Family and Media

Familyandmedia is an international university research group that studies the family within the sphere of social communication. The research takes a two-fold approach: how the family is presented in the media (fiction and news) and how the institutions that promote the family communicate their message and help present a better portrayal of the family in the public space.

The research project and group Familyandmedia was founded in February 2005 in Rome, Italy on the occasion of the first interdisciplinary workshop on the family and the media, held at Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. Participants included professors of the Theology Department and professors of the Communications Department, as well as professors of the Communications Department of the University of Navarra (Spain), Catholic University of Milan (Italy), Austral University (Argentina), and CEU San Pablo of Madrid. Subsequently, new workshops have been held in 2006 and 2009. The research team has expanded to include members from CEU San Pablo University of Valencia (Spain) and Catholic University of Argentina.

Mission
The goal of the project is to study the representation of the family in the mass media through the analysis of the roots of social relations, also known as “social virtues”, addressed by a variety of authors, from Aristotle to Cicero to Thomas Aquinas. In the Latin denomination, this included pietas, observantia, honor, oboedientia, gratitudine, vindicatio, veritas, affabilitas and liberalitas.

The concept of the family that underlies the project is understood in light of Christian anthropology, which is confirmed in the so-called relational sociology.

The objective of the study of relationships portrayed in the texts (informational or entertainment) is to identify the cultural and anthropological "common places" of the discussion, or topoi, that are relative to the social virtues.

Goals
The project has an operational goal: it aims to put the fruits of the empirical analysis at the service of promoting a positive vision of the anthropological nature of the family. The intent is not to focus on specific initiatives, but rather offer a "skeleton" that may guide long-term communication strategies of organizations dedicated to promoting the family.