The following paper draws from the social constructionist approach (Burr 2015) and social identity theory (Tajfel, 1974) to analyze the populist discursive frameworks in the Facebook accounts of populist far-right parties Chega (Portugal) and Vox (Spain) during January­‑March 2023. The aim is to demonstrate how country-based contexts affect and shape discursive constructions of the elites. Methodologically, this paper follows the discourse historical approach (Wodak, 2001) to critical discourse analysis. The results show that although both parties’ constructions of “the people” are identical, the same does not concern the elites, as Vox’s characterization of this group encompasses environmentalists, the media, feminists, trans people, and separatists. Neither Vox nor Chega places immigrants as part of either group but as a sub-group that is protected by the elites, with Chega adding the Roma ethnic minority to the same predicament.

National elections – or “first-order elections” (FOEs) – are regularly the focus of research studying election campaigns, whereas supranational elections are often handled as “second-order elections” (SOEs). Social media tend to normalize existing power relationship and equalizing political competition during election. This paper analyzes political campaigns on Facebook during the European Parliament (EP) elections 2019 and the national elections held between 2020 and 2022 in Germany, Hungary, and Romania. From a cross-country perspective, the research investigates the volume of campaign content conducted on Facebook during the EP and the national elections. Results of a manual content analysis of (N=5934) posts of 20 political parties that gained seats in the EP and national parliaments suggest that Facebook contributes to equalizing political communication. However, the prevalent topics of the campaigns vary considerably across countries. Our research contributes to the discussion on normalization and equalization theses and addresses FOEs and SOEs from a comparative perspective.

Religious issues, especially those related to the institutional work of the Catholic Church, are becoming more and more attractive in Poland, both for filmmakers and researchers.Film messages presenting the profiles of the clergy have recently become a kind of social manifesto of cultural people.At the same time, the public discourse related to this type of artistic statements engages not only film critics, viewers, representatives of the Church, but also experts in various fields of research.Anita Zawisza's monograph "Przez obiektyw kamery.Postacie osb duchownych i zakonnic w polskim filmie fabularnym," [Through the Camera Lens.Characters of clergymen and nuns in Polish feature films] based on the author's research, is an interesting addition to the academic discussion in the field of religious film research in Poland.The author, in her introduction, listing research works in this field, stresses that she has created a monograph that "meticulously and extensively [approaches] the study of the spiritual ministry of priests and nuns, and at the same time is [above all] devoted to the analysis of the characters of clergymen and nuns in films examined with the help of the categorization key -the main tool used in media studies."The book consists of four chapters divided into theoretical and analytical sections.The author decided to create descriptions of the protagonists of Polish feature films based on selected cinematographic works from 1961 to 2018.Thus, this is quite a wide period covering transformations not only in film production and film art, but also in socio-cultural areas.Anita Zawisza tries to show how the image of the clergy and, as she stresses, "the entire institution of the Catholic Church in Polish cinematography" has changed over the decades.The theoretical part introduces the reader to the historical context and tools for creating films.Chapter 1: "The Catholic Church and Film In 1961-1989 -History and Characteristics of Mutual Relations" describes the situation of Polish cinematography in the context of the relationship with the Catholic Church in Poland, whose caesura is the pontificate of John Paul II.Thus, we get synthesized information about the "Polish film school" in relation to religious cinema

As I write this article, another conflict in the Middle East is forcing the media - once again – to grapple with how it portrays different actors, and how it maintains balance and objectivity. This is just the latest event to force the media to self-reflect on how it operates and how it faces the challenges ahead. And those challenges are plenty: falling audience and readership numbers, reduced income and budgets, polarization, increasing hate speech, misinformation, disinformation, fake news, propaganda, lying politicians, falling trust in the media, attacks on journalists, disappearing local news outlets creating ‘new deserts’, captured media, and in some cases crackdowns and increasing political pressure on media professionals. As the MEDIAdelcom project comes to end, can it provide an option - deliberative communication or deliberative journalism - for the media to embrace that could help address these challenges?

Media freedom is often seen as the main value against which the quality of media systems is judged. While the levels of media freedom in Europe are generally higher than the world average, there are yet significant variations in how certain European countries score on media freedom indices and scales. This paper uses comparative quantitative data and applies the fsQCA method to analyze how macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of journalism as a field relate to different levels of media freedom in Europe. The results suggest that media market structure, journalistic skills, and journalists adhering to the monitorial role of journalism constitute the “core” conditions for the implementation of media freedom.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rise in opposition to vaccination, hindering herd immunity. As social media play a major role in the formation of anti-vaccination communities, it is critical to monitor the discourse on the platforms to effectively counter the negative sentiment and encourage people to vaccinate. This study employs computational content analysis, specifically topic modeling and time series analysis, to monitor the COVID-19 anti-vaccination communities on Facebook in Czechia. The analysis generated 18 topics with politics, governance, and international affairs being the most discussed, and only five dealt with issues directly related to COVID-19. Discussions about information and its credibility were prevalent, and members of these anti-vaccination communities relied heavily on social media content and conspiracy websites as sources of information, while neglecting scientific resources. The study highlights the need for ongoing monitoring of anti-vaccination communities on social media and the development of effective communication strategies to promote vaccination.

Information, Communication, and Narration Since the Euromaidan Revolution written by