New Forms of the UGCC Mass-media Information Interaction in the Public Context During the Coronavirus Pandemic
The Coronavirus pandemic since March 2020 has prompted the UGCC, like other denominations, to use online means because the Government of Ukraine imposed restrictions on religious buildings during the strict quarantine. The main purpose of the article is to consider a number of the UGCC information interaction forms in the social context. Using the method of analysis, it was stated that as of the beginning of 2021, in the Greek Catholic media in Ukraine, there is a small share of printed periodicals, which, according to experts, need quality content. Instead, in recent years the official resources of the Church have begun to develop in various formats. The application of the content analysis method and also the monitoring method helped to briefly highlight how high-quality media in Ukraine represent the UGCC in the days of the pandemic, including through interviews with iconic figures in the religious sphere. The result of the research in the article was to determine the forms of the UGCC information interaction in the social context at two levels – all-Ukrainian and local. It was noted that at the first level, the leading role was played by the main official media resources of the UGCC, in particular, the Zhyve TV project, which is also supported by national channels. They broadcast liturgies in the hard phase of the pandemic. At the local level, parishes (small church units in the Church) have become centers for engaging believers in the network through various online tools. Pages on social networks of priests from different parishes, Youtube projects of parish priests, monks from different communities, etc. are new forms of information interaction of the Church in the pandemic era, which are also considered in this article. The experience of the Catholic Church media activity in Italy and Poland in the hard phase of Coronavirus is also briefly presented, and the work of such activity in the article is compared with the forms of the UGCC information interaction. After the possible end of the Coronavirus ...