How Individual News Media Repertoires Shape the Reputation of Religious Organizations: The Case of the Catholic Church in Austria

ABSTRACT

The Catholic Church receives much attention in the news media. In recent years news coverage about the Church most notably includes optimistic reports about Pope Francis as well as negative coverage about child abuse perpetrated by priests. Although religious organizations are highly relevant in modern mediated societies, there is little research on how media coverage influences public perceptions of the Church. This paper combines the concepts of news media repertoires and corporate reputation in analyzing how news media consumption patterns influence public perceptions of the Catholic Church. We conducted a representative population survey in Austria in the spring of 2017 (n = 1,035). We identified five distinct news media repertoires. The results show that News Avoiders evaluate the Church less positively than people with a Legacy Quality Media repertoire. The effects of media repertoires on reputation also relate to people who are highly engaged in the Church community.