NEWS FOCUS: National Cathedral – the consecration of the paintings. Impact online

The consecration of the painting of the National Cathedral, the first large-scale event organized at the largest Orthodox place of worship in the world, had a substantial impact on relevant online sources in Romania. According to data processed and analyzed by NewsVibe, a media monitoring platform, over 2,300 mentions of the cathedral, with an estimated impact of over 31 million views, were recorded just in the last week. More than half of these mentions were generated on October 26, the day of the consecration of the painting.

The volume and impact of mentions about the place of worship began to grow a few days before October 26, against the backdrop of anticipation for the consecration event, but also other related moments — the arrival in Romania of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, announcements regarding the official program for October 26, as well as the confirmation of the presence of national and international political leaders, such as Maia Sandu, the President of Moldova.

NewsVibe Chart. The evolution of the number of mentions about the National Cathedral, respectively the total impact of these mentions, in the last week 

Top mentioned keywords

The entities most frequently and strongly associated with the place of worship, in articles published on web sources and in posts on social networks, are, beyond its name – National Cathedral, terms such as Romania, Romanian Orthodox Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, Bucharest, but also Nicușor Dan and Maia Sandu.

In other words, beyond the strictly religious dimension, the event generated high interest also through the presence of prominent political leaders, which was intensely reflected in the online space.

NewsVibe Chart. Top entities in accelerated visibility mentioned in the context of the online conversation about the National Cathedral, in the last week 

Map of semantic associations

Through semantic network analysis, by which NewsVibe maps the structure and connections within an online conversation, we can observe an overview of the themes discussed in the digital environment regarding the National Cathedral, during the analyzed period.

NewsVibe Chart. The semantic network of the online conversation about the National Cathedral, in the last week 

What the analysis shows us:

• A central area of the online conversation is defined by the term National Cathedral, around which concepts such as Bucharest, Romania and the initial name, Cathedral of the Salvation of the Nation, gravitate. This area mainly reflects the general informational component regarding the consecration of the painting in the National Cathedral.
• Another distinct segment of the online conversation has formed around names such as Nicușor Dan, Ilie Bolojan and Maia Sandu, being dedicated especially to the presence of political leaders at the event on October 26.
• Two other areas, represented by the colors red and purple, focus on the institutional-religious dimension of the event — the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the relationship between the leadership of the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
• Finally, a more restricted area of the conversation addresses the activity of the Romanian Patriarchate around the moment of consecration.

SENTIMENT. The NewsVibe platform has created an advanced automated sentiment analysis system, which uses specially trained AI algorithms and LLM tools, to detect tonal nuances – favorable, unfavorable, or neutral – in the context of references to relevant entities for an online conversation.

NewsVibe Chart. Automated assessment of the tone of the online conversation about the National Cathedral, in the last week 

What the analysis shows us:

• National Cathedral (in its multiple forms of mention), along with the names of religious leaders — Patriarch Daniel and Patriarch Bartholomew I — or various religious holidays, are predominantly found in favorable conversational contexts.
• In contrast, names from the political and geopolitical sphere, such as Nicușor Dan, Ilie Bolojan, USR or Russia, appear predominantly in negative conversational contexts. This dynamic is closely related to the moment of booing directed against the politicians present at the event, which was intensely reflected in the media and interpreted from various angles, including as a political manifestation of supporters of AUR or Călin Georgescu.
• Thus, the presence of political names in the online conversation about the National Cathedral represents the only factor that generated tense, negative, or polarizing media contexts, in connection with the event of the consecration of the painting.

*****Summary created with the help of a data stream provided by the media monitoring platform NewsVibe Romania. The analysis, data, and images presented have been enhanced with the help of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools.