COVID-19 Pandemic, Mediatization and the Polish Sociology of Religion

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic restrictions limited access to religious services and forced religious organizations to move most activities online, thus amplifying the processes of mediatization. They have also brought to light the existing power relations and hierarchies among and within the Churches, among others in the context of minority-majority relations. This context opens up new avenues for research on the topics of mediatization and power relations. We argue that in order to give an accurate account of pandemic-related developments, sociology of religion would benefit from employing user-centric research perspectives and a constructivist concept of mediatization. Analyzing research done on the topic of religion and the media in Poland to date, we present the key premises of our research project deploying the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse, and highlight how it may be of use to Polish sociologists of religion.