Religion and the media: The cultural role of a church-based welfare agent in a Norwegian local community

Abstract

In this paper the mediation of the moral agency of a small church-based (Norwegian) welfare organisation is analysed and discussed in a media theoretical perspective. Main focus is put on the relationship between the welfare organisation and its leader on one hand and the local newspaper on the other. The relationship is conceived and analysed as a trust relationship and seen in the context of the local newspaper’s agency manifesting the ideas of the public journalism movement. The paper discusses whether the agency of this particular type of welfare organisation as it is mediated in the (secular) newspaper may contribute to ”boosting religion” or more specifically if it may indicate whether the church is still interesting as a source of moral authority.