“#ExtraordinaryJubileeOfMercy: Politics and Policies in the Twitter Coverage of a Religious Media Event

Over the last century, covering religious news has become of paramount importance for news media; however, its coverage requires careful attention, because of the specific typology of news and the way in which religion topics blend with other journalistic genres. Not to say about what happens when coverage comes from citizen journalists. The paper aims to understand the way in which the relationship between religion and politics takes shape in respect to one of the most important religious media event, which is represented by a Jubilee, in the shift from mainstream to grassroots journalism. The research shows, on one hand, a strong hybridization between religious topics and not religious ones, which involves both news media/journalists and generic users. On the other hand, we can observe a meaningful transformation of traditional news making, not to say about the way in which users’ tweets affect the Jubilee newsworthiness and introduce new scenario in the development of public opinion.