Understanding Pope Francis: Message, Media, andAudienceoffers several chapters which illuminate the often misunderstood, but widely discussed, leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis. With 1.3 billion baptized members living throughout every continent, communication by and about him is a subject deserving to be understood. As technology makes the “global village” predicted by Marshall McLuhan more apparent, the complexities of leading an organization across geographic boundaries with differing ideas about culture and governance present great need to be nuanced, indeed cautious, about messages communicated across diverse media platforms and consumed by divergent audiences. This book lay bare the messages Pope Francis produces, the way that varying platforms/media present those messages, and the complex ways in which audiences formulate their interpretations.

Contributions by: Joseph R. Blaney, Mary Beth Deline, Anna R. George, Sara A. Mehltretter Drury, Juan Narbona, Alison N. Novak, Christopher J. Oldenburg, Daniel P. Overton, N. Benton Parish, R. Tyler Spradley, Andrew Ventimiglia, M. Olguta Vilceanu, Anthony M. Wachs, Eric D. Wesselmann, Joseph P. Zompetti