB) to create a media product, distribute, price and communicate its content (including self-promotional activities). The main research question focuses on what the marketing functions of Catholic media profiles on FB are

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion